I recently joined in order to ask a question that I am sad that to have to ask. I am looking for a gunsmith that specializes in S&W revolvers.
I recently received my revolver back from S&W, not repaired, after a disheartening exchange of messages.
Situation: I'd been wanting a Model 63 for some time, but they are seldom encountered where I live and are expensive to bring in from out of state when located. I traded a perfectly working .22 Ruger SP101 straight across for an original owner, excellent condition Model 63 made in 1979 (box and papers). It came with the caveat of "tight chambers that result in misfiring", thus the gun had been little used.
My inserting .22 LR ammo into the chambers did show, indeed, that the chambers were very tight. On at least three of the chambers, medium finger pressure was required to fully seat the rounds from about the halfway point of insertion, on completely clean chambers. The resistance/dragging was obvious. The other chambers would require only a little bit of finger pressure to seat rounds, not the way it should be, but workable.
Since the M-63 is built like a Swiss watch, a not fully seated round (which would occur after the fouling of a few rounds being fired) would oftentimes result in a "click" instead of a "bang" when I fired it. Pushing the offending round the micrometer-rest-of-the-way-in, results in an ignition on the second try once the case is where the firing pin expects it be when it hits, the case rim seated correctly in order to provide the needed resistance so the firing pin sets off the priming compound, etc.
I'm not a gunsmith, but know enough about revolvers, that factory rounds on a clean revolver, any revolver, should drop into the chambers with a pleasant "plop" of a sound (as have all revolvers, to include cheaper brand wheel guns I've ever owned). I'm okay with problems due to fouling after some shooting, but having to force clean cases, into clean chambers--is a no-brainer for me as to what the problem is.
I thought that this would be an easy problem to fix, thus why I acquired a gun even though warned it did not work correctly. Sent it off to S&W with a two page letter, expounding on the problem, history, other symptoms, etc. Offered to pay for the chamber work if they didn't want to do it out of brand pride.
I received back the work order, S&W said the problem was "end shake" and that they wanted to replace my custom main spring as this was the problem (note: the misfiring due to tight chambers and lack of case seating, occured with the factory spring, as well as the custom spring, so I know this is not the problem).
I wrote back to S&W with another long letter, asking for the problem to be looked at by another gunsmith, and to read my letter again, regarding cases having to be forced into the chambers. I just wanted them to have a correct size reamer run through the chambers (I wasn't asking for a new cylinder, just run my cylinder through the correct machine so it was back to the specs that it should be). S&W stuck by the "end shake" and weak strike due to replaced spring diagnosis. Fixing those "problems" is all that they would do.
With a heavy heart, I told them to return the gun to me without being worked on. This is the first time in my 47 years, that I had to send a S&W back to the factory. I thought that they would have the pride to fix the problem for free, and if not, I was way okay with paying for it because I realize that lemons sometimes get by any factory. But once this lemon was fixed, it'd be the wonderful piece of S&W workmanship that it was meant to be.
To S&W's credit, they did not charge me for shipping the gun back to me. But I am still stuck with a very nice revolver that doesn't work right...
Can anyone refer me to a S&W specialist gunsmith that understands that having for force cases into a clean chamber is not correct, and has the ability to fix that condition? Thank you.
I recently received my revolver back from S&W, not repaired, after a disheartening exchange of messages.
Situation: I'd been wanting a Model 63 for some time, but they are seldom encountered where I live and are expensive to bring in from out of state when located. I traded a perfectly working .22 Ruger SP101 straight across for an original owner, excellent condition Model 63 made in 1979 (box and papers). It came with the caveat of "tight chambers that result in misfiring", thus the gun had been little used.
My inserting .22 LR ammo into the chambers did show, indeed, that the chambers were very tight. On at least three of the chambers, medium finger pressure was required to fully seat the rounds from about the halfway point of insertion, on completely clean chambers. The resistance/dragging was obvious. The other chambers would require only a little bit of finger pressure to seat rounds, not the way it should be, but workable.
Since the M-63 is built like a Swiss watch, a not fully seated round (which would occur after the fouling of a few rounds being fired) would oftentimes result in a "click" instead of a "bang" when I fired it. Pushing the offending round the micrometer-rest-of-the-way-in, results in an ignition on the second try once the case is where the firing pin expects it be when it hits, the case rim seated correctly in order to provide the needed resistance so the firing pin sets off the priming compound, etc.
I'm not a gunsmith, but know enough about revolvers, that factory rounds on a clean revolver, any revolver, should drop into the chambers with a pleasant "plop" of a sound (as have all revolvers, to include cheaper brand wheel guns I've ever owned). I'm okay with problems due to fouling after some shooting, but having to force clean cases, into clean chambers--is a no-brainer for me as to what the problem is.
I thought that this would be an easy problem to fix, thus why I acquired a gun even though warned it did not work correctly. Sent it off to S&W with a two page letter, expounding on the problem, history, other symptoms, etc. Offered to pay for the chamber work if they didn't want to do it out of brand pride.
I received back the work order, S&W said the problem was "end shake" and that they wanted to replace my custom main spring as this was the problem (note: the misfiring due to tight chambers and lack of case seating, occured with the factory spring, as well as the custom spring, so I know this is not the problem).
I wrote back to S&W with another long letter, asking for the problem to be looked at by another gunsmith, and to read my letter again, regarding cases having to be forced into the chambers. I just wanted them to have a correct size reamer run through the chambers (I wasn't asking for a new cylinder, just run my cylinder through the correct machine so it was back to the specs that it should be). S&W stuck by the "end shake" and weak strike due to replaced spring diagnosis. Fixing those "problems" is all that they would do.
With a heavy heart, I told them to return the gun to me without being worked on. This is the first time in my 47 years, that I had to send a S&W back to the factory. I thought that they would have the pride to fix the problem for free, and if not, I was way okay with paying for it because I realize that lemons sometimes get by any factory. But once this lemon was fixed, it'd be the wonderful piece of S&W workmanship that it was meant to be.
To S&W's credit, they did not charge me for shipping the gun back to me. But I am still stuck with a very nice revolver that doesn't work right...
Can anyone refer me to a S&W specialist gunsmith that understands that having for force cases into a clean chamber is not correct, and has the ability to fix that condition? Thank you.
