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Practically Shooting

Colt Revolver Problem


Pablo

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My Colt Trooper Mark III started having an issue today at the range that I can not get to duplicate at home with snap caps, or nothing in the chambers.

When pulling the trigger in DA, or cocking the hammer in SA the cylinder (or something) hangs and the hammer will not pull back. If I gently rotate the cylinder, the hammer will pull back OK. It fires at that point fine. I can't spot anything externally that is hanging up.

Any clues?

One guy on a local board said:

"I had a Trooper that did something similar and it was found the cylinder pin was slightly bent causing it to hang up intermittantly."

Nothing bent that I can see.

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I was thinking maybe a timing issue, but if it does not happen with snap caps or from dry firing then perhaps it is the ammo? I would try some different ammo first.

I am assuming you have given the gun a thorough cleaning.

Yes and when I was cleaning the gun and while it was completely unlubed and still wet with M-pro 7 it would stick with no rounds in the chambers - almost every time. Interesting. So I cleaned it all up and blew it out with lube and it didn't happen again.... I did clean out the little cylinder well where the cylinder pin inserts...I wonder....no that couldn't be it. Something else is hanging up, the transfer bar maybe?

When it sticks it's not on the same chamber. Plus it happened with 4+ kinds of ammo.

Now this AM I messed with it for 10 minutes (just manually pulling the hammer back) and it happened once. When it's stuck I'm not observing what is hanging up.

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EDIT: I just read the first post instead of the most recent post. What I said below doesn't apply quite as well then. A burr on the same place could do it though.

Does it only do it if you cock it slowly? Or sort of slowly?

If it does, and only on one chamber, you may have a worn "nub" or "tooth" on the cylinder ratchet (the part on the ejector star the hand pushes against to rotate it). If each chamber did it, it could be the hand or hand and ratchet, but one cylinder sounds like one tooth of the ratchet is worn.

At one time, this would have been not so big a deal, but Colt revolver parts are scarce now, if it is the ratchet, it will need replaced or welded up and re-cut.

For some reason, his first name escapes me, but _____Cunningham is a revolver smith who specializes in Colts. A search on his name and "revolver" should locate him. He would be my first pick, and is who I will send my two old Colt DAs to for a rebuild if I ever get to it.

Or you can just cock it sharply to get by.

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Only does it when I cock the hammer manually very quickly at this point. I cannot get it to replicate the problem pulling the trigger.

Here's what I did. I took the side plate off and while holding the pinned hand and trigger blocker bar observed the action. Very cool. I love this kind of stuff. It was clean in there, but I could see why just squirting some lube in may not get to the most critical movement points. I took a few parts out, cleaned the pins and holes and carefully lubed and reassembled. The action is super smooth now and it seems like I'm moving in the right direction.

I ordered "The Colt Double Action Revolvers: A Shop Manual Volume 2" Book by Jerry Kuhnhausen. I'll see where I get out of that.

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At the risk of sounding like a repetitious nut job, I think I cured the problem. The only way I can make it happen is an unnatural action, that is thumbing the hammer partially like a maniac a few hundred times and even then it finally kinda partially catches and never really sticks. If I thumb the hammer back to full cocked position, it doesn't happen.

I'm ready to take it out to the range again.

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