Making them last

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John Joseph

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My two revolvers are important to me and so I want to make them last. I store them without holsters plastic boxes or pistol rugs so air freely circulates without trapping moisture. Besides regular, careful cleaning, lightly lubing, avoiding Magnum and +P ammo and shooting lead, what other practices will contribute to longevity?This for a "N" and a "J" frame.
 
Keeping them in the dark, at the back of a safe makes them last a very long time but they are not that much fun except to the guy or gal that gets to play with them after you die and they sell for what you told your wife you paid for them.

If you don't try and hurt them, they can last many thousands of rounds without any problems. I would even wager that more guns are harmed by people trying to detail strip them or otherwise "help" them or make them better than if they were just oiled.
 
It sounds like you aren't abusing them, so they should last a lifetime or two even with some regular use.

Like any machine they are subject to wear, but you seem to be limiting the amount they are exposed to. They are built to shoot, so the softball rounds you are using should let them work properly for thousands of rounds.

Enjoy them!! Handle them, shoot them, take care of them, and then pass them on when you cant shoot them anymore.
 
About all I do is wipe them down with an oily rag or piece of sheepskin before storing them. I rarely clean, and shoot all the magnum ammo I want out of magnum guns.
This one is a 1974 and still runs like a Swiss watch.
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A oily rag wipe down and it looks like 1974 all over again. Here it with it's older well worn sister from 1963

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I lightly oil my guns, wrap them with a silicone cloth rag, and store them in a padded rug inside a gun safe. Never a problem with moisture or rust and the guns are well protected from any contact with any other guns in the safe.
 
While I take care of my guns, I also shoot them extensively with the ammo for which they are intended. If I didn't wanna shoot magnum ammo from them I wouldn't have bought a "magnum" framed firearm. If they wear out, they wear out........just they cost of doing business, and they always make more.(unless it's a collector type gun, but that's not what we are talkin' about here). Many of my S&W revolvers are recent, bought new by me and covered under their lifetime warranty.
 
Keeping them in the dark, at the back of a safe makes them last a very long time but they are not that much fun except to the guy or gal that gets to play with them after you die and they sell for what you told your wife you paid for them.

If you don't try and hurt them, they can last many thousands of rounds without any problems. I would even wager that more guns are harmed by people trying to detail strip them or otherwise "help" them or make them better than if they were just oiled.
 
My two revolvers are important to me and so I want to make them last. I store them without holsters plastic boxes or pistol rugs so air freely circulates without trapping moisture. Besides regular, careful cleaning, lightly lubing, avoiding Magnum and +P ammo and shooting lead, what other practices will contribute to longevity?This for a "N" and a "J" frame.
I've been taking care and open air storing my guns the in the safe the exact same way as you for the last twenty years without any problems. Except, I don't avoid magnum rounds. I think its the way to go.
 
Next to none of mine are in "open air" in my safes. The long guns are in socks. The handguns are in original boxes, socks, or wrapped in an oily cloth and then put in a rug. I also have had 20+ years of problem free storage.
 
I keep my revolvers clean, lubed and wiped down with a silicone cloth. Not a speck of rust and only normal wear after decades of use. Don't worry about shooting lead. I've put uncounted thousands of lead bullets down the barrels of N and K frame S&Ws without a problem. I reload for all my centerfire handguns and tend toward medium power levels not to 'spare' the guns but because they are often more accurate and certainly more comfortable to shoot. These are superb tools: meant to used and enjoyed for many years with a little maintenance.

Jeff
 
Alot of fast DA shooting can peen the stop notches, especially on a gun with a big cylinder due to all the rotating mass coming to a quick stop on that small notch.

That can cause timing and lock up issues in extreme cases.
 
At a local Bullseye match I talked to two Master Class shooters who shot an amazing number of rounds through revolvers. One was a 10 times PPC National Champion. The PPC Champ estimated he had 750,000 rounds through a S&W K frame, the other shooter, about 250,000 through his revolver. The predominant 38 Special round fired was a 148 HBWC with 2.7 grains Bullseye. However, the PPC Champ said there was a time when he had to shoot 125 grain bullets that made major. That would crack the forcing cone of a K frame barrel. The L frame revolver barrel did not have that problem. Barrels seemed to last forever as long as you are shooting low pressure loads with lead bullets.

But, both of the shooters had to replace extractor stars, cylinder hands. These wear probably due to the load imparted on the extractor star to the cylinder hand at the moment of cartridge ignition. I got the idea that extractor stars are fairly soft steel anyway. Colt revolvers got out of time much quicker than S&W, which more or less validated what I had heard from other shooters. Colt revolvers, the hammer falls just at lockup, S&W fall just after lockup.The Colt is out of time sooner with the same amount of wear. Makes sense to me. The PPC shooter had a firing pin break. Hey, stuff happens.

