hidy yall

I have a question about my 38/44 heavy duty 1952/53.
If I shoot rapid double action all seems okay.
If I slowly shoot double action it hangs up often.
It also hangs up 1 or 2 times in 6 of single action.

All screws seem tight.
Any pointers in where to start looking when I begin?

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Sigma 40F

A couple of questions.

Do these problems occur also while you are dry firing, or do they happen only with cartridges or snap-caps in the chambers?

In single action, does the hang up prevent the trigger from moving to disengage the single action sear, or does the hammer release the sear and then the hammer hangs up on something?

In double action, does the hang up come part way through the trigger pull, or does the gun get to the point of hammer release, then the hammer stops as it falls?

Does the trigger always move all the way back forward when you release it, or is the trigger return where the hang-up is?

Have you taken the gun apart for a good internal cleaning recently?

There are a few different ways for a gun's action to bind, and I'm just trying to figure out where the specific problem is in yours.

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David Wilson

I have not dry fired it.

I shot 100 rounds through it.

Firing fast double action seem good. At least much better.
Slow double action often hung part way through the trigger pull.

Slow single action often will not completely cock the next round into position. I may have been a particular cylinder or two?

For either case I let hammer down and jiggled the cylinder to begin again.

I will take apart and clean it. I do not know how many years since it was taken apart. I may be able to judge when I look in it.

I was by the way very pleased with its shooting rested 25 yards at steel.

I appreciate your help.

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Sigma 40F

I took out side plate screws.
Did not remove side plate
Took off cylinder and crane.
cleaned all screws, cylinder and crane.
put back together.
single action works fine.
double action slow or fast works also.

this worked with 50 cycles on snap caps.
I will try in outside soon.

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Sigma 40F

It needs a good cleaning inside to, it is one of two things - #1 Dirty , #2 Old age is working on it and may be time to retire. Hope it is #1 that is wrong.

Don't pry the side plate off, after you remove the grips and the screws, lightly tap the opposite side of the revolver while holding the gun so the side plate is up. It will work itself loose, be patient. HD's are tough old guns, lots of them were used as duty weapons in law enforcement. Unfortunately they weren't always cared for well, and I wouldn't be too surprised if the innards were a bit gummed up.

The fact that the side plate did not come loose easy is why I stopped there.

I will peck on it from the bottom as you say.

It shot accurately be the way for the 100 rounds I spoke of.

I had 6 steel targets at 25 yards.

From a bench rest often hit 5 or 6 in a row, single action.

I appreciae the help,

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Sigma 40F

Earl hold the gun in your left hand with the grip away from you and the side plate up with the screws removed. Take a hammer with a wood handle and with the handle hit across the grip frame with it, may take two or three times and the side plate will pop off.

I tried 38/44 out today after cleaning a few days ago.

It did not help it at all.

I had tried the snap caps after cleaning. They worked so well I thought maybe it was fixed.

I have just tried the snap caps again and it is fine single and double action.

Is it the weight of the bullets that changes things?
Is it the recoil that changes things?

Any thoughts?

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Sigma 40F

Had pretty much the same problem with a post war HD made in 1958. It would work beautifully without cartridges but would hang up on 2 cylinders. It had some side play and endshake. Sent it off to Oldwest Gunsmith and David Chicoine did a great job bringing it back to specs. Shoots like a dream.

Earl,

I've encountered a similar problem before, and found out that the yoke was slightly bent (probably from someone flipping the cylinder open and closed with too much enthusiasm and not enough brain power). This causes the cylinder to be slightly out of alignment with the axis of the bore - or, cockeyed, so to speak.

When the cylinder was loaded with empty cases you could see that a couple of rounds rubbed against the recoil shield when cycling the gun. Not to worry! This condition can be repaired by a decent gunsmith.

Good luck and let us know how things turn out

Regards,

Jerry

That seems right.

I notice about 3 or 4 cylinders fire okay.
It hangs up on about 2 of them when loaded and fired.

I will study it a little with those observations in mind.

Probably I will send it to a good gun smith.

I do appreciate yall's help.

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Sigma 40F

When you look for a "good gunsmith" let me suggest that you use somebody who is recommended by members of this forum. There are thousands of folks who claim to be gunsmiths and who do a great job of working on an old Springfield, but not many are qualified to work on a nice old .38/44!

I suspect that a simple cleaning and a new rebound spring may help with this.

The first thing you should do is purchase the Kunhausen S&W Shop Manual. It's not very expensive and is an invaluable aid in working on any S&W. This is available at Brownell's, Midway, and many other firearms component retailers.

The second must have tool is a Rebound Spring tool, also not very expensive and available at Brownell's and other sources. Frankly, I cannot conceive of trying to install a new rebound spring without this tool.

Then there is the matter of screwdrives of the proper size. Cost for this will range from a low of about 12 bucks to as much as 200 bucks for a full gunsmithing kit with screwdrivers, pin punches, and most any hand tool you might need. Start out with a good basic set, no reason to go whole hog.

Finally, you might want to poke around on Brownell's site and pick up some small parts, such as a rebound spring kit, a mainspring, spare strain screw, and spare sideplate screws. At the same time you should order an Arkansas Stone. BTW, for a rebound spring I would recomend a 14 lbs. spring, it's will lighten both the DA and SA trigger pull a bit but won't cause issues with poor reset.

Once you have your "kit" then it's time to sit down and read up on doing and Action Tuning. It is not at all difficult to do and will only take perhaps an hour the first time you do one. Once your finished you'll have a smoother running lockwork and a bit of pride in your new ability. BTW, I like to keep my mainspring at near factory power. While it won't produce a super light DA trigger, a trigger pull in the 8 to 9 lbs. range is very useable and will reliably ignite any ammo you can find.

Now, tips for your specific issue. First, considering the age a good cleaning is in order. My personal favorite for this task is M Pro 7, smells good and does an excellent job of cleaning up old oils and powder residue. Then re-assemble the lockwork and dry fire the gun slowly with the sideplate off the gun. If that "hitch" is still present you'll probably find that one of the small springs has grown weak with age. The ones I would suspect the most are the hand spring or the spring on the DA Sear. BTW, the DA Sear is a flipping whatsis mounted on the hammer that the trigger presses on during the DA pull. Watch in closely as you cycle the action, if it's not flipping forward as the trigger clears it on the trigger return stroke that may be your problem. Another potential problem is that there may be a trigger stop rod within the rebound spring. I do not know if these were installed in the 50's, however I do know that installing it backwards in my 610-3 caused all sorts of odd trigger freezes. Point the barrel down and it would work perfectly, point the barrel up and the trigger would lock up partway through the stroke. Flipping that rod end for end solved the problem. BTW, this stop rod is NOT actually needed so you can leave it out, however I've found that it reduces buckling of the rebound spring within the bore of the rebound slide and smooths out the DA pull at the very end.

Finally, be careful when working with any springs, such as the rebound spring, they are famous for zinging off into another dimension, probably on top of all those missing socks from your dryer. Also DO NOT force anything and if you get hung up on something, just ask in the Smithing Forum, there are a lot of very knowledgeable folks here who will be glad to help.

PS; one final tip on positioning the hammer block so that you can push the sideplate down with simple thumb pressure. Slide it to the UP position so that it's positioned between the lower flat area on the front of the hammer and the ledge in the frame. If you don't understand this instruction, look for the pic in the Kuhnhausen manual.

I will get that manual. This might take me awhile. I have read your advice. I will enjoy this the more If I can fix it myself.

I appreciate all your suggestions,
Earl

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Sigma 40F