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January 22, 2008
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Please forgive me if I missed this in one of your posts. Does the cylinder bind without any cartridges in it?
Could it be crud buildup in the cylinder, possibly from shooting a lot of 38 Special. Hence, not allowing a longer .357 round to seat properly.
-Wayne
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February 28, 2009
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Just a thought, but if it locks up tight, could this be a timing problem where the lockup is being released too soon?
-Mike
April 26, 2010
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The gun is very clean and there's no buildup of any kind on it. the timing seems to be ok also. What's odd is that I can set the gap to .006. Then at home with cartridges in it I can measure the gap on every chamber and it's just fine (with the barrel nut tightened up of course). I'll take it out to the range and I might get 3 or 4 at most rounds of FMJ out of it before the cylinder binds up. When it binds up, I check the gap and all of a sudden, there's no gap at all...the top front of the cylinder is binding up against the top of the barrel. There seems to be a little bit of endshake with the cylinder when it's not locked up, but when locked up, it's fine. So the cylinder rotates 1/2 way to the next chamber and bam....it's bound up. When I get home, I check it and it seems fine.....the gaps all measure good.
February 11, 2010
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Try setting gap at .008 . Lots of fixed barrel guns are in that range, even seen reports of some S&W leaving the factory in the .010 or .011 range. Make sure when you gauge on your tightest chamber there is little to no drag on feeler gauge.
-Blacktop
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January 24, 2009
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Metal (like most anything) will expand when heated, so that may be part of it, plus Blacktop has a good possible theory to your troubles. Although, it is odd that it still binds up on you with a .006 gap that's presumably set on the tightest spot on the cylinder, without pushing back on the rear pivot (no added pressure on the BB at the rear of the frame).
Monson guns almost always have one cylinder that's tighter than the rest, that's just how they were made back then. The tight one is the one you need to set your gap with, and it's normally best to do it unloaded...no need to put your eye out, ya know.
Try that & post back with your findings.
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November 17, 2008
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rokemsokem said:
What's odd is that I can set the gap to .006. Then at home with cartridges in it I can measure the gap on every chamber and it's just fine (with the barrel nut tightened up of course). I'll take it out to the range and I might get 3 or 4 at most rounds of FMJ out of it before the cylinder binds up. When it binds up, I check the gap and all of a sudden, there's no gap at all...
Sounds to me like something is moving that shouldn't move. It may be time to suck it up and go see a smith. Good luck either way.
LB
Wisdom is merely the realization of how little one knows, therefore I am wise.
April 26, 2010
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When I got home from the range last weekend I set it to .008 but I won't be able to test it until this weekend. Mine does have a chamber that is a bit tighter than the others so I use that one to set it. I don't do anything to the gun when setting the gap, I just find the tight chamber and set it with the gauge. I can't figure out why it's happening but a bigger gap might solve the problem. A bigger gap might make it work but it's probably not the ideal way though. If the gap is set at .006 at the tightest chamber and it binds up almost instantly, that tells me something is askew. That part of the equation is something that I think a smith needs to address because I'm a beginner when it comes to this.
Oh, and I'm not doing anything to the gun with live rounds in it of course.
Thanks again for all your help guys. I appreciate it. I'll give it a shot this weekend and see how it goes.
February 11, 2010
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You said something else in your earlier post that about end shake and tight at lockup, check you Cylinder Aligning Ball to see if it is weak. If cylinder is layed back to far during gauge gap setting you could be driving cylinder forward when the Hand is engaged during lockup. I might be totally off base here, just a thought.
-Blacktop
April 26, 2010
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I'm not sure how to tell if it is weak or not. I can push it in with my finger with some pressure but it probably takes a couple of #s of pressure to do it I'd imagine.
I experimented more with it and set the gap at .008 at the tightest chamber. The cylinder did not bind up at all and worked perfectly but the gap was too big. It shot very inaccurately and I could feel the gas blasting back and I got hit in the face with some debris a couple of times. So when it's .008 at the tightest, it's definitely wayyyy off on the looser chambers. Yikes.
February 11, 2010
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It takes a good bit of force to push in cylinder ball on my 15, not sure how to measure
but would guess more than a couple lb's of pressure. You stated earlier :
"the back of the shell is hanging up on the frame causing it to bind. I can see scratch marks on the ends of the shells"
Still makes me think you have a week spring on that alignment ball, you may also have
end shake troubles as well but end shake will be hard to see if the alignment ball is week
and giving a false test.
Here is a spring kit sold by one of the forum member's who also sell's the barrel wrenches.
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=169780241
-Blacktop
September 28, 2008
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I checked and on my 715, the ball isn't easily depressed at all, it always took my thumb to do it, and it wasn't easy then. You may have found the problem. I had a Model 15 like 30 years ago, and I think that was why it was traded in on a S&W 28. I bet you just need a new spring, or maybe just need the screw tightened up.
I've had 4 model 15's, and now my 715, all used, and all of them were easily repaired with a new spring, or in one case, just putting it back together correctly. On that one, the previous owner had an aftermarket trigger spring installed totally wrong, and he wanted to get rid of it, so it went into the consignment case at the place I shot at. I had it fixed 5 minutes after I bought it, for a very cheap price. That was the nicest looking 15 I ever had, and it turned up on Gunbroker a while back, with the same grips I modded in 1981 after I whacked it and took a chunk off the bottom edge of it. I still had the serial number, and it was a match. I didn't win the auction though...I really would have liked it back, it looked about as good as it did when I sold it. I wonder how it wound up in Reno though.
Hopefully, this isn't a case of the previous owner trying fix it without knowing what he's doing. But it wouldn't shock me if it is.
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