Brazillian S&W 1917 .45 ACP

[RnGrnwd]

]Another question. Wrote in earlier about missing cylinder & received inputs as to where I could find one. Lots of help but none available. Returned from Mid West & lo & behold the company that had blued the frame, found the cylinder that they did not have. They returned to Gun Shop but did not blue it. Gun shop owner wanted to keep it until he had found another company to do blueing. He will have it blued when he finds Company. I wanted to put it togerther. I did, it shoots great. Now my question. According to Numrich there are two sideplates with different hammer blocks. The block on mine is an intregel part of the side plate, pressed in. When you cock it the hand cams against the block & moves it out of the way of the hammer. With the gun cocked, I can see about an 16th to a 32nd of the hammer block protruding. When I lower the hammer, I can feel the hammer hitting the hammer block. Is this normal, or is the hammer block out of position. I have Jerry Kuhnhausen's book, but there is no mention of this. I sent to the S&W Antique gun area. Thought I would try here, not sure if everyone reads everything.

Thank,

Rn Grnwd

 

[john traveler]

The hammer block is out of position. If you can see the hammer block in the hammer slot during cycling, it can interfere with the hammer stroke.

I have two M1937 Brazilian contract guns, and they both have the same hammer block. On one, looseness in it's fit to the sideplate prevents the hand from fully camming it out of the way sometimes, producing an occasional failure to fire. Not good if the gun is for serious use!

The firing block should not even partly interfere with hammer fall. Dirt or hardened oil in the sideplate recess could also stop the hammer block from fully retreating during a firing cycle.

These faults prompted S&W to design the rebound slide-operated hammer block found in all revolvers after about the middle of WWII to modern production.

 

[RnGrnwd]

Thank you, as I stated, not sure if this was normal or not. Now I have something to work with.

Rn Grnwd