Need help - S&W M65 hard to open on one cylinder

[Trebor]

I just bought a customized Smith M 65-3 from Makarov.com. I didn't notice it at first, but it is very hard (almost impossible) to open the cylinder when a specific chamber is lined up. I also noticed that when the cylinder is open, there is more back and forth play of the whole cylinder assembly then in my other revolvers.

I'm going to give Karl and George at Mak.com a call when they open. Any ideas on what might be wrong?

 

[farscott]

Someone else on the board had a similar problem with hard opening on certain chamber with an S&W revolver and the cause was the ejector rod unscrewing. You might want to check this, remembering that it has a left-hand thread.

 

[BluesBear]

Usually a loose ejector rod makes it difficult to open at any position.
But it is something to check first as it's a common ailment with S&Ws.

I had a problem similar to this with my S&W 544. Sometime when I tried to open the cylinder it was difficult but if I rotated the cylinder 1 or 2 chambers it was easier.

The problem turned out to be the center pin. That's the pin that runs through the center of the ejector rod and cylinder star. It wasn't uniformly rounded at the breech end. The portion of the pin that was properly rounded was easy to open but the blunter portion caused it to bind.

I lightly stoned the blunt portion to match the rest and it smoothed everything up nicely. A few more passes with the stone around the entire radius and the difference is like night and day.

Of course it could be something else in your case.

I also used a ball cutter for my Dremel rotated between my fingers to break the edges of the latch hole in the breech face. This helped immensely as well.

 

[Trebor]

Turns out the ejector rod was bent. I didn't catch it myself, but it was obvious once the gunsmith pointed it out. It wobbled when spun.

The Gander Mountain gunsmith will fix it and George at Mak.com agreed to reimburse me for the repair. They were great about the whole thing. Nice to see good customer service from a vendor.

I'll update when I get it back in a couple days.

 

[WT]

Maybe the previous owner smacked somebody upside the head.

The M65 is an outstanding firearm. Congrats on your purchase.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Sorry I came too late. The ejector rod is a home fix job. You remove the cylinder & ejector rod and tap lightly on the rod with a mallet.