Hello. I picked up a nickeled 15-3 at the OGCA show awhile back. After a quick cleaning I headed to the range with it. Sadly I couldn't get thru three cylinders full before the trigger pull was so hard it was to a point I would have need two fingers to pull it. Once back home it looked like the cylinder face had a lot of lead build up. These are the same loads my model 10 and 14 will go thru 150 without a bit of trouble. Turns out the cylinder gap was tight on a .002 gauge and turned nicely on a .0015. I went to a local smith who was going to face cut the barrel. When he saw it was nickel he said it was best not to cut the nickel as that would give it a point to peal. He said I should get a end shake bearing which would open the gap. He only had .002 and said I should get a .003 or .004. I ordered both and put in the .003. Another trip to the range and I sailed thru 80 rounds but then the cylinder started to get hard to rotate. Now the problem is that I'm getting a build up between the cylinder and yoke. The gas shield is shaped differently than on my 10 and 14. Sorry to have rambled on but my two questions are does cutting the nickel cause a problem? Does my adding a end shake washer to correct the first problem cause the other problem? Thanks Bill

Have him check the gun for End Shake. If it does have some, now would be the time to add shims and repair the excess End Shake - this in turn will increase your B/C Gap as well by the amount of shims you install to fix the end shake. A win - win fix and inexpensive too!