I bought a 386 NG. Took it out last weekend shot 7 38 specials through it, then after shooting 5 158 gr 357 loads through it the cylinder stop no longer dropped down enough to let the cylinder move.

Serioulsy doubt PO had no idea this was happening but WTH. I opened it up and the trigger doesnt make contact with the cylinder stop to drop it down, but it looks as tthough it never did. there does not appear to be any wear or abroken edge on it, but i haven't pulled theparts out to check.

I will call S&W Monday and probably send it to them to get it fixed, but usually something like this turns out to be a common issue. Just wondering if this has happened to anyone else?

It just seems wierd that this thing dry fired perfect with no hickups, fire 7 38's and 5 357s, then decided that was it.

The trigger had to be pulling it down to begin with, when it worked. Maybe the cylinder stop spring is messed up?

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protocalldesign.com

I had a cylinder stop spring on my model 19 that had a kink in it that did not allow the cylinder stop to drop all of the time which resulted in the cylinder randomly locking up.A new spring solved the problem and just eyeballing the old spring really didnt show any obvious problem until put under magnification.

I wasn't able to convince myself it wasn't the spring before i posted and ordered one from brownells, I also went ahead and ordered another stop.

we will see, i hope thats all it is. Its one of those things that unless you can make yourself sure of the problem you doint want to risk your life by not fixing it. This was going to be my carry gun as long as i can be confident in it.

Thanks

First thing I always do when I have a problem is give it a serious cleaning. and a tinsy bit of oil.

Severe recoil forces can cause problems, especially with moving parts that are spring loaded, like the cylinder stop. As others have mentioned, I would disassemble the internals if you are able, and do a thorough cleaning. Be sure not to cycle the action under spring tension with the plate off, but you can cycle the internals with the plate off minus the mainspring to see if anything is amiss.

I would also suspect the cylinder stop spring, or the cylinder stop stud, or possible burr on the stop itself or the stop window in the frame. You can check and assess the stop's proper motion during regular dry firing (with the sideplate on) by opening the cylinder and holding the thumbpiece back, then cycling the trigger. As the trigger moves rearward and forward, you should see the stop move down, up, forward then back in the frame window....and you should hear distinctive "clicks" when it does so.

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Ret. LE, FA Instr, S&W Armorer