I recently inherited a 44 1950 Target. The front sight has been altered. Worse yet the gun used a lot of the old 44 Associates handloads. The man who bequeathed it to me asked of me two things. 1. Not to shoot it as the cylinder strength is suspect. 2. Give it to my grandkids and his great-grandkids.
The gun has been in his safe since the 1960s without being shot. He shoots a 5" Pre 29 when he still shoots. I believe him when he tells me about the hot handloads he used to fire in the 1950. I would like to fix the cylinder problem so the grandkids can have a working piece of family history. Out side of the cylinder problem the overall condition is very good.
To fix the 1950 I would need the new cylinder, a new extractor star and a new cylinder hand. How should I approach this project? Thanks for your replies!
Bronco,
I have been watching this for days without making a comment. You are afraid to shoot this gun merely because the prior owner said he had shot quite heavy loads in it? Basically that is nonsense, I will explain.
Steels rarely fail as a result of repeated loads less than what is sufficient to cause deformation. The typical revolver cylinder failure is a catastrophic one as a result of a final excessive load applied to it. They will stretch to a point, and sometimes are bulged as a result. Examples have been posted
on this site. There also may be bulging of the cylinder stop notches which is seen as a dimple inside the charge hole. A cylinder that is even slightly stretched will give difficult extraction with standard loads.
My suggestion to you is to closely inspect the cylinder paying close attention to several points:
First, check under the stop notches for dimpling.
Second, with the gun assembled sight through the cylinder window between the cylinder and top strap (cylinder closed). Try to determine if there is any indication of bulging as shown by a variation in the gap. If any it will show as the center of the cylinder will be closer to the top strap than the ends, it is easy to see any variation, even just a few thousandths.
Third, look through the charge holes after thorough cleaning. Believe me, you will be able to see if the sides are not straight front to back.
If all of these look OK then there should be no problem with taking the next step, and that is to shoot the gun. Use, preferably, new factory ammunition as it will not be work hardened as previously loaded brass will be. Fire one round and see if it extracts freely, it should typically almost fall out. If one extracts freely then load it up and fire all six. If it still extracts OK then enjoy the gun and don't worry about it any more. Be sure when doing the shooting keep the gun out at the end of your arm and use the sights! This may sound odd, but I have never heard of the shooter being injured, except minor cuts to the hand, when a revolver cylinder failed because most of the debris goes left, right and up away from the shooter.
If you get hard extraction with six, then try another six. If you still have hard extraction then worry about replacing the cylinder.
If it hasn't been stressed to the point of stretching then it hasn't been hurt. The post war guns are, at least to a degree, stronger than the pre-war guns as a result of the metallurgical improvements made by S&W during development of the .357 Magnum. The post 1950 guns are all a lot stronger than most would give them credit for.
