parabarbarian
Member
I've been shooting my 686 (+ w/3" bbl) a lot lately. I didn't realize just how much until I checked my logs recently. In the past 12 months I've shot roughly 10K to 11K rounds through it. These were not all barn burning, blow the walls out 357 but, mostly, nice sedate 38 +P hand loads.
About three weeks ago the gun started acting up. Light primer strikes and, when it got hot, the cylinder would occasionally lock up. The primers went off with the second hit and a little jiggle freed the cylinder. I clean the gun after every range trip -- chambers, barrel, a few drops of oil and wipe it down before putting it away. I examined the cylinder and there seemed to be no unusual wear. The firing pin seemed to be working normally. I checked the strain screw hadn't backed out...
The gun is modified: Cylinder machined for moon clips, a reduced power return slide spring, a little bit of polishing of the return slide, a full power Wolff mainspring, Cylinder and Slide firing pin and The Plug. None of which should be causing the above problems.
Frankly, I was mystified.
Finally I took off the side plate and discovered the lockworks were full of gunk. Black, oily, ugly gunk. There was even crud in the hole where the firing pin goes. I stripped the gun down and used the ultrasonic cleaner to remove the past year's accumulation of crud. I reassembled it and it now works just like before.
It used to be an annual full cleaning like that was enough but then I was only shooting about half as much. Now I know better.
About three weeks ago the gun started acting up. Light primer strikes and, when it got hot, the cylinder would occasionally lock up. The primers went off with the second hit and a little jiggle freed the cylinder. I clean the gun after every range trip -- chambers, barrel, a few drops of oil and wipe it down before putting it away. I examined the cylinder and there seemed to be no unusual wear. The firing pin seemed to be working normally. I checked the strain screw hadn't backed out...
The gun is modified: Cylinder machined for moon clips, a reduced power return slide spring, a little bit of polishing of the return slide, a full power Wolff mainspring, Cylinder and Slide firing pin and The Plug. None of which should be causing the above problems.
Frankly, I was mystified.
Finally I took off the side plate and discovered the lockworks were full of gunk. Black, oily, ugly gunk. There was even crud in the hole where the firing pin goes. I stripped the gun down and used the ultrasonic cleaner to remove the past year's accumulation of crud. I reassembled it and it now works just like before.
It used to be an annual full cleaning like that was enough but then I was only shooting about half as much. Now I know better.
