Revolver cylinder locking up

[Capt. Ct.]

I took my Ruger LCR to the range last week and had a problem with four rounds of my .38 reloads. As I squeased the trigger the cylinder would not turn and the trigger would not move. I set these rounds to the side and the gun fired perfectly with other rounds. I put these rounds in a S&W and they all went perfectly. I am wondering if the primers were not in far enough or what? This is a carry gun. If I am going to have problems then it needs to go far far away. Any ideas as to why this happened? Thanks.

 

[Texan Scott]

what kind/ weight bullets did you use?
I have had this problem in a number of small, lightweight revolvers- ALWAYS (for me) the culprit was a heavy, soft (usually unjacketed lead) bullet with a weak crimp. As the bullet approaches max COAL and the bullet weight relative to gun weight increases, the bullets tend to work loose/ forward from their weak crimp under recoil and bind against the leading edge of the forcing cone and/or push the base into the rear shield (depending on how tight the bullet fit in the cylander's chamber throats). either way, the cylander stops rotating, which bolloxes up everything else upstream of the hand.

 

[Old Fuff]

Ruger doesn't warantee they're revolvers when used with handloaded/reloaded ammunition. Before making the gun go far,far away check to see if the problem was caused by the ammunition.

 

[mjsdwash]

is the OAL longer than the chamber, thats what is sounds like, or not fully seated primers, or something else. Seems like an ammo spec issue, if it works with other brands. Not a whole lot that can make a revolver jam up..

 

[FROGO207]

Another thing I would check is the thickness of the rim on the brass. If the back of the cylinder to rear shield gap is less than the brass thickness binding will occur. This as well as high primers can be discovered by rotating the cylinder 360* after loading to check for binding. My bet is the high primers route. You should be able to see where they bind by the scratches produced on the heads of the brass. One way to check is to rotate the cylinder 360* to check for binding if OK and then it binds after shooting around or two it is a crimp problem as stated by Texan Scott. I had a 45 Colt clone that the previous owner had dry fired a lot and the firing pin/hammer had pushed the area where the pin went through forward and would bind on the brass on my Starline brass reloads. You may need to put your detective hat on to figure out this one.

 

[Drail]

Sounds like bullets pulling forward from being fired in a flyweight revolver. Next time it happens keep the rounds involved and measure them against new rounds of the same type. I'm betting the ones that were in the cylinder when it locked up are longer. Lightweight revolvers work just like an inertial bullet puller. Crimping will not stop this. The case does not have enough neck tension to securely hold the bullet. The case was expanded too much for the bullet dia. This becoming very common with modern factory ammo.

 

[Capt. Ct.]

Thanks to all of you. I am ruling out the OAL as I check each round in a case gage after it is loaded. I still like the idea of primers that did not get seated deep enough. I took it to the range today and all went well. My main question is why those rounds would not function in the Ruger but worked great in the old model 12 Smith? Tolerances that much different? This is something that only happened one time before and that was years ago with my King Cobra. To have four rounds not work properly was upsetting.

 

[4v50 Gary]

I did the same and found out I wasn't releasing the trigger all the way.

 

[Old Fuff]

Case head to breech face clearence may be greater in the S&W then the Ruger.

To find out, load the chambers with decapped cases and use an ordinary feeler gauge to check the distance between the cartridge case and breech.

A high primer could cause the problem, and also cause a KABOOM! when two rounds went off at the same time. Set the loaded rounds down base-first on a flat surface and then see if any of them tend to rock or tip.