Fitting hand and cylinder bolt on S&W

[MR.G]

What is involved in fitting a new hand and cylinder on a S&W, L frame revolver ? I have no problem with removing and replacing the parts, but need to know what is involved with fitting the new ones.

 

[P95Carry]

I am not a smith Mr.G tho worked a lot on many of my guns ..... as i would see it .. the cyl bolt will be a direct swap ... assuming of course that it will fit in the notches ...... imagine it will.

The hand will hopefully be again a swap .. working on the premise that at the end of travel of the hand, the cyl will be far enough advanced to engage the cyl bolt .. thus timing is established. I guess there is an outside chance that a new hand might just be a tad longer than needed (hopefully not shorter) .... and so maybe a need to stone a thou or so off it. If it proved short because of wear on the cyl hand notches then not so sure!! Tho the inertia of a fairly ''brisk'' advance would usually take cyl round to its necessary lock up methinks.

I'll hope one of the ''pro's'' drops by and gives more info for you.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I've replaced a couple of Smith & Wesson bolts just by dropping in the new parts. The Brownells people seem to be able to keep the Smith & Wesson frames and parts straight. I haven't replaced a hand in quite a few years, but usually ordered standard and just dropped them in, checked them, and had good success. The one time I needed a slightly longer hand to accommodate a friend's worn star, Brownells had what I needed. I ended up having to shorten it a skosh, but that beat the socks off having to try to lengthen it.

 

[Jim K]

S&W parts are almost always a simple "drop in". Since the S&W hand (unlike the Colt) slips up past the ratchet rather than bearing on it, hand length is seldom critical where thickness and sideways movement are. Failure to lock up properly is more often due to a worn ratchet (extractor) than to a worn hand. I think Brownells sells extra thick hands but these must be carefully fitted.

Jim

 

[bountyhunter]

If the symptom problem you are trying to fix is due to carry up problems because wear in the frame slot is allowing the hand to slip off the star to early, a wider than standard hand might need to be fitted.

 

[Revolver Armorer]

call S&W

Believe me, you should call S&W Service. The problem is that doing the work with no training or knowledge creates more trouble. Hands are not fit and the process or ratchet fitting called "equalization" is quite complex.