Is My Agent Out Of Time?

[Dave Dembinski]

Someone else recently took a long look at a Colt Agent I have and determined that it was out of time. He believed this because when you cock the hammer slowly by hand, the cylinder doesn't rotate far enough to lock up. This is true. However, I found that when you pull the trigger, it does finish rotating as the hammer falls, and there doesn't seem to be any problem in double action.

I've experienced no lead spraying or loss of accuracy, so what's the deal? Is this just the way Colt made these revolvers? I honestly almost never shoot it single-action, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was always this way and I just never noticed it.

 

[thatguy]

Yup. Needs a new hand fitted.

 

[Old Fuff]

Yup. Needs a new hand fitted.

Not necessarily. Failure of the cylinder to fully rotate between chambers, or "carry-up" can be caused by a number of factors. In any case, the hand is attached to the trigger, not the hammer - and as dogwielder noted, when the trigger is pulled the cylinder latches. If the failure to carry-up only happens when the hammer is slowly cocked there may be nothing to worry about at this point. If you are truly concerned return the revolver to Colt and have it checked out. It may well be that they make some minor adjustments, but don't replace any parts.

 

[jacobtowne]

Here's a procedure for examining a Colt's timing:

http://www.gunboards.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=124746

JT

 

[Dave Dembinski]

From that checkout document it looks like it is a little off, but considering I don't think there's a way to fire it without pulling the trigger (and aligning the cylinders) I'm going to just use and keep a sharp on it, see if it gets any worse.

Thanks for the info, gentlemen!

 

[Moonclip]

Colts sometimes just seem that way but are not really out of time. My agent did seem to be starting to develope those problems though and I ended up selling it off. Probably should not have as it was my sole Colt revolver but it was one of thos ugly 1982-86 things with the parkerized finish anyways. www.coltforum.com would be a good place to look for info on your problem.

 

[Big_R]

The only way to check cylinder timing is with a mandrel, not necessarily with the cylinder lock up. I'd take it to a smith with a set of those mandrels (most smiths have them). Basically, the smith will insert the mandrel into the barrel and check how each cylinder hole aligns with the barrel. This will show if it's a problem with the cylinder stop, hand, etc.

Ryan

 

[dfariswheel]

I think you mean cylinder ALIGNMENT not timing.

Cylinder alignment is how accurately the chambers line up with the bore.
This is checked with alignment gages, which are usually snug fitting rods inserted down the bore to gage how well each chamber is aligned.

TIMING is the sequence at which the action unlocks the cylinder, rotates it to the next chamber, and re-locks it.