Barrel rotating in my model 60 Pro

Tony Rumore

Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2016
Messages
33
Reaction score
258
And here we go again with the chronic S&W moving barrel issue.

Every time I shoot my 60-15, I have had to make a slight rear sight adjustment to the right. Now the sight is completely bottomed out far right, in order to get it to hit dead-on and the front sight is clearly canted over to the right. The barrel is slowly walking over. If you guys remember, this was the exact same problem with my model 69, but it went left instead of right.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-revolvers-1980-present/624601-model-69-barrel-rotated-frame.html
 
Register to hide this ad
Call S&W Customer service. If you're the original owner, they should be able to fix the problem without any cost to you.
 
Okay so I thought about this some and for the barrel to be loosening in the frame as you shoot it goes against the direction of twist in the rifling. Are you sure this is happening?
 
A 69 barrel is sleeved, a 60 Pro isn't. It seems so utterly unlikely that a one piece barrel is so loose that it actually moves from recoil. Either way I'm not sure why anyone would continue to shoot any gun they felt was actually doing that...
 
It's honestly kind of unbelievable that your barrel is turning like you describe. I don't mean to question your situation but I have been around literally thousands of S&W, and other brand, revolvers and I have never seen a barrel just walk out of the frame like that. This includes police and military revolvers that have had 10's of thousands of rounds through them. I will say that if what you're describing is happening, you have a dangerously unsafe gun and you need to take it out if service instantly before you or someone else gets hurt. Maybe you should try posting some photos so that we can get a better understanding of what is going on.
 
That's weird. My explanation would be that it's most likely due to the Coriolis Effect:

"In physics, the Coriolis force is an inertial or fictitious force[1] that acts on objects that are in motion within a frame of reference that rotates with respect to an inertial frame. In a reference frame with clockwise rotation, the force acts to the left of the motion of the object. In one with anticlockwise (or counterclockwise) rotation, the force acts to the right. Deflection of an object due to the Coriolis force is called the Coriolis effect. Though recognized previously by others, the mathematical expression for the Coriolis force appeared in an 1835 paper by French scientist Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis, in connection with the theory of water wheels.[2] Early in the 20th century, the term Coriolis force began to be used in connection with meteorology.

Newton's laws of motion describe the motion of an object in an inertial (non-accelerating) frame of reference. When Newton's laws are transformed to a rotating frame of reference, the Coriolis and centrifugal accelerations appear. When applied to massive objects, the respective forces are proportional to the masses of them. The Coriolis force is proportional to the rotation rate and the centrifugal force is proportional to the square of the rotation rate. The Coriolis force acts in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis and to the velocity of the body in the rotating frame and is proportional to the object's speed in the rotating frame (more precisely, to the component of its velocity that is perpendicular to the axis of rotation). The centrifugal force acts outwards in the radial direction and is proportional to the distance of the body from the axis of the rotating frame. These additional forces are termed inertial forces, fictitious forces or pseudo forces.[3] They "allow" the application of Newton's laws to a rotating system. They are correction factors that do not exist in a non-accelerating or inertial reference frame.[4]

In popular (non-technical) usage of the term "Coriolis effect", the rotating reference frame implied is almost always the Earth. Because the Earth spins, Earth-bound observers need to account for the Coriolis force to correctly analyze the motion of objects. The Earth completes one rotation per day, so for motions of everyday objects the Coriolis force is usually quite small compared with other forces; its effects generally become noticeable only for motions occurring over large distances and long periods of time, such as large-scale movement of air in the atmosphere or water in the ocean. Such motions are constrained by the surface of the Earth, so only the horizontal component of the Coriolis force is generally important. This force causes moving objects on the surface of the Earth to be deflected to the right (with respect to the direction of travel) in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. The horizontal deflection effect is greater near the poles, since the effective rotation rate about a local vertical axis is largest there, and decreases to zero at the equator.[5] Rather than flowing directly from areas of high pressure to low pressure, as they would in a non-rotating system, winds and currents tend to flow to the right of this direction north of the equator (anticlockwise) and to the left of this direction south of it (clockwise). This effect is responsible for the rotation of large cyclones (see Coriolis effects in meteorology).

