Just got off the phone with S&W customer support, I was told all is well and not to worry.
I'm surprised they told you that. One more example of the decline in quality at Smith and Wesson.
The mechanisms of Double Action and Single action revolvers are quite a bit different.
With a Single Action revolver, if you cock the hammer very slowly, ideally, the bolt (the spring loaded piece sticking up from the frame under the cylinder) will pop up into place into its locking slot in the cylinder at the exact same moment as the hammer goes to full cock. Sometimes you will find that the hammer goes to full cock just slightly before the bolt pops home into place. It is not ideal, but usually there is enough over travel in the hammer so that in normal operation the momentum of the cylinder will cause it to keep rotating to battery as you pull the hammer all the way back. This is fairly common. It is not ideal, but it is better than the opposite condition where the bolt pops into the locking slot
before the hammer goes to full cock. In this case, because the cylinder is locked into place, the hand (the piece behind the cylinder that shoves the cylinder around and pivots on the hammer) will prevent the hammer from rotating all the way back to full cock. In this case, you cannot operate the gun, because you cannot bring the gun to full cock. A bazillion years ago, when all revolvers were assembled by skilled assemblers, the parts would be carefully hand fitted (with files and stones) so the cylinder locked in place at the exact same time as the hammer went to full cock. Hand fitting parts that way was very expensive, so eventually Single Action revolver manufacturers fell back on the logic that it was better to rely on a little over travel of the hammer to bring the cylinder to battery, than have the hammer not be able to go to full cock. You will often find that with old Single Action revolvers that have been shot for many years, the hand, or the ratchet teeth on the rear of the cylinder, or both may have worn slightly so that the shooter has to rely on over travel of the hammer to bring the cylinder to battery. This can be fixed by a skilled gunsmith, but they are hard to find these days, and it will be expensive. Or you can just always make sure you give the hammer a good yank when you cock the gun.
Double Action revolvers (like your X frame revolvers) have a very different mechanism inside them. With a Smith and Wesson revolver, the cylinder should always lock up just before the hammer travels as far back as it is supposed to. Double Action or Single Action. If you cycle the gun very, very slowly, in double action mode (when you pull the trigger back all the way) the hammer will not