Anybody looking for Skip Chambers?

[glockwerkes]

At the end of last season, Skip paid me a visit. Not wanting to get into it with him, I simply switched to my backup 625 which is identical except it's a -6 and the primary is a -8. Fast forward to two weeks ago. I figure with Nationals around the corner and my backup now my primary gun, I should do something about it. Upon investigation I discovered:

1. It only happens when I really crank on the trigger. Slow and medium splits are fine, no skipping.

2. My cylinder notches look like S&W subcontracted the machining of my cylinder to a cave of arms merchants in Pakistan. You could darn near trip over the raised up metal from the cylinder notches.

3. My endshake was about .008+

4. BC gap was non existant

So here's what I did:

1. Detail stripped, inspected, and cleaned everything

2. Dressed down the offending metal on the notches, making sure there was no little ramps or ridges on the lead in notches

3. Compared the cylinder stops between both, noting that both had about the same wear. A little flat topping on the radius of the stop.

4. Shimmed the cylinder to aleviate the end shake.

Everything went back together fine, so it was off to the range for some testing. Slow, medium, and fast pulls all went bang. Seemed the surgery was successful, so the next day I took it to a local match. Life was good until about the end of the fourth stage, which is when Skip showed up. I tanked the stage. Finished the match with no more hiccups. Attached is an image of the three off center strikes, from three different moons.

Here's the dilema: I leave for Nationals in five days (I'm shooting L10 for the first half), and I'm not sure which direction to go with it. Short of a miracle, I can't trust it for Nationals. I'll be using my backup. I want to fix, and do it right.

Do I:

1. New Ti or SS cylinder?

2. Toss the cylinder stop, even though it's only worn like the backup?

3. None of the above, go back to Glocks?

Any and all ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Rob

Edited October 3, 2010 by glockwerkes

[okc icore]

replace the cylinder stop and check to make sure that the cylinder does not have any damage to it i always replace the the stop before any match or about every 3000 rounds and i shot only ti cylinders

[Carmoney]

I'd recommend installing a new cylinder stop, and make sure you replace the cylinder stop spring while you're at it. Since you've already dressed down the little ledges at the bottom of the ramps, that should fix the problem.

Same exact thing happened to me at Area 3 this year. Switched to my backup gun, but it killed that stage for me. Gun is fine now--I will be shooting it at Nationals in a couple weeks.

[professor]

Same problem, and attempted to get a new cylinder stop from S&W. It's on backorder until ???. I think the most important thing I did was to take off the ridge that built up at the bottom of the ramp leading into the cylinder stop slot. In my case, the firing pin was hitting even further from the center of the shells, halfway between the primer and the edge of the shell.When I first looked at the offending moon clips, I didn't even see a hit, because the firing pin didn't come close to the primer. I hate to think what hitting that shell base brass is doing to my firing pin.

Ran a full match today [130 -140 rounds] without a skip. Yea! Still, I want to get another cylinder stop into the gun before Memphis.

Edited October 3, 2010 by professor

[Jaxshooter]

Have you tried Brownells then have all of the S&W parts in the back of the catalog.

[glockwerkes]

Weekend update:

Same behavior (I made no changes, so no surprise) as before, slow and medium splits just fine, anything faster and Skip shows up. At the end of last year it was doing what Professor reported, putting the FP impression cleverly hidden somewhere on the headstamp of the unfired cartridge. Thankfully my earlier repair attempt cured that.

OK, if someone more adept than me at ordering S&W small parts could confirm my choices, it would be greatly appreciated (Mike are you listening..hint...hint). These are what I found at Brownells:

1 ea. 940-215-080 Cylinder Stop, MIM Mfr. Part: 215080000

1 ea. 940-070-550 Cylinder Stop Spring Mfr. Part: 070550000

If anyone has any other advice on little things to pick up while I'm placing an order, that would be great.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in for me.

[Gregg K]

Those are the right part numbers for the cylinder stop and spring. I would order 2 of each since you will be throwing out the ones in the gun you won't have a spare for your range bag if you just order one.

[jjanglin]

Hey All:

Numrich gun parts has cylinders for the 625 and they have 627-4 cylinders also.

Jim/Pa

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