Smith and Wesson 19-4 issues

I know that the first thing that is probably going to be said is that I can search for the information I'm asking for. Well, from here in the sandbox, my internet is spotty at best. Using the search function of the site makes my computer freak out in ways that need to be seen to be believed.

My Grandfather passed away about a month and a half ago. When he passed, I tried to get ahold of as many of his firearms as possible before my greedy, self-centered extended family got ahold of his estate and started swiping and/or selling everything off.

I got my hands on his old K-frame model 19-4, that was once his service revolver in years way back. I see a lot of love for these revolvers, so as I stated before, I know the information I'm looking for is out there, I just can't access it from where I am, and I'm burning for an answer to the question I keep asking myself.

I was home for a brief period a couple weeks ago and took the revolver out to shoot it, after it having sat for an unknown amount of time, and with unknown maintenance done to it. After a brief inspection, it was deemed serviceable to shoot, but I had a strange malfunction while shooting it.

I cocked the hammer and fired one single action shot, and then a follow-up double action shot, followed by trying for a second double action shot. On the third trigger pull, I'm wondering if it was something wrong with the revolver or something user induced, but the cylinder was locked like it was supposed to, but I could not pull the trigger, cock the hammer or get the hammer to drop.

I jammed a revolver. There, I said it, to my shame.

I attributed it to me possibly having had "short stroked" the trigger, or having pulled the trigger far enough to let the cylinder rotate and lock, but not quite far enough for the hammer to drop, and then letting go of the trigger, before trying again to pull the trigger. To "un-jam" the gun, I ended up having to pull the hammer back slightly, which was only a millimeter or two, and wiggle the cylinder until I got it to rotate by one chamber. After that, it shot just fine and the malfunction hasn't happened since.

Now that I've explained the situation, my question is what could have caused it to lock up like that? Tolerance being off in the action possibly? Me just shooting like a jack ass? Some weird sprite gun demon came down and lodged itself in the gun? Canadian magnets or something else?

I don't claim to have a whole lot of experience with revolvers, most of my handgun experience is with semi-automatics, so I'm completely oblivious as to what could have caused this kind of malfunction. I know that revolvers, like anything else, are machines and are prone to malfunction occasionally, but the way the entire thing locked up the way it did just once, then was fine after being "cleared" is somewhat baffling to me.

It could be that the cartridge you shot backed the bullets out of the other cartridges and thy locked agenst the forcing cone as thy moved forward in the casings.
You could have a primer back out as you fire the gun and it will lock up the gun hard.
There is alot to talk about in this arena but those are the ammo related problems for you.


That is just some of the things that are a problem for current ammo manufactures the revolver guys are getting less and less time on gun so to speak so the manufacturers don't get as much feed back.

Possibly just a loose extractor rod. Your M19-4 will have a left hand threaded rod, so to tighten it should turn counter-clockwise. If you verify it is loose and can be tightened by finger pressure, place an empty case in every other chamber and pad the rod with something like an old leather belt, then use pliars to tighten further.

Or it might have been that some crud / unburned powder/ etc. was stuck under the extractor 'star', which will push the star out a tiny bit and can also lock up the gun in more extreme cases...clean under there good. The -4 models had the gas ring moved to the cylinder from the yoke and are more susceptible to trash getting blown back than earlier revisions.

Also could be the barrel / cylinder gap is too tight. It should ideally be 4 to 6 thousandths but today S&W says they are GTG up to something like 9 thousandths, Anything under 3 thousandths is subject to suspicion. If this is the case, I would recommend you either send it back to S&W for repair or take the time to find a 'smith who actually knows S&W revolvers...not many do these days.

There are other things that might have caused this but try the three mentioned above first as the others involve possible internal issues.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mr. Smith

It could be that the cartridge you shot backed the bullets out of the other cartridges and thy locked agenst the forcing cone as thy moved forward in the casings.
You could have a primer back out as you fire the gun and it will lock up the gun hard.
There is alot to talk about in this arena but those are the ammo related problems for you.


That is just some of the things that are a problem for current ammo manufactures the revolver guys are getting less and less time on gun so to speak so the manufacturers don't get as much feed back.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by ikor

Possibly just a loose extractor rod. Your M19-4 will have a left hand threaded rod, so to tighten it should turn counter-clockwise. If you verify it is loose and can be tightened by finger pressure, place an empty case in every other chamber and pad the rod with something like an old leather belt, then use pliars to tighten further.

Or it might have been that some crud / unburned powder/ etc. was stuck under the extractor 'star', which will push the star out a tiny bit and can also lock up the gun in more extreme cases...clean under there good. The -4 models had the gas ring moved to the cylinder from the yoke and are more susceptible to trash getting blown back than earlier revisions.

Also could be the barrel / cylinder gap is too tight. It should ideally be 4 to 6 thousandths but today S&W says they are GTG up to something like 9 thousandths, Anything under 3 thousandths is subject to suspicion. If this is the case, I would recommend you either send it back to S&W for repair or take the time to find a 'smith who actually knows S&W revolvers...not many do these days.

There are other things that might have caused this but try the three mentioned above first as the others involve possible internal issues.

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I appreciate the feedback from both of you. What I didn't mention was that at the time, I was shooting Hornady Lever evolution loads. I'm starting to become pretty confident that this may have been the issue. I had bought the ammo for a Winchester lever action, but found out that the damn thing was .375 win, not .357 mag, so I had a bunch of ammo that I decided to screw around with. I'll have to take a look at it when I get back home again.

The fact that it was a single issue, and wasn't recurring makes me think that it must have been ammo related, especially with the Hornady loads I was using. Sometimes you just have to think out loud for things to make sense. Thanks Gents.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by viperashes

I appreciate the feedback from both of you. What I didn't mention was that at the time, I was shooting Hornady Lever evolution loads. I'm starting to become pretty confident that this may have been the issue. I had bought the ammo for a Winchester lever action, but found out that the damn thing was .375 win, not .357 mag, so I had a bunch of ammo that I decided to screw around with. I'll have to take a look at it when I get back home again.

The fact that it was a single issue, and wasn't recurring makes me think that it must have been ammo related, especially with the Hornady loads I was using. Sometimes you just have to think out loud for things to make sense. Thanks Gents.

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I do a lot of revolver work and I would think you are on the right page on this one.

If you need any help with it you can call me or send it to me when you get back.

Sounds great. Thanks Mr. Smilth, very much appreciated.