Toolguy

It depends on your particular gun. Due to manufacturing variations, some are OK and some aren't. You can put an O ring over the firing pin so the hammer hits it, to dry fire. A 3/16 Id and 5/16 OD made of rubber or silicone works well. A small, pointy pair of tweezers is helpful to get it in and out. Don't forget to remove it before shooting.

For future reference, that is called the center pin.

No - that is something else. BTW - The hand won't bend, but it's pivot pin will. If you leave it on the trigger, you can usually bend it over very slightly.

Yes, that is usually the situation. When all chambers have late timing, the hand is probably too thin. A wider hand will make it lock up sooner. When one or two chambers are late and the rest are OK, it is usually the ratchets related to those chambers that are different from the others. In that case, you can peen the offending ones to make them wider towards the hand, or get a new extractor (with new ratchets on it). Working on the ratchets is the most fiddly part of revolver work. It's easy to mess them up so they don't work at all. It's best not to mess with them if at all possible unless you are already experienced at it. Experience is what you get right after you need it. Sometimes you can bend the hand inward (towards the center pin of the cylinder) slightly to advance the timing.

Could be a worn ratchet on the late one. Hard to diagnose some of these things long distance.

Thanks for the good word, Gene. I'm glad the hammer is working out for you.

The ejector rod doesn't have enough runout to matter. It's straighter than a lot of them. If there was a bulge in the crane barrel that was causing a problem, it would have a shiny spot where it was rubbing. You can smooth out the roughness on the crane barrel by holding the front part in a vise and using some fine emery cloth in a shoe shine manner on the crane barrel. I would go with 400 grit or finer.

The name Brian Enos seems vaguely familiar for some reason...

You could probably find out a lot more with more pictures of the details on the S&W Forum at smith-wessonforum.com. I would put it in the 1896-1961 forum.

That worked. Thanks!

What's the website? When I try www.icore.com I get Vonage.

I like Jet the best. I have a bunch of Comp 1,2,and 3 and one Jet. I had the Safariland ones first and like them too, but they seem to wear out over time. Also, the Jet one seems to have a more positive latch and launches the ammo into the gun. I never could seem to find any more Jets. I'll use the Safari ones till they crap out. They are still working after 30+ years. Never had SL Variant, so don't know anything about them.

YAY!!!

We are looking forward to seeing all our friends that we only get to be with once a year. To us, it's kind of like a family reunion with the Bianchi Cup family.

Great review. Thanks! I think you will really enjoy shooting that one for years to come.

Try out the parts first. Sometimes they don't need to be fitted. If it doesn't work right, then see about getting help. I have since changed mine back to a 10 shot, trading back to the original parts. Ten shots are more fun than 6. Now I just need to figure out a 10 shot 627.

Mine is .357.

Lots of good advice in this thread. A lot of it just seems like common sense, but it can be hard to come up with these things on your own. Networking like this is a valuable resource.

The extractor pins and gas ring are for older models. You don't need those. The cylinder should come with an extractor, but it never hurts to have an extra.

You would have to roll size the brass every time to get it to fit a 627. At least that was my experience using the size dies I have. It bulges the brass pretty good.

Yes. Same yoke. All I have to do is trade cylinders. It's about a 2 minute changeover. I expect they are standardizing things between the 929 and 627. It would make sense to do that. Older ones might need more fitting. The cylinder isn't that much shorter. A full length 38 Special works fine with any (normal) bullet.

I faced off the front on the lathe and fit the cylinder gap to the barrel and the cylinder to the crane. The headspace stays the same on the back side.

I like to keep it simple. I shoot mostly As as fast as I can, and don't worry about how anyone else is doing. You're more likely to crash and burn trying to keep up with someone of a higher skill level. You can only accurately go as fast as YOUR current skill level. I'm nowhere near the top guys, so just shoot my own game, and that's the best I'll do.

I fitted a 627 cylinder to my 929. Didn't seem that big a deal. Now I can shoot 9mm or 38 out of it just by trading cylinders. I never have shot 9mm in it yet, but it works fine with 38s.

The 1st hammer is an early forged one before they had the MIM hammers up and running. It looks like the mainspring isn't contacting the stirrup on that one????