bulged cases

[ralph7]

well, i thought i would look past all the "lock haters" and picked up a 63-5 a few weeks ago. was only shooting it around the house w/Colibri powderless ammo until last week.
shot some high velocity ammo in it and noticed it bulged about half a cylinder full right near the rim.
has anybody had good luck getting a replacement cylinder from S&W?
please post a link to this, if there is one, as i tried searching and couldn't come up w/anything.

 

[Pef]

Dio the casings extract properly? If so, you probably don't have a problem. I say probably because I don't know how big the "bulge" is. My 63-5 also has causes a bulge in the casings. Seems to be uniform and for every round. Bulge is on the opposite side of the firing rim impact, IIRC.

If it's shooting right, timing is good, and you can extract the spent casings, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[ralph7]

yeah, it extracts and shoots good, but it is a S&W. (used to stand for quality?)
why should a gun that sells for north of $600 bulge cases?

 

[ErnieDeBord]

was the gun new when you it? Brand of ammo? Try any diff ammo ?

 

[TAROMAN]

Agree that if it extracts properly its a non-issue. After all, you're not going to reload those cases, are you?
Rimfire cases are made in a delicate balance between so tough that they don't crush well enough for proper ignition and so soft that they may blow out.
As others have suggested, try different brands. Personally, i always use CCI .22 LR.

 

[murphydog]

Sounds to be a good reason to call customer service to see if they think it needs fixing. Since you are not reloading the cases...?

 

[ralph7]

yes, i will call customer service and see what they tell me.
i have been shooting most all my life and never had any .22 bulge cases.

have we gotten so used to shoddy workmanship that we now halfway accept it?
would any of you buy a gun like this after seeing that it bulges half the cases it shoots?
the chambers are out of spec or it would not bulge cases.

 

[TSQUARED]

yeah, it extracts and shoots good, but it is a S&W. (used to stand for quality?)
why should a gun that sells for north of $600 bulge cases?

I believe the extractor star is purposely sligtly undersize in the chamber area to facilitate extraction from a dirty cylinder.

 

[Pef]

I believe the extractor star is purposely sligtly undersize in the chamber area to facilitate extraction from a dirty cylinder.

Appears to be so. I noticed that the star moves slightly from sided to side (ever so slightly), and also is about half a gnat's hair shorter than the recess in the cylinder.

I don't think the bulging is due to poor workmanship, it appears to be the result of a design. I can also attest to the easy extraction - one day I shot over 500 rounds with my 63-5, and I never once had difficulty extracting cases from the cylinder.

But it's your gun. Curious what SW customer service will do, please let us know. Good luck.

 

[ralph7]

I believe the extractor star is purposely sligtly undersize in the chamber area to facilitate extraction from a dirty cylinder.

aha! think you hit the nail on the head.
i still will call service and see what they say, don't really want to mess w/shipping.

 

[H Richard]

I never wasted my time looking at my fired cases. If they shot and extracted properly they went on the ground to add to the "carpet" of brass at our range.

 

[Bobby Ironsmith]

well, i thought i would look past all the "lock haters" and picked up a 63-5 a few weeks ago. was only shooting it around the house w/Colibri powderless ammo until last week.
shot some high velocity ammo in it and noticed it bulged about half a cylinder full right near the rim.
has anybody had good luck getting a replacement cylinder from S&W?
please post a link to this, if there is one, as i tried searching and couldn't come up w/anything.

I see this is an old post, but did you get satisfaction? I devised a home solution that works, if not. If the bulging is enough, it makes extraction very difficult. I added old-style extractor pins to correct excessive extractor lateral slop, and chased each chamber with a .22 cylinder finisher reamer. The extractor slop allows ignited cartridges to push the extractor towards the center slightly, allowing the cases to bulge at that divot, accordingly. My 63-5 has been perfect since. Will attach photos if this issue is still unresolved for you. Smith returned mine "no defect found," so I adapted and overcame.

 

[ralph7]

I see this is an old post, but did you get satisfaction? I devised a home solution that works, if not. If the bulging is enough, it makes extraction very difficult. I added old-style extractor pins to correct excessive extractor lateral slop, and chased each chamber with a .22 cylinder finisher reamer. The extractor slop allows ignited cartridges to push the extractor towards the center slightly, allowing the cases to bulge at that divot, accordingly. My 63-5 has been perfect since. Will attach photos if this issue is still unresolved for you. Smith returned mine "no defect found," so I adapted and overcame.

I never did a thing about the problem, as I came to see it wasn't so much of a problem.
Thanks for the further clarification and education.

 

[model3sw]

Did anyone ever consider that perhaps the prior owner purchased it with, or later added to it, a .22 Magnum cylinder ?

 

[BUFF]

I believe that S&W gets so many complaints of difficult fired case extraction on their .22 revolvers that they incorporated the changes Pef mentioned to deal with it.