For an intuitive explanation of the origin of the Coriolis force, consider an object, constrained to follow the Earth's surface and moving northward in the northern hemisphere. Viewed from outer space, the object does not appear to go due north, but has an eastward motion (it rotates around toward the right along with the surface of the Earth). The further north it travels, the smaller the "diameter of its parallel" (the minimum distance from the surface point to the axis of rotation, which is in a plane orthogonal to the axis), and so the slower the eastward motion of its surface. As the object moves north, to higher latitudes, it has a tendency to maintain the eastward speed it started with (rather than slowing down to match the reduced eastward speed of local objects on the Earth's surface), so it veers east (i.e. to the right of its initial motion).[6][7]

Though not obvious from this example, which considers northward motion, the horizontal deflection occurs equally for objects moving eastward or westward (or in any other direction).[8]However, the theory that the effect determines the rotation of draining water in a typical size household bathtub, sink or toilet has been repeatedly disproven by modern-day scientists; the force is negligibly small compared to the many other influences on the rotation.[9][10][11]"

So, obviously the one possible solution would be to stop shooting your gun south of the equator. Either that or send it back to the mother ship. :)

I just woke up.
 
Does the barrel rib appear out of line? If so it needs to be returned for service. Is the rear sight loose, damaged? Take close up pictures if you are unsure.
Check under the barrel, inside the frame with the cylinder swung out... use a good light and magnification... any sign of a crack.
 
That's weird. My explanation would be that it's most likely due to the Coriolis Effect:

"In physics, the Coriolis force is an inertial or fictitious force[1] that acts on objects that are in motion within a frame of reference that rotates with respect to an inertial frame. In a reference frame with clockwise rotation, the force acts to the left of the motion of the object. In one with anticlockwise (or counterclockwise) rotation, the force acts to the right. Deflection of an object due to the Coriolis force is called the Coriolis effect. Though recognized previously by others, the mathematical expression for the Coriolis force appeared in an 1835 paper by French scientist Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis, in connection with the theory of water wheels.[2] Early in the 20th century, the term Coriolis force began to be used in connection with meteorology.

Newton's laws of motion describe the motion of an object in an inertial (non-accelerating) frame of reference. When Newton's laws are transformed to a rotating frame of reference, the Coriolis and centrifugal accelerations appear. When applied to massive objects, the respective forces are proportional to the masses of them. The Coriolis force is proportional to the rotation rate and the centrifugal force is proportional to the square of the rotation rate. The Coriolis force acts in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis and to the velocity of the body in the rotating frame and is proportional to the object's speed in the rotating frame (more precisely, to the component of its velocity that is perpendicular to the axis of rotation). The centrifugal force acts outwards in the radial direction and is proportional to the distance of the body from the axis of the rotating frame. These additional forces are termed inertial forces, fictitious forces or pseudo forces.[3] They "allow" the application of Newton's laws to a rotating system. They are correction factors that do not exist in a non-accelerating or inertial reference frame.[4]

In popular (non-technical) usage of the term "Coriolis effect", the rotating reference frame implied is almost always the Earth. Because the Earth spins, Earth-bound observers need to account for the Coriolis force to correctly analyze the motion of objects. The Earth completes one rotation per day, so for motions of everyday objects the Coriolis force is usually quite small compared with other forces; its effects generally become noticeable only for motions occurring over large distances and long periods of time, such as large-scale movement of air in the atmosphere or water in the ocean. Such motions are constrained by the surface of the Earth, so only the horizontal component of the Coriolis force is generally important. This force causes moving objects on the surface of the Earth to be deflected to the right (with respect to the direction of travel) in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. The horizontal deflection effect is greater near the poles, since the effective rotation rate about a local vertical axis is largest there, and decreases to zero at the equator.[5] Rather than flowing directly from areas of high pressure to low pressure, as they would in a non-rotating system, winds and currents tend to flow to the right of this direction north of the equator (anticlockwise) and to the left of this direction south of it (clockwise). This effect is responsible for the rotation of large cyclones (see Coriolis effects in meteorology).

