We should have a sticky on all the revolver forums. Anytime any revolver misbehaves, the very first thing you do, even before cussing at it, is clean it. If you haven't already done that, save your obscenities for yourself, because you are the problem, not the gun.
Every gun you buy, new or used, requires a detail strip and cleaning. The older a gun is, the more it may require help. But S&W is a big company and things slip out the door. An example is my favorite carry gun, a M337 I bought brand spankin' new. The attraction and reason I bought it was how light it was. The downside was the gritty and lousy trigger pull.
I also noticed that dry firing it, a green liquid constantly appeared on the trigger from somewhere up and inside.
I'm not a real newcomer to S&Ws. I have no fear (probably a problem) so I just tore into the stupid thing. What I found was pretty disgusting. It was full of grit and chips from machining. Some of the cute little curly cues were large enough I wonder how they didn't tie up the action. But a good cleaning and the use of the dreaded spray can flushed it all out. Then I used a very modest amount of CLP and it was a great gun. Since then, I've just made it a practice on all my new-to-me guns.
Old guns are worse. We have no idea how they were cared for in the past. Today we have wonder lubricants and protectants. They promise the world. I sometimes wonder what was used in the past, maybe in a pinch. I've even considered the possibility it was bacon grease. I've even scraped out chunks of congealed crud. Some so much that the guns weren't working.
I realize everyone tends to overlube. If some is good, more is better. Gun makers have intentionally made it mysterious to open their prizes. I guess if more people did that, we'd have all kinds of broken or lost parts. Or worse, guns going back together with some profit left on the workbench. But dismantling a gun isn't rocket surgery. And you really don't need to go to that extreme very often.
So if you can't or won't do it yourself, pay someone. Most gun nuts will sit with you and take a gun apart. Once. In the past S&W had a traveling dog and pony show. They'd show up at your LGS and do a pretty simple job of cleaning your gun. Not a particularly good one, as in the detail stripping, but they'd clean it. And they'd dry fire it. If it didn't work to their satisfaction, they go in deeper. There is no excuse for someone not knowing how to clean their own gun.
You can get a pretty good idea of how dirty the gun is with just a quick wipe down and inspection under the star. Just a few flakes of old powder found there is a strong indication the side plate needs to come off. That part is fairly easy, but you need to know how to do it. First, and most important, you don't pry, ever. Take the grips off. Then you start on the sideplate. You just take the screws out with a correctly sized screwdriver. Not too little, not to big, just right. Watch the screws carefully, because they aren't the same length or tip (or head). There can be 3, 4, or 5 of them. Fold a paper towel and put it up in front of you. Then put the screws on it. Use a pen to sketch the sideplate if you want, it takes about 3 seconds to do that.
I open the cylinder and slide it out forward and put it off to the side. Then with your off hand, hold back the cylinder release and dry fire the gun a few times. If you're watching, you'll see it start to rise, like magic out of the frame. If it doesn't get a big old wood handled screwdriver or hammer. Notice here you are only going to hit the gun with the wood part of the handle. Then holding the metal part of the screwdriver, you hit the frame where the grips were screwed on with the wood. Good, sharp raps. That almost always causes the sideplate to move upward. When it jumps free, stop. You can overdo anything, and this isn't the place to smack it one more time and send it flying.
Then lots of mysterious things appear inside. Hopefully not an excess of oil. At this point you can make the decision to continue or stop. If its a "conventionally" finished gun, you can use just about any solvent you can find. If the gun is finished with paint, as the new lightweight guns are, be a bit more careful. But WD40 won't hurt to spray in corners and what not. Be sure to wipe it out when you're done. And Q tips are great. WD tends to evaporate and its not a very good long term lubricant. I consider it more first aid than anything else. Usually, toothpicks can be used to get into really tight corners. See that they come out clean, not black. If you have a quality lube, like CLP or RemOil, just use a small droplet on the hammer and trigger pins. Maybe a third tiny one on a clean Qtip to smear around some, just so the innards are coated. Then put it back together. If a more detailed strip is required, write back to the forum and we'll give it.
Then the cylinder. It comes out of the frame hanging from the crane. The front sideplate screw retains it. Look at that screw and you'll see its got a funny end on it. Make sure it goes back in where it came out. If the crane won't move, its because you screwed up and put the wrong one back in. Or someone else did and you got the now defective gun cheap. Easy to fix, too. Anyway, a lot of time and bandwidth is devoted to cleaning each of the charge holes. Its really important, particularly on 38s and 44s where someone has been firing the shorter ammo. But many people ignore the star. Its the little circular thing that moves out when you push in the ejector rod. It takes a little practice to hold it open and look underneath. Get an old toothbrush, or use someone else's.
Then with some solvent, preferably powder solvent, clean both the inletted area of the cylinder and then the underside of the star itself. Gently scrub or brush it clean. Make your old DI proud, as in white glove clean. Then only use a swipe of lubricant. It all needs to be moist, but not soaked.
Then put the malfunctioning or new to you gun back together. See if it still malfunctions. Don't do the cleaning outside where you can lose parts. If your wife dislikes smells, don't do it in her kitchen. The best lubricants, solvents and such smell. Some of us have learned to really like the smells. Its why we use Hoppe's #9. To us it just smells like going shooting. Kinda makes you want to drink beer and lie.
Anyway, before you complain about that new gun not working, clean it. Just spend the few bucks and buy the witches brew of chemicals we all talk about. I see no excuse for any gun nut not owning a chemistry set of cool stuff. Most gun complaints will vanish if the owner just takes a little time. And then you can also share the disgust the rest of us feel for the owner of a filthy gun.
