Revolver Checkout procedure - How to tell if a particular specimen is any good.

[MoutainMike]

.357 Magnum Taurus

Hi Chris and Jim March:
My eight-year-old "near virgin" Taurus Model 605 passed with flying colors all but the full lock up cylinder-to-barrel gap which is around 0.012 inches! (Ideally it should be closer to 0.002") It has only had around 250 rounds through it and was probably that far out of spec. when it came out of the box from the gun dealer in Redding, Calif. in 2004.

I will use the great info to bend Taurus' arm when I return it to them. They claim their revolvers have a lifetime warranty... we'll see if they are liars!

Thanks for a truly great post! Very good info.

Mike

[1JimMarch]

At .012 you're going to lose a LOT of velocity. In 357 I don't like more than .004" if I can avoid it, while in .38 I like it even closer although the gains in velocity aren't really that great between, say, .004" and .002".

There's a few cases where you want a big gap, up to about .008" or even a hair over if you're shooting "Holy Black" in a SASS black-powder-cartridge class (larger soot particles, and you want them to blow loose, and peak velocity isn't a concern). But .012" should be WAY past spec on anything.

[JohnCCW]

Your procedure doesn't check the cylinder timing well enough. IMHO.

I would bring along a full set of snap caps and dry fire the thing slowly at first, then as fast as possible, for at least fifty additional times.
Pointing the gun at a normal shooting angle, not up at the sky.
If the revolver is out of time, it will lock up. Will lock up more often in actual shooting, so any hiccup dry-firing is a very- very bad sign.
Had this problem with a Colt DA revolver. Factory service didn't help for long. Sold it. Let someone else deal with the lack of quality.

[G38xOC]

great thread ! I be sure give those function check and check the gap with feeler gauge too . thanks