Could be a clipped spring or after marked mainspring. If clipped it may be hard to tell as that end may be faced down into the Mainspring Rod Swivel, the cup that holds the spring in place at the bottom of the stirrup. You need to take that part apart to check. Good luck sorting it out.
34-1 light primer strikes
- Thread starter Nonno
- Start date
Pisgah
Member
Coil mainspring = no strain screw
One thing not mentioned yet is tight chambers. If there is any resistance to seating the bullet, and it is not fully seated the first blow to the cartridge may just push it deeper to seating and not set it off. Try loading by pushing hard to fully seat all rounds, see if that does anything to help. If so, reaming the chambers with a finishing reamer can help this problem.
Thanks for all the suggestions!!!
When the chambers are clean, everything except Aguila seats easily- Aguila needs a good push. After 60 or 70 rounds I have to give everything a good push to seat it, I do check that.
I cleaned the firing pin hole by spraying in Breakfree while moving the pin back and forth, did that from both ends, then blew it out with compressed air.
Fired 30 rounds of CCI SV, 3 failures to fire. Each time I then rotated the cartridge 180 degrees, they fired the second time. the indent from when they fire is deeper than the indent from when they don't.
I then pulled the mainspring, the only washer I had that would fit was unfortunately nylon, so it might have inconsistent seating or compression. It's 0.03" thick. The spring did not look like it had been trimmed, both ends had the last coil pressed against the previous coil the way they come from the factory.
Then fired 20 rounds of CCI SV, 1 failure to fire. Then 8 rounds of Fiocchi standard velocity and 50 rounds of mixed higher velocity- Blazer and Aguila Super Extra. One failure with an Agulia (and it is possible it didn't seat all the way), other than that everything was good.
Next step, I'll order a replacement spring. I see Numrich has some that they say are new factory original. I'll also give it more deep cleaning.
Mainspring, New Factory Original J FRAME REVOLVERS SMITH & WESSON
When the chambers are clean, everything except Aguila seats easily- Aguila needs a good push. After 60 or 70 rounds I have to give everything a good push to seat it, I do check that.
I cleaned the firing pin hole by spraying in Breakfree while moving the pin back and forth, did that from both ends, then blew it out with compressed air.
Fired 30 rounds of CCI SV, 3 failures to fire. Each time I then rotated the cartridge 180 degrees, they fired the second time. the indent from when they fire is deeper than the indent from when they don't.
I then pulled the mainspring, the only washer I had that would fit was unfortunately nylon, so it might have inconsistent seating or compression. It's 0.03" thick. The spring did not look like it had been trimmed, both ends had the last coil pressed against the previous coil the way they come from the factory.
Then fired 20 rounds of CCI SV, 1 failure to fire. Then 8 rounds of Fiocchi standard velocity and 50 rounds of mixed higher velocity- Blazer and Aguila Super Extra. One failure with an Agulia (and it is possible it didn't seat all the way), other than that everything was good.
Next step, I'll order a replacement spring. I see Numrich has some that they say are new factory original. I'll also give it more deep cleaning.
Mainspring, New Factory Original J FRAME REVOLVERS SMITH & WESSON
Just flush out the firing pin and bushing. Or pop out the pin, flush and check for a burr.
I want to thank everyone for their advice. I ordered a new factory original mainspring from Numrich for my 34-1, popped it in today, and fired 54 rounds. A mix of three types of .22 ammo- CCI SV, Eley Target, and Blazer. (six were single action, the rest double action) In the past, using the same lots, all had failures to fire. I would have averaged at least one ftf per cylinder, or perhaps 8 to 10 ftf's with 54 rounds.
Today, every single one went bang. Yes, the trigger pull is a bit stiffer, and my groups at 12 yards with this 2" snubby .22 definitely need work! (the two best groups were 2-1/2", sad). But now that it's behaving I'll put a lot more ammo through it.
New mainspring is about 0.012" larger in diameter, the wire is 0.014" thicker, and it's 0.036" longer.
Today, every single one went bang. Yes, the trigger pull is a bit stiffer, and my groups at 12 yards with this 2" snubby .22 definitely need work! (the two best groups were 2-1/2", sad). But now that it's behaving I'll put a lot more ammo through it.
New mainspring is about 0.012" larger in diameter, the wire is 0.014" thicker, and it's 0.036" longer.
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