Parts breakage on revolvers.

[bernie]

I was driving down the road and thinking about how I consider revolvers a little more "durable" than an autoloader. I have owned and shot both revolvers and autos, I have never replaced a part on a revolver but have had to repair autoloaders. Have any of you had a revolver break on you? What model and what was the part. Just curious.

 

[C.R.Sam]

Replaced the "floating" hand on a 686 that was used for very rapid fire demos and practice. Did the hand bout every 10,000 rounds. Gun lasted for 30,000 rounds fired and nuther 30,000 rounds worth of loading drills.
Two years.

When shooting target, would do preventive maint every year.
Never had a part failure on a blued Smith.

Did have a 696 come apart at around 800 rounds. Replaced under warrenty.

Have put a few hundred thousand rounds through real 1911A1s with no breakage. Again, annual preventive maint.

Pardini got a new firing pin every year, about 75,000 rds. Lasted three years and sold it running well.

Sam

 

[P95Carry]

This shouldn't really count!! Uberti repro cap and ball Colt 1861 .44 cal ....... hand needed replaced..... part of face came off and cyl rotation became real ''iffy'' .... but then it was never likely that these had real good materials in em anyways!

 

[Jim K]

I have had fewer parts breakages on revolvers, but they were more likely to be totally disabling and not field repairable. Worst case was a Colt OP hammer that broke across the thin part, and a S&W hammer pin that broke in dry firing. Both required shop work to fix. I have had parts fail on auto loaders, but none as devastating or as hard to repair. Mostly either the gun continued to work or the part could be easily replaced.

Jim

 

[4v50 Gary]

Concur with Jim...

I replaced the nylon inserts on the thumbpiece (cylinder release) on a couple of Colt Pythons. Also replaced & fitted a hammer on a Python (someone bobbed it). I've also fitted a new hand in an older Colt (pre-Python lockwork). Fitted a bolt (cylinder stop) on an older Colt Official Police too. Now with exception of the Pythons, these were older guns that had seen hard service.

On S&W, I've replaced several cylinder stop springs. I've fitted a sear or two. Stretched a couple of yokes to remove the endshake too. Replaced the hammer on an old M-15 (ex-LAPD gun) to restore the DA feature. Replaced some rear sight blades (one half of the adjustable sight broke off on a couple of them due to neglect).

Overall, revolvers require less parts replacement than semis. Modern semi-automatic pistols tend to use roll pins and everytime you pop one out, you use a new one. The springs tend to be more fragile too. On revolvers, you tend to have coil springs (or on the Python, one big leaf spring). On pistols, there's quite a number of tiny elbow springs (trigger bar spring on some, hammer reset, trigger spring) that can be "tweaked" if careless.

 

[J Miller]

In all my revolvers I can remember only one time that a part "broke". That was the frame mounted fireing pin on an Interarms Virginian Dragoon. It had to go back to the factory for a fix.

Other than that, I've replaced and / or repaired worn parts.

 

[dfariswheel]

My experience over the years is about the same: Few revolver parts that legitimately break (not abused or altered by the owner) with most actual failures on autos.

My replacements usually ran to a very few broken Colt Mark III/King Cobra firing pins, Single Action Army mainsprings, an occasional S&W firing pin, and forcing cones cracked by extensive firing.

Most of my revolver replacements were to foreign and cheaper American revolvers.
Earlier Italian single actions tended to have soft parts and fragile springs, and cheaper American revolvers like Dan Wesson's showed up with odd-ball things like broken trigger or hammer pins, or cracked/chipped or soft hammer/trigger surfaces.

Usually the failures were of "bits and pieces" that were just defective from the factory, not to actual use or wear.

I suspect the reason autos fail more, is the higher operating stresses on the mechanism, and the use of stamped or fabricated parts.