New to me 66 locked up?

[truckemup97]

Bought a 66 this morning at the gun show. When I got it home, I fired a primed case (no powder, no bullet) just to make sure the firing pin was connecting. It's now locked up. I can't move the trigger or hammer more than 1/4", and even though I can push the cylinder release all the way forward, I can't open the cylinder. I read a post about the trigger stop, but the pics were gone, so I'm not sure where the trigger stop is. I'm no gunsmith, but any help would be appreciated.

 

[truckemup97]

Here's what it looks like:

 

[P&R Fan]

It's possible the ejector rod has come loose. You will have to take a screwdriver or knife blade and push the little tab it goes into at the front of the rod. Then you can open the cylinder. Tighten down the rod, keeping in mind it is left handed threading.
Jim

 

[4011]

I believe if it's locked and you cannot open the cylinder it's not internal. Looking from the side is the hand sticking out? It shouldn't be with the hammer and trigger in place as the picture shows. Ejector Rod is the place my 686 acted up. Would try to release the cylinder using the cylinder release then bump the cylinder with your other hand to open it. After looking thru the sides for something outa place. IMHO

 

[Iggy]

Primer may have backed out due to case not being forced back by recoil too. Sometimes that can bind things up too.

 

[saemetric]

Yours has no trigger stop.

 

[Muss Muggins]

Yours has no trigger stop.

Most don't. It's got a very specialized function for competitive single action shooting. Completely unnecessary part, and doesn't have anything to do with this malfunction. My guess is the primer backed out of that case and locked it up. Even if the cylinder rod is a little loose, there wasn't any recoil with this operation, so it wouldn't have jammed up if you were able to open and close it before. Hold the cylinder latch open and force the right side of the cylinder down onto a padded table edge. Don't bang it, just press down with purpose.

 

[truckemup97]

Iggy and Muss Muggins win the prize on this one. A slightly more than gentle tap with a rubber mallet loosened it up a bit. The primer is sticking out just enough to cause problems. Thanks, everyone. Now I've got some cleaning to do. The guy that owned this last probably doesn't even know what Hoppe's #9 is.

 

[muddocktor]

Primer may have backed out due to case not being forced back by recoil too. Sometimes that can bind things up too.

Ding Ding Ding Ding!!!! We have a winner here!

The primer has partially backed out of the case from the backpressure of primer hole. When you shoot a normal shell, the recoil slams the case back into the recoil shield and reseats the primer, but with just a primer in a normal case the primer flash hole provides enough backpressure to make the primer unseat and jam up the cylinder.

I've taken a knife and run in between the recoil shield and the back side of the case and gotten the primer to go in enough to open the cylinder when this has happened to me in the past.

To keep this from happening, I have some dedicated cases that I have drilled out the flash hole big enough to where the primer won't back out when popped in my revolvers. Be sure to mark any cases modified this way as you don't ever want to use them for reloading as the large flash hole will drastically change pressures in a loaded round.