Previous project #2

This revolver has become my favorite. It comes with me to the range just about every time. The trigger is butter smooth and it is otherworldly accurate- like the hand of God reaches down and personally guides each bullet. It is a S&W 38/44 Outdoorsman from 1953, I traded a .22 rifle for it to a gentleman in Oregon. The finish leaves a lot to be desired and it came with some carry up issues (more on that later), but it's a strong example of some of Smith's finest work.

I made the trade aware of the issues and decided to ignore the bluing wear and concentrate on fixing the failure to carry up. What this means is that the cylinder stop does not click in to the recess in the cylinder when the hammer is cocked slowly. The revolver will usually function fine in normal use due to the speed and inertia of the cylinder and the self centering action of the forcing cone (tapered portion of the barrel before the rifling starts). The carry up issue is usually dealt with by replacing the "hand" (see below, blue punch is pointing at it)

When the hand is worn it does not push the ratchets on the ejector star enough to lock the cylinder into place. (ejector star below)

If the hand is especially worn, a direct replacement may solve the issues. In some instances an oversize hand is called for, which is wider and the left side of the frame window is filed to fit.

In my revolvers case the ratchets and the hand were not especially worn. After spending many hours working the action and going through the S&W "Bible": http://www.midwayusa.com/Product/314178/the-s-and-w-revolver-a-shop-manual-book-by-jerry-kuhnhausen

I came to the conclusion that something very out of the ordinary was going on, here is what I found.

This is what's known as the "rebound slide". It performs a variety of things (two internal safeties and providing trigger return tension) There is a spring inside as well as a guide pin. Later N frames do not have this pin. By removing the pin the problem was temporarily solved. After assembly and disassembly a dozen times checking the fit, the pin was just a hair too long and binding the action. I stoned approx. 1/64" off the length, deburred it and reinstalled. Problem solved. I may come back to this gun as there is also some push off issues with it as well (push off is when the hammer is cocked and thumb pressure "pushes" the hammer off the notch allowing it to fall without the trigger being pulled). It's not horrible, as it takes a strong thumb to make it happen- however it is a issue to me because I feel tools should operate correctly.

Below is a picture with a younger brother (38/44 is top one, 27 on bottom) showing the fantastic sambar stag grips I found on gunbroker. Listed as "Sabre stage gripes", they were listed with an very low buy it now. Dyslexic seller = big score for me.  Sambar stag has really started to go up in price as the flow from India has virtually disappeared. Elk stag is nice (27 in the pic wearing elk stag) but the sambar is so rich it's on a different level.

The 38/44 is a strange bird. It's a .44 frame meant to shoot a high velocity .38 that was the predecessor to the .357. These days it's an anachronism, a huge revolver chambered in .38 special, who'd want to shoot that? I do, all the time in fact.