[lee n. field]

First time poster cuz i am rather upset about what happened last weekend. I was shooting some 38 special shells through the Rossi 357 snubnose (model 46202) and the hammer entirely jammed. It wouldn't go forward or backward- acting almost like the safety was engaged (but it wasn't).

There is no manual safety to engage.

At this point, I decided the gun needed to go back to Rossi under their limited lifetime warranty. I discovered that both UPS and Fedex will only ship handguns via overnight shipping and the USPS is an absolute no-go. The cost to ship the gun back was $80. I called Braztech/Rossi/Taurus to complain and they offered to sell me a pre-paid label using their discount so shipping was "only" $50.

Everyone has to do that. Welcome to the world of handgun warranty service. Most vendors will have a way of covering shipping.

I shipped a gun back to Charter Arms this past summer. They sent me a UPS pickup tag ("warranty -- machine parts" or some such ). I had the gun back, fixed, inside of 2 weeks. The service experience was painless. Because of that, I contemplate getting another Charter, even though the gun itself is "functional but rough".

I removed the grips and started to loosen the screws on the side plate of the gun and the hammer popped free (sorta). It was still unreasonably stiff so I took the sideplate all the way off. Upon a very close inspection around the hammer, I noticed a wire about the size of a lightbulb filament wire that had lodged between the hammer and the side of the gun. The end of the wire was coiled like a spring.

I'm wondering if popping the sideplate didn't help dislodge it.

The description has me wondering. Springs inside a revolver tend to be fairly stout, and coiled the whole way. I'm wondering if this wasn't some bit of random trash that fell in past the hammer. (I had that happen once -- my fault.)

I purchased a revolver because: 1) I want a simple gun that my wife can use if she wants. She has no interest in going to the range to practice shooting. She wants something she can just pull the trigger for self defense; and 2) I want reliable! If I ever find myself in a situation that I must use the gun to protect myself or my family, failure to fire every shot in the gun is not acceptable.

Once it comes back, make sure the sideplate screws are snug, then run a bunch of rounds through it. Run through Jim March's revolver checkout procedure. If no problem, call it good.