Why not flick cylinder closed?

bender, kinda like a pool cue. with the cylinder out, rotate it and check for ejector rod woble. and visa versa rotate (not fast) the ejector rod and look for cylinder wobble. also see here for other revolver check out procedures. also, the crane should rotate smoothly with no play in the frame, in and out or side to side.

jakk20rem,

and what do you do about yoke endshake, say a thou or two?
assuming you've already got the gun.

-Daizee

hhhmmmm I've definitely never done it..... ok maybe I did. Relatively new gun, thought it couldn't be good but definitely couldn't help myself. Anyone know the likely hood of damage if this has been done maybe 2 dozens times? Knew I should have stuck to auto loaders! Naw, love my 442!

Actually the centerpin and ejector rod are most suseptable to damage from this practice and they can be replaced. A bent yoke is more expensive to fix and requires a gunsmith.

Do you pick you dog up by its hind leg?

Dont flick the cylinder closed.

Unless I have to reload RIGHT NOW and one of my hands is broken, I'm not flicking the cylinder open or closed.

Because the ghosts of Samuel Colt, Dean Wesson and Horace Smith kill a kitten every time you do it.

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Who's Dean Wesson?

testing

to check for this situation, open cylinder and make sure it's unloaded. then pointing in a safe direction place your index finger at the front of the crane, on the junction of the crane and frame, just under the ejector rod or ejector rod shroud if so equipped. then dry fire it double action, if you feel movement at this joint, the crane is bent. and no , dry firing will not hurt a good revolver in any way. competition shooters dry fire thousands of times.

In a slightly related topic, why is it bad to pull the hammer back slightly and spin the cylinder? I know it's awful to do to the revo, but why?

The reason that you don't do this is because unless the cylinder stop is fully depressed, you'll end up with it dragging against the cylinder, leaving a drag mark around the circumference of the cylinder. With single action revolvers, there is a half-cock notch, and when the hammer is in the half-cock position, the cylinder stop is fully depressed. Double action revolvers, however, have no half-cock notch, so when you just pull the hammer back part way, you really have no assurance that the cylinder stop is fully depressed, and may very well end up with a drag mark around the cylinder. A drag mark like that usually indicates that the gun is not timed properly or that it has been handled by an idiot.

had a buddy w/ a new smith and wesson 625(?)Michulek version bring one to show everyone.Another guy who has been shooting for years and should know better,slapped it closed....he almost got slapped himself.If you want to beat your gun up,go ahead,but I always try and respect other peoples guns.I usually even before I dry fire them.

Don't know if it has been mentioned or not, but a bent yolk from "bogarting" a cylinder can cause misalignment of the cylinder to the forcing cone. If it is misaligned enough, you will have a lead spitter on your hands. Not to mention accuracy will suffer, as the bullet will shave itself a bit on one side.

As others have said, if it is bent badly enough the cylinder won't even rotate, assuming you can even get the yolk/cylinder assembly closed at all.

Went to the range yesterday with my sp-101 and brand new 686. My friend tried to flick it 2-3 times on both revolvers. I then told him not to do it. Whats the possiblility of damage?

Jack

Used to be, you could just look at the frame / crane joint on a S&W and tell if the crane was sprung. They were so well fitted that you could hardly see the gap.

Now, they make them with a crack big enough to stick your fingernail in!

rc

What about the ejector rod and the rod (whatever its name is) that runs down the center of the cylinder? Can that assembly get bent right where the cylinder contacts the yoke, leaving an off center cylinder?

Yes, it could get bent, but probably not from flicking the cylinder closed.

The rear locking pin would engage the recoil shield hole at the same time the crane slammed into the frame, so the rear of the cylinder would be stopped at the same time as the front.

It will eventually beat out the hole in the recoil shield & loosen the gun up however.

rc

So could any of this damage cause the stop to get hung up on one of the cylinder notches (not clear it in time to rotate smoothly), creating a heavy and jerky trigger pull? So you get five "normal trigger pulls and one or two adjacent "unusual" ones..

In a slightly related topic, why is it bad to pull the hammer back slightly and spin the cylinder? I know it's awful to do to the revo, but why?

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I have seen a great number of NRA action shooters do this after every reload, to ensure that the cylinder will not drag during the string. Yes, it makes a line on the cylinder, but this does not affect the functionality of the gun in any way. And on a stainless competition gun that sees 100,000 rounds a year and already looks like hell, nobody cares.

But try it on that blued, unfired collectible S&W and the owner may well smack you for it.

although I may I have heard my sisters cousins uncles brothers roommates pizza delivery guy mention bogarting the bong once or twice...

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Bogarting has a completely different meaning when applied to cannabis or paraphernalia...

Bogart (noun): A very long inhalation of smoke, particularly marijuana.

Bogart (verb): To selfishly take or keep something; to hog; especially to hold a joint (marijuana) dangling between the lips instead of passing it on.

"Flicking" the cylinder shut will bend the crane. That's the thick metal thing that swings out, holding the ejector rod, rod shroud and cylinder. Bend the crane and wreck the charge hole-to-forcing cone alignment. "Flicking" the cylinder open/shut like you see in the movies is the mark of someone with poor handling skills. It ain't cool to wreck a revolver in such a fashion.

This is one of those things where it may or may not do any damage. It all depends on how hard the person flicks it. Done just right so there is just enough force to slide into place and stop the travel just as the cylinder pin snaps into place there would be no damage at all. But good luck on THAT count. Most folks that flick the cylinder into place do so with gusto to feel the cylinder SLAM in their hand and THAT means a lot of left over force to do the damage so often mentioned above.

Design wise the typical double action swing out crane and cylinder pivots is not all that tough. In fact it really is a tradeoff in a lot of ways. It's not intended to be abused and won't tolerate much unknowing ignorance or determined stupidity.

Because it is what idiots do. Want to be one of them? Carry on.

This is one of those things where it may or may not do any damage.

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Yeah, just like shooting yourself in the head with a blank.
Go for it.

Also, bad for the yoke. I've several times turned away used revolvers because I saw the previous owner flick it shut.

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It kept me from buying a brand new $900 gun a few days ago when I handed it back to the guy behind the counter and was moments from saying "I'll take it" when he flicked the cylinder closed. Ouch. I decided to look at a few more and he did the same to all of them. I had to ask myself how many times he had done that when showing revolvers and how many times for the particular gun I wanted. I passed on it, figuring I'll find another one elsewhere.

And flicking it closed may not bend the crane but may bend the locking pin and a handful of other internal parts including the pawl. The first S&W I bought was a Mod. 65-6, and the cylinder release felt odd--like it was sticky. I tried a couple of other S&W's and they also felt a bit odd so I figured it was because I was used to Colts. This was a used gun, and I got it home and tried firing it with snap caps and the cylinder would hang up from time to time and refuse to open. I tried firing the gun with different weight bullets, same deal---sometimes the cylinder would release, sometimes it wouldn't but the gun would always fire.

I took it to a master gunsmith that lives locally to have him look at it. He said somebody had been flicking the cylinder shut hanging up the locking rod and bending/stressing other internal parts. Somebody had also been fanning the hammer, another thing you should not do to a double action revolver. I was patient and he took his time fixing the gun better than new, but it took quite a bit of work. Learn your weapons and how to handle them! And don't take lessons from Hollyweird!! :banghead:

Somebody had also been fanning the hammer, another thing you should not do to a double action revolver.

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What's "fanning the hammer"?