I don't know the lifetime of frames and cylinders but all structures are designed to a finite number of cycles of use. How revolvers were designed previous to CAD/CAM software, I don't know. Load paths would have been determined, simple shear calculations would have been done, rudimentary safety factors, maybe estimates of fatigue lifetimes based on very limited information. That is what I think they did. It is possible manufacturer's did less. Today you can model everything and see dynamically what is going on during ignition, get an idea of predicted load, and build up, or take material away, from parts. Modern cylinders are still designed to a load (pressure times surface area) , the frame would be designed to support the load imparted by the case head (pressure times surface area), but the ability to model and see stress concentrations is incredibly advanced compared to the 1990's. And we had spread sheets in the mid 1990's, but it was late stone age in terms of software. Maybe early iron age. The legacy revolvers that date back to the early 1900's or pre WW2, that was the stone age.

This is worth reading to have an idea of fatigue lifetime:

Fatique Life of 4140 steel

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?150409-Ruger-om-44-convertible&highlight=convertible

Just a few thoughts on this. For Background I am a mechanical engineer with a heavy background in failure and fatigue.

I wonder if I could request a high quality photo of the fracture zone of the cylinder? I am specifically interested in the grain structure of the bolt notches.

I put fort the following.

1) Firearms in general (the type we plebeians can get our mits one) are not designed for infinite fatigue life.

2) The Factors of safety used in firearms design are in line with low end of fatigue requirements (usually less than 10,000 cycles).

3) One of the funny things about fatigue is that each time you push the material past its original design point, you lower its expected life.

4) I am looking at this as an older gun with an unknown number of rounds through it. but based on its age a substantial round count seems likely.

5) When these firearms are designed it is generally preferable for something else to go before the cylinder lets go and takes the top strap. Generally this takes the form of the gun wearing loose or the barrel wearing out. But they are designed to handle X rounds at standard pressures.

6) I see alot of folks calculate the strengths of Rugers, but these calculations are only ever performing an evaluation on a straight static pressure basis. This is wrong when trying to determine if a load is safe.
I attached a couple of marked up figures for your perusal

It is very interesting to see a reasonable blowup period of around 650 rounds if you fire over pressure rounds. Reloaders should understand that when they over load a structure beyond its design limits, the lifetime of that structure is dramatically reduced. When ever you read about some "Gunsmith" chambering a WW1 era Mauser in a modern belted magnum, you ought to know, the action was not designed for that load. Typically that belted magnum is operating above the proof pressures of the vintage action. "Gunsmiths" and owners of these claim that nothing bad has happened, but if you can get coherent information out of them, you find that maybe these rifles have fired 200 rounds since the conversion. I predict, get these characters to shoot enough rounds to burn out the barrel, sometime on that path will be a catastrophic receiver failure.

Basically, the conclusion of this rant, is if you want your revolver to last, shoot light loads. Light loads will stress the mechanism less. Expect to replace springs, screws may fall out, on aluminum frame revolvers, the frame will crack in time. Aluminum has a finite fatigue life, the lighter the load used, the longer the frame will last. If you ever shoot hundreds of thousands of rounds, the ammunition cost will be several times the price of the revolver, so, replacing the revolver won't seem too costly.
 
Looks like you do everything right for longevity. I would handle, shoot and otherwise enjoy your revolvers. Even if a loved one places them in your casket and you "take them with you", I would imagine it is pretty dark down there with not a lot of room to move around to get in a proper shooting position. Most of us move thru life with a tainted priority list because we forget that this party will end - find an heir that cherishes your pieces for the same reasons that you do - I'll bet that none exist. Enjoy your nice revolvers and good shooting.
 
For semi-long term storage, (3 - 12) months. Wipe revolver down with silicon cloth, place in a silicon treated Crown Royal bag with silica packs. Then put bag into a silicon treated gun rug, which also contains silica packs. I've used this method for a number of years and never had a problem with rust.

As for care, shoot all the sane loads you want to, then clean well after shooting.
 
." If you ever shoot hundreds of thousands of rounds, the ammunition cost will be several times the price of the revolver, so, replacing the revolver won't seem too costly"
And there is the rub---in CA the ability to replace any handgun is severely limited by what's available on the State DOJ Roster. Since my main reason for keeping my guns is for HD, I want to be assured they will be here when I need them, hence my interest in keeping them working reliably for as long as possible.
 
My two revolvers are important to me and so I want to make them last. I store them without holsters plastic boxes or pistol rugs so air freely circulates without trapping moisture. Besides regular, careful cleaning, lightly lubing, avoiding Magnum and +P ammo and shooting lead, what other practices will contribute to longevity?This for a "N" and a "J" frame.
You will be long dead before those revolvers are wore out.
Shoot em, Clean em, repeat.
 
Not trying to be offensive but not shooting Magnum ammo in a Model 28 seems like some kind of sacrilege. Unless you hand load into the red zone Magnum ammunition will not hurt your Highway Patrolman.

My $.02 worth,
Dave
 
About all I do is wipe them down with an oily rag or piece of sheepskin before storing them. I rarely clean, and shoot all the magnum ammo I want out of magnum guns.
This one is a 1974 and still runs like a Swiss watch.
That looks like a serious case of what I call "Unique Hand." With snubnoses, I get that clear up onto my forearm. :)
 
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