What Does This Mean?

[panhandle_gunslinger]

Hello all...I was reading up on my 19-4 and there was a statement that I don't quite understand. It read in part, "...changed the gas ring from the yoke to the cylinder." What is a gas ring and did it improve the revolver by moving it from the yoke to the cylinder? Thanks...

 

[murphydog]

It is a small part (looks like a round washer) between the yoke and cylinder center. I understand it is there to protect the inner channel from damage due to firing, and closer to the cylinder works better.

 

[k22fan]

As Murphydog posted, your gas ring is the tube projecting out of the front of your cylinder surrounding the yoke. It deflects fouling blown through the flash gap away from the center of the cylinder. All S&W revolvers had a gas ring "on" or actually in their cylinders since at least WW I until they "moved the gas ring from the cylinder to the yoke" in K frames. To my amateur eye it looks like dash 3 K frames that don't have a gas ring in their cylinders simply don't have one at all. At any rate those dash 3s often need their cylinders removed from the yoke to remove lead fouling that other wise adds irregular drag to their DA pull. Fortunately, after a few years S&W restored gas rings to K frame cylinders. Dash 4s aren't an improvement over dash 2s and earlier revolvers, S&W just ditched a stupid idea.

As strongly opinionated as that sounds, I haven't minded the little bit of extra cleaning required after firing lead .38 bullets through K frames without a gas ring in their cylinders, perhaps only because I haven't used one for firing large quantities of lead bullets. However, I'd only buy one that was under priced.

Incidentally, I've seen 15-3s with a gas ring in their cylinder so the dash number doesn't reliably predict how all K frames were built.

 

[Alk8944]

All S&W revolvers had a gas ring "on" or actually in their cylinders since at least WW I

Just to clarify what you are apparently confused about. All S&W revolvers have had a gas ring at least since the #3 size frame guns in the late 1870s. They have all been mounted in the cylinder from the first to current with only two exceptions. The exceptions are the short-lived trial to move it to the yoke in the early 1970s. This lasted about 18 months before S&W conceded it did not work and reverted back to the cylinder mounted gas ring. The other exception is some J-Frame .38 & .357 revolvers which have the yoke mounted (actually integral to the yoke) gas ring.

Rather than appearing to be a washer, the gas ring would be better described as a "collar" extending from the center hole of the cylinder. If you disassemble the revolver for cleaning and you see a collar extending front the front of the cylinder then it has a cylinder mounted gas ring. No collar, just a flat faced cylinder, then it is on the yoke.

The purpose of the gas ring is to deflect combustion gasses and other debris away from the joint between the cylinder and cylinder axis on the yoke. The deposited matter from the gasses, lead, graphite, etc. that enter into this joint can eventually cause cylinder binding. Depending on how much clearance there this can take anywhere from fewer than 50 to several hundred rounds fired. I have a 1946 K-38 I used to use for PPC. It was so sensitive that it had to be cleaned between stages, wouldn't even go the full 60 rounds for the entire course!