Quote:
|
Over the years a major cause of failure to function of my S&W revolvers is the loosening of the ejector rod. It is a well known problem with S&W revolvers and most with a S&W revolver have experienced it. Do we see thousands of threads over the years on gun forums with folks claiming they'll never own one because of the possibility of their gun locking up? Now I ask, how many folks with a S&W revolver with an IL have had it lock up on it's own? Still, every time S&W and revolver is mentioned in a thread, folks jump outta their chair and beat on their chest about the lock failing.
|
I'll quote this for two reasons. One -- so that it gets seen & read
again because it's a phenomenal point. And secondly... to expand on it.
I had a very sweet Model 19-4, 1977 production year, IIRC, and on one range session (58 shots through it that day), it -STOPPED-
It was extremely difficult to even open the cylinder, but I managed to unload the revolver. Couldn't figure out what on Earth was wrong, so I packed it away and went about the range day with other guns.
Got it home an eventually figured out that it was a two-way combination of a loosened ejector rod and some gunk under the extractor star. But the revolver was
DEAD on the range, out of service, no way in heck it was going to keep shooting and if it were a fight and not a pretty Saturday afternoon bunch of shooting, this (very nice, mind you) Model 19-4 would have been a club and nothing more.
It wasn't just "not working", it was -SO- "not working" that I was afraid it was seriously broken on the inside. It was a lousy feeling until I searched for a little help and figured out how to get it rolling again.
These revolvers are absolutely precision machines and the tolerances are very small. A lot of small parts working in a very defined path of motion. I can't help but remember the way this revolver
STOPPED dead on the range and the small bits I had to take apart and address (at home, in a well-lit work space) to make the revolver happy again, and it is
this personal experience that I think of as if it were yesterday every time I see someone beating the same old tired drum about how revolvers "always go bang", blah blah blah, etc etc etc.
I -love- revolvers and I have a slew of 'em and I wouldn't ever give 'em up. I don't happen to carry a revolver, but I certainly would. But the idea that revolvers "always work" while semi-autos have a litany of issues is nonsense.
And
buck460XVR's assertion that you might just as well see your ejector loosen up as your S&W's ILS locking up on it's own (if not more so) are SPOT-ON. And if that somehow WERE to happen, a quick twist of that key and your revolver is back to normal, but tightening a loosened ejector rod (or worse, crust/crap under the ejector star) is a problem you aren't going to fix quickly, even if you're astute enough to recognize the stoppage.