For an intuitive explanation of the origin of the Coriolis force, consider an object, constrained to follow the Earth's surface and moving northward in the northern hemisphere. Viewed from outer space, the object does not appear to go due north, but has an eastward motion (it rotates around toward the right along with the surface of the Earth). The further north it travels, the smaller the "diameter of its parallel" (the minimum distance from the surface point to the axis of rotation, which is in a plane orthogonal to the axis), and so the slower the eastward motion of its surface. As the object moves north, to higher latitudes, it has a tendency to maintain the eastward speed it started with (rather than slowing down to match the reduced eastward speed of local objects on the Earth's surface), so it veers east (i.e. to the right of its initial motion).[6][7]

Though not obvious from this example, which considers northward motion, the horizontal deflection occurs equally for objects moving eastward or westward (or in any other direction).[8]However, the theory that the effect determines the rotation of draining water in a typical size household bathtub, sink or toilet has been repeatedly disproven by modern-day scientists; the force is negligibly small compared to the many other influences on the rotation.[9][10][11]"

So, obviously the one possible solution would be to stop shooting your gun south of the equator. Either that or send it back to the mother ship. :)

I just woke up.
Was all of that nonsense really necessary ?
 
Being able to save a bit of money by deleting the barrel pin was sure a good idea wasn't it? This is probably the tenth "barrel MOVING" issue I'm aware of. What were they thinking?
 
Yes 38 years since they stopped pinning barrels and this is the tenth instance you've heard of... Most probably unsubstantiated, like this one appears to be since the OP is a no-show since posting and included no photos of any kind. And how many million revolvers have they made in those 38 years with only a handful of "stories" reported? Sounds like a real epidemic alright...
 
Is it possible that the frame cracked adjacent to the crane area.It is very thin there on all S&W revolvers,presumable from over tightening the barrel especially on J frame guns. If this is the case the gun is junk.

Sid V
 
I haven’t been a member of this forum very long, but have noted a number of odd, seemingly nonsensical threads. Like the “physician by trade” guy asking if shooting a .460 could cause hearing damage...or a new “member” posting about a problem, then ignoring questions from members trying to help.

I don’t get it...
 
Maybe not too crazy.

I did have a 629-6 6" with a canted barrel from the start. Sent it in, got it back - to what I distinctly remember "straight ".
Shot it a bunch of times and all of the sudden, it was clocked again!
Sent it back for the 2nd time. Got it back straight again!
Shot it a bunch more times and sold it thereafter.

I remember I sold it to a guy that was going to take it to Nevada to shoot(?). If not, it'd be interesting to hear if it spun again.

I mark this thread plausible, for it had happened to me. And definitely remembered it came back straight the first time around.....

True.
 
I have a 625-3 that the barrel was straight when I bought it.
Now after about 600 rounds the barrel is canted to the left when aiming.
Is it possible for a barrel to tighten itself ?
 
Being able to save a bit of money by deleting the barrel pin was sure a good idea wasn't it? This is probably the tenth "barrel MOVING" issue I'm aware of. What were they thinking?

Trust me if the barrel's shoulder is not torqued tight against the frame the pin will NOT stop it from turning. Had a 1917 that had a pin and I could turn the barrel 5 degrees in either direction by hand. Any one who has had a barrel off can tell you the slot in it for the pin is generous.
 
Last edited:
Steelslaver is correct, the pin is unlikely to keep a loose barrel from turning slightly, it just limits the amount of rotation. Proper torque is what keeps the barrel from unscrewing itself. Take a look at Colt and Ruger revolvers, they never used pinned barrels.
 
Back
Top