Skipping chamber during rapid fire

[AustinMike]

Stupid revolver noob question... I've had troubles with occasionally skipping a chamber on my 625 in matches during rapid fire. I sat down to analyze this last night since I couldn't figure out what was going on during a match. I mostly shoot Glocks and what I'm doing is riding the trigger like I normally do to catch the Glock reset. So, I end up letting the trigger out enough that when I pull back again the cylinder spins, but the hammer stays down. Is this what ya'll mean by short stroking? Is there anything I should have looked at in the action or just shut up and dry fire more? I had my 'smith do a trigger job, but I'm not sure what the pull is on it. It's kind of middle of the road, I guess - heavy enough primer strikes that I'm not restricted to Federal only.

I searched and was still scratching my head, so apologies if this is covered somewhere and I'm missing it.

[Tom E]

Sounds painfully familiar.

Yes, you're not letting the trigger come quite far enough forward for the sear to engage. It comes down to a learning thing.

A stonger rebound spring can help if you trigger return is "mushy". Who ever did your "trigger job" may not have recut the ramp angles on the rebound slide and hammer that push the hammer back slightly as the trigger returns. This makes a big difference how the trigger returns.

Tom

[David Sinko]

For many years I shot nothing but revolvers and I never had trigger return issues, no matter how fast I shot. Then I did the unthinkable and bought a Glock (actually two of them). When I went back to my revolvers in a few matches I experienced what I thought was the hammer falling between the chambers and no marks on any primers. At first I thought it was a gun problem but then I have never been able to duplicate this phenomenon while practicing. I am now coming to the ugly conclusion that I am being ruined by the Glock trigger. I started shooting these autos just to have more competition but it seems it really isn't worth it in the long run. I'm beginning to think I should just stick with the revolver after all.

Dave Sinko

[JD45]

Years ago I first learned to shoot with revolvers. I didn't even own a single semi-auto. What you described was common for me. I had to conciously train my finger to almost leave the trigger.

Remembering some of the revolvers I used to own, a S&W M-10 and a Taurus M-66 did the skipping the most. I could make most of them skip if I tried. I believe that a great gunsmith could tune the reset enough to stop the problem. I remember one S&W M-586 that would seldom skip, you really had to work at it.

[revarmorer]

TOM....do you have any pictures of the ramp angle and hammer that you are talking about....Thanks...D

[Tom E]

Revarmorer,

Unfortunately no pics, but if you take off the sideplate and cycle the trigger you'll see how the "lumps" on the top of the rebound slide and on the bottom of the hammer cause the the hammer to move back as the trigger returns, giving the hammer block a space to move up into.

The height of these two "lumps" (anybody know what they're called?) controls how far back the hammer is moved. The angle of the front (muzzle is front) of the rebound slide lump and the rear of hammer lump controls how abruptly it moves.

Putting an extra angle (basically breaking the corner) on the top front corner of the slide lump and the bottom rear corner of the hammer lump allow the hammer to move more gently and allows a lghter rebound spring while maintaining crisp trigger return.

A .020" to .030" flat instead of the sharp factory corner is all it takes.

I was surprised Jerry's trigger job video didn't mention this.

Hope this makes sense, Tom

[Carmoney]

I always just buff the crap out of the rebound slide. Eliminating short-stroking is all about (1) getting used to shooting the wheelgun, and (2) making sure you don't have sluggish trigger rebound caused by a rebound spring that is too light or out of balance with the mainspring tension. As the mainspring tension comes down, so can the rebound spring tension come down along with it.