My title is my question which arises from a questionable posting.
I have not removed the side plates from any of my S&Ws that have locks. I have only disassembled and worked on older revolvers. I have been quite happy with my new ones. If I got a couple of months into a weekly match series that tallies a cumulative score with someone edging me out by a few points, no doubt I’d blame it on their better trigger, tap off my side plate and go to work with stones, but absent that situation I’m happy with my lockable revolvers as is. I figure I wouldn’t think of all the possible malfunctions even if I removed the side plate from a lockable one, so I put my question to the forum’s gunsmiths instead.

Many guys here just replace the lock with The Plug.

It is possible for a cocked revolver to become locked (or jammed) if the IL is rotated into locked position.

In a cocked revolver, what happens when the IL mechanism rotates is that the little nub that rotates into the side of the hammer when the hammer is down will rotate into a position that keeps the hammer from falling. You pull the trigger, the sear disengages, and the hammer drops about 1/8" before it is blocked.

I would agree that if the lock bothers you, you should remove it, saving the parts to reinstall in case you ever decided to sell the gun. But if the lock doesn't bother you, leave it alone. I have only a few IL guns, but I have never had a problem with the lock mechanism and have just left them installed.

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David Wilson

This is EXACTLY what happened to me while using my 60-14LS. It was a REAL "PIT Arizona" to get the "Flag" to drop so that I could unload the revolver and remove the "Flag"

My 60-14 is the only IL Smith I own. It still has the lock in place, I just removed the "Flag" so that even if the lock engages there is nothing for the lock too engage.

Class III

David and Class III, thank-you for the answer. I only have a couple lockable S&Ws that, at least for now, I'm only interested in firing mid range target cartridges in. So, since they aren’t jolted by significant recoil and aren’t emergency equipment anyway, I'm not concerned.

Ken158, I'm aware of BullseyeSmith's plug, but see above. Also, I've learned the hard way that after a few decades, guns that didn't originally appear to have collector value acquire some, parts I thought I could always reinstall get lost, and replacing those parts becomes very difficult.

Please, so as to not violate the forum's no unnecessary lock talk rule lets keep this thread brief.

Thanks again and good night.