Revolver info

[blacklisted]

Can anyone give me some advice on how to best judge the amount of wear on a revolver? I really want to know how much more life this thing has remaining in it.

I'm curious about this particular model, I haven't been able to find much info. It's a Smith and Wesson "Highway Patrolman" in .357 magnum. It's in excellent condition, barely any external wear at all. I suspect that it has been mostly used with .38 special loads.

This belongs to my Grandfather, and I think he said he bought it in the 50s. It's a lot of fun, and it seems to shoot well. At least it shoots better than I do, which is not hard! Recoil is pretty light, even with 158 gr .357 magnum.

Here are some pics I just took for reference:

Muzzle end:


Barrel/Cylinder gap: (can't fit a piece of printer paper between it)


I tapped a bullet through it (it took a lot of pounding to get it in through the muzzle end, and the rifling made distinct impressions on the bullet.

[blacklisted]

Here's one more pic:

[Roboshred]

The 28 is

A N frame revolver based on the design of the model 27. It's
a more utilitarian version of the better finished 27. There
were alot of them made during the models life span and are somewhat
collectable. The M-28 was designated the highway patrolman by
S&W and saw service with many depts.. They run any where from
$350-$500 on a pretty regular basis. I don't own one but have seen
many the past few years in the greater SACTO area. Post a full pic of
the grips as they might have a story as well.RB

[blacklisted]

I don't have any full pics of the grips, but the grips are larger than any of the ones I have seen in pics online. They also have a thumb recess in the left side. I believe that the barrel is 6".

The grips look just like the ones on the second one down in the pic here:

http://www.notpurfect.com/main/nframe.html

[thomyt]

The mod 28s are great revolvers. just a little heavy. if cylinder locks up tight your ok. theres a ring on cylinder thats normal. by the pictures it looks good. if its $400.00 or less go for it.
thomyt.

[blacklisted]

The mod 28s are great revolvers. just a little heavy. if cylinder locks up tight your ok. theres a ring on cylinder thats normal. by the pictures it looks good. if its $400.00 or less go for it.
thomyt.

I already have it

I'm just trying to find out exactly how much wear is on it, and I'm looking for info on what serial numbers correspond to certain years.

[metalhead357]

From what I heard long ago was you're more concerned with TIMING than wear but wear too is important. TO check Timing IIRC fist make sure the gun is unloaded, second Make Sure the gun is unloaded, Third MAKE DAMN SURE THE FRIGIN GUN IS UNLOADED. Pull the trigger AND HOLD IT DOWN afterwards...now try to wiggle the cylinder. There shouldnt be too much (read VERY LITTLE to NO) wiggle room.

For the rest, a round count helps; a bore scope also, but a mag light is usually sufficient for taking a peek.

Last is the "Gap" between cyliner and barrel. Now I have heard (and we all know what THAT means...so take it just as that) that there should be NO LIGHT coming thorugh....but to me this is ridiculous and I've seen factory guns fresh on the shelves with a LITTLE light coming thorugh. My thoughts are can you get a business card or two in there? proabably safe...can you get a small eithiopian or a midgit in there? RUN!!! Besides being pissed at you for trying to stuff him in there THERE's TOO MUCH GAP!!!!!! I KNOW there's factory specs out there somewhere for some S&W's but for others? I dunno......

In Resturants, Real Estate and buisnesses they may say location location location, but in the rest of life they usually say its ALL in the timing.....that's the big no no if its too bad/big

[kurac]

It would be pretty hard to wear out a K-frame shooting .38 Specials let alone an N-frame. I have a couple of Model 28's and I think they are great.

A quick way to test for how much wear it has is to do a DA dry fire and continue to hold the trigger back as you grab the cylinder with you other hand so as to check for front to back movement. 0.002" to 0.003 of movement should be normal. Too much and you can buy some endshake shims. Too little and a gunsmith can fix it.

You can also look at the top strap above the forcing cone to see how bad the flame cut is, this is more difficult to determine because you can't really measure it, and unless you have other guns to compare it against it will not provide much information.

If you can provide the first couple of digits of the serial number and the letter prefix (should be an S or an N) I can pin down the date for you a little.

[kurac]

um, to check for timing you will want to do a DA trigger pull while keeping a slight amount of pressure on the cylinder. What you are looking for is to see that the bolt locks in the notch before the hammer drops. You will need to pull the trigger 6 times to complete this test. If the hammer drops before the bolt locks the cylinder then the revolver is out of time and may cause you trouble, having the hammer fall before the primer is where it needs to be means its not going to get hit in the right place, need I say more. The good news is that S&W revolvers don't go out of time much and this is more of an issue with Colts.

[blacklisted]

I'm pretty sure the timing is ok, I've fired this quite a bit (100 rounds of .357 (jacketed) and about 200 .38 special (cast) and it hasn't thrown any lead at me). As for the cylinder gap, it looks larger in the picture than it is. I can't fit a single piece of printer paper in it. I'll check the front to back movement of the cylinder when I go shooting next week (Spring break, yay!).

Also, I have about 20 fired .38 special cases next to me, and the dimple on the primer is centered on every one of them.

[big jon]

is it tired or not

In the mid 80s i was the manager at a shooting range in orange ca, we had s&w in just abought every model that we would rent out,most of our rentals had zillion rounds thru em i got to tell you if i came across an old range gun today i wouldnt think twice abought buying one. Most the time the guns are just dirty and that can cause it to go out of time, and the flame cut seems to be deeper with a stainless gun than a blued one but even at that it seems to stop way before you have to worry abought. What you do have to look for are the gap between the cylnder and forcing cone hold it up to the light it should be even as you rotate it thru all firring posisions if it not the cylinders carrier arm is bent this is caused by slamming it shut like you see in the movies it can be fixed by just abought any gunsmith. If i were you i would just enjoy shooting the heck out of it you got one of the most durable 357 out there happy hunting

[BigRich]

Barrel/cylinder gap has a factory specification of anything from .003 to .009 inch. Below .003 and you have a gun that will likely bind up from accumulation of firing residue on the front of the cylinder. If you exceed .009 you can expect a bit of "spitting" of powder granules. If the forcing cone alignment is off you will get bullet shaving, which can be dangerous. This is checked with a perfectly clean barrel and an alignment checking rod. The Highway Patrolman is a very heavy duty revolver for the 357 magnum cartridge. Check the timing by (ALWAYS check that the gun is empty first) lightly touching a finger against the cylinder side and pull the trigger through double action. The idea is to create drag in order to see if the hand carries the cylinder up all the way to bolt lock. If the hammer falls and you can rotate the cylinder further and it "clicks" then the gun is out of time and should be fixed. Do that on all six chambers. The advice given earlier about front to back play (called end play) should be done with an empty case in the chamber and a feeler gauge between the back of the case and the face of the breech. From the looks of the gun it looks to be in great shape. It is part of your heritage. Cherish it and enjoy shooting it. Firing target level mid-range wadcutters through that guy will be like shooting a pellet gun only louder.

[maxicon]

That's a great, classic revolver - you can't go wrong with one of them. It looks to be a beauty, too.

To find out the birth date of your revolver, and details like whether the grips are originals, post a pic and the SN with the last 2 digits replaced by X's over at www.smith-wessonforum.com. They're good folks who are very helpful. Include any markings from under the yoke, visible when the cylinder's swung out.

Here are a couple of great links on checking out used revolvers in general:

http://www.recguns.com/Sources/IIIB3.html

http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=57816&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

You can tell 90% of it with these 3 checks. Knowing what's good and not is something you learn from handling a lot of revolvers, so these are good things to try at gun shops when you're checking out the stock. After a while, you get pretty good at eyeballing it.

Of course, the gun should be unloaded...

- Check how much wiggle there is in the cylinder side to side and front to back in 3 conditions - hammer down and finger off trigger, hammer cocked, and trigger pulled and held back. Do this on all chambers.

- See how the trigger pull is (always get permission to dry-fire someone else's revolver) - make sure it's not gritty, jerky, stiff, way too light, etc.

- Hold it up to the light and check the gap between the cylinder and the barrel.

Other useful things to check are to make sure the screw heads aren't buggered (indicates amateurs have been into it), the barrel's good at both ends (no pitting, dings, uneven wear), there's no erosion of the top strap above the barrel, etc, but the first 3 are good indications of whether the gun's been abused or heavily shot.

max

[blacklisted]

Thanks a lot guys.