Redacted_553
Member
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2025
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 9
Ok, so, where to start. I need the knowledge of this whole crew to tell me if im crazy OCD, or if I have an issue.
I was lucky enough to find a post war 1949/1950 .38 M&P 2 inch that appears to be fired very little. It's in beautiful shape and I was planning on carrying it in my rotation. So, I did the drill when I picked it up, went through all my checks and when checking the timing I noticed just a hair of carry up, so slight I thought, given the condition - a good cleaning and some oil would fix her right up. So, that didn't work It was still not fully locked up when slow, paint drying hammer pull to the rear, not with dummy rounds, and not with spent casings. I contacted a gunsmith that does alot of work on older Smiths, and he said he'd check it out and fit a new hand, or even replace the star if needed. So I drove almost 2 hours to get to him, and he checked it out, and said it was perfectly normal. He said that there was a burr on the bolt that was hanging up and that last millimeter the it took to click in would work itself out if I shot it. He said he could stone the burr off if I wanted and fully inspect it. So I opted for him to look it over and stone the bolt.
So I go to pick it up a month later, and its still doing it. Not all the time, but enough that I'm concerned.
Here's the best way I can explain what its doing - using the slow hammer pull method, when it does it, I can see the bolt engaging in the cylinder notch, and I can't move the cylinder, so it is locking, but if I rotate the cylinder a millimeter the bolt fully engages. The notches are cleaned out and I cant identify any reason for this.
My question - is this something that will work itself out with time and shooting or did I just pick the wrong Gunsmith...or am I just crazy?
Any help would be much appreciated!
I was lucky enough to find a post war 1949/1950 .38 M&P 2 inch that appears to be fired very little. It's in beautiful shape and I was planning on carrying it in my rotation. So, I did the drill when I picked it up, went through all my checks and when checking the timing I noticed just a hair of carry up, so slight I thought, given the condition - a good cleaning and some oil would fix her right up. So, that didn't work It was still not fully locked up when slow, paint drying hammer pull to the rear, not with dummy rounds, and not with spent casings. I contacted a gunsmith that does alot of work on older Smiths, and he said he'd check it out and fit a new hand, or even replace the star if needed. So I drove almost 2 hours to get to him, and he checked it out, and said it was perfectly normal. He said that there was a burr on the bolt that was hanging up and that last millimeter the it took to click in would work itself out if I shot it. He said he could stone the burr off if I wanted and fully inspect it. So I opted for him to look it over and stone the bolt.
So I go to pick it up a month later, and its still doing it. Not all the time, but enough that I'm concerned.
Here's the best way I can explain what its doing - using the slow hammer pull method, when it does it, I can see the bolt engaging in the cylinder notch, and I can't move the cylinder, so it is locking, but if I rotate the cylinder a millimeter the bolt fully engages. The notches are cleaned out and I cant identify any reason for this.
My question - is this something that will work itself out with time and shooting or did I just pick the wrong Gunsmith...or am I just crazy?
Any help would be much appreciated!
