New gun issues

[jordan57]

Most of my S&W collection have been purchased used. Have a 90's era 629 I purchased new that has been flawless. I recently acquired a new 686 Plus that seems to have several issues. I'm not sure if it needs a trip back to "mothership" or not.
If gun is empty cylinder rotates and times perfectly while empty. If you load the gun, cylinder rotates and times perfectly while loaded. Problem occurs when you fire, the cylinder wants to not rotate correctly until you rotate some by hand, not every round but on some. After the gun is empty, every thing works with empty brass in like should. Do you think this will "break in" or get worse? Another issue I see is fired cases seem to have more primer flattening than appears normal. Movement fore and aft seems normal, endshake and gap measurements seem in specification. The primer flattening seems the same with magnum and 38 special pressure loads. This does not appear to affect cylinder tie up in any way. Comments and suggestions appreciated. Seems to be extremely accurate, had a slight hitch in trigger pull at first, but that smoothed out very quickly. This gun has been fired maybe 300 to 400 rounds.

 

[armorer951]

Very difficult to diagnose properly without actually examining the gun. You don't say if you are using handloaded ammunition, but if so, that could be a contributor.

I would check the B/C gap and the headspace again using feeler gauges, to confirm the measurements are correct. Front gauge should be around .004", rear gauge spec is .060" - .068". Smaller is better in terms of the rear headspace. Sounds like the face of the cylinder could be dragging on the barrel extension. Check for evidence of contact/rubbing there.

I would also check the breechface for burrs, (with a magnifier) particularly around the firing pin bushing, to verify the bushing itself is still properly staked in place and has not raised up or become loose....and that there are no burrs around the perimeter of the hole in the firing pin bushing.

Check for shooting debris under or on the extractor and or ratchets, check the ratchets themselves for burrs, and confirm the integrity of the tension in the hand spring. Check the hand for damage, and the hand slot for burrs or impacted debris.

Just some things off the top of my head....there are many more possibilities.

 

[quaduser]

I'm guessing you're using hand loads and the primers ARE binding. Been there, done that...

 

[cmj8591]

Without looking, I'm going to guess excessive headspace caused by too much cylinder end shake. Just a guess.

 

[BigBill]

I lube my revolvers with moly inside and the cylinder studs then run the action with caps while watching tv. Even the trigger on my older 27-2 feels better. On my new ones each trigger has the same feel in different caliber n frames.

 

[mh51]

In the 1990's, the L frame guns had a recall from S&W because of the hammer nose bushing backing out of the frame and causing binding. They repaired it by changing the hammer nose (firing pin) and the bushing.
They should know what guns were repaired, and if yours needs the modifications I'm sure they will make it right.

 

[Gunhacker]

In the 1990's, the L frame guns had a recall from S&W because of the hammer nose bushing backing out of the frame and causing binding. They repaired it by changing the hammer nose (firing pin) and the bushing.
They should know what guns were repaired, and if yours needs the modifications I'm sure they will make it right.

The hammer nose bushings were not backing out of the frame, the recall replaced the hammer nose and bushing with a design that prevented binding due to primer flowback into the bushing hole.

And this condition was attributed to a specific .357 brand (Federal) with soft primers and a high velocity loading with light weight bullets.

The L-Frames affected were the early no dash and -1 models, the OP's 686 Plus is way past the recalled models.

 

[jordan57]

Well I seemed to have the cylinder binding solved. I greased the ratchet with grease and dry fired the gun about 500 times. Yesterday I fired around 300 rounds with never a hiccup. Measurements of bc gap and end shake all appear in spec. This gun does flatten primers to a greater extent than other guns that I have. Even with factory ammunition (WWB) it seems to flatten more, but Blazer (CCI) not at all. I switched from Winchester to CCI primers with handloads, and all appears normal with those primers.
I would like to thank all that replied, especially armorer951, as his measurements assured me that all was in spec. Another article I found enlightening was Frisco Pete's Primer on Primers, that is a good read. That is on a SKS forum. When I started with this gun it had a hitch in the trigger, that quickly disappeared, after all these trigger pulls, the trigger feels pretty good. Just a FYI the trigger pull on a 686 6 shot, feels a lot different than on a 686 7 shot. The difference is considerable to me.