So grabbed a nice condition 10-5 square butt snub with a nicely done bobbed hammer a few weeks ago. Finally got it to the range and ugh. Trigger locked up, cylinder seemed off and the cylinder release got wobbly after a few rounds. Dry firing it seemed fine. My bad for looking at condition and not doing a thorough check besides cleaning it. Used revolver 101 - check the tightness of the screws and ejector.
Got it home and found the following
- someone polished the heck out of the cylinder stop, so much so, at times I could advance the cylinder by hand. Have a replacement on the way.
- cylinder release was loose. Got out the gunsmith screwdriver and tightened it down
- took off the side plate to inspect it some more and had a hunch that maybe they messed with the rebound spring. Yep the old cut off a few coils so I must have been short stroking and causing the lock up. Luckily had a factory spare.
- ejector rod came loose and I could unscrew it by hand so must have worked loose too.
I feel like a dummy for not doing a more thorough look over.
Lesson learned and I checked all my revolvers in the safe for mainspring, side plate and cylinder release screws.
Will get an update when I replace the cylinder stop.
One bit of good news my FFL said he’ll replace it free of charge since he didn’t catch it before selling it to me which is nice as he has a nice work bench set up and a lot more professional tools than I do. I may just take him up on it as my stupid carpal tunnel is acting up.
Range report
So the rounds I did fire all landed on a 6” paper plate at 11 yards.