Cylinder Stop Drops Early on Old Revolver

[TheTinMan]

I wasn't sure whether to post this here or under Hand Ejectors. I went to an auction preview today and saw some wonderful old Smith & Wesson revolvers. However, on 2 of them I noticed that the cylinder stop dropped before it reached the lead into the cylinder notch. (Please forgive me for my ignorance of correct nomenclature.). When I say "dropped" I mean moving away from frame and into contact with the cylinder. Otherwise these 2 seemed fine mechanically with very tight lockup and no endshake whatsoever.

Question 1: should this affect the value of a pre-1960 revolver? If so, a lot or a little?

Question 2: how difficult is this to correct? I recently was forced to learn how to adjust the timing of the cylinder stop (bolt in Colt lingo perhaps) and it turned out to not be terribly difficult, at least in one example.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and advice.

Chip

 

[armorer951]

I would consider what you are describing as "normal" in terms of the activity of the cylinder stop when the trigger is pulled. (If I'm understanding you correctly)

 

[stansdds]

Colt's lock work kept the cylinder stop away from the cylinder and allowed it to contact the cylinder just before the stop notch was in position, but S&W's lock work is very different. On S&W revolvers, the stop is pulled out of the notch as the hammer moves rearward, then is dropped onto the cylinder shortly after the cylinder begins to rotate. So a noticeable turn line on a Colt can indicate a problem, a turn line on a S&W indicates the action has been cycled at least once in the revolver's life, the more pronounced the turn line, the more the action has been cycled.

 

[TheTinMan]

Colt's lock work kept the cylinder stop away from the cylinder and allowed it to contact the cylinder just before the stop notch was in position, but S&W's lock work is very different. On S&W revolvers, the stop is pulled out of the notch as the hammer moves rearward, then is dropped onto the cylinder shortly after the cylinder begins to rotate. So a noticeable turn line on a Colt can indicate a problem, a turn line on a S&W indicates the action has been cycled at least once in the revolver's life, the more pronounced the turn line, the more the action has been cycled.

Perfect answer.

I had focused my collecting on pre-1960 Colt double action revolvers but am gaining an appreciation for older Smith & Wessons. On an older Colt, early bolt drop is wrong. Good to know it's fine for a S&W cylinder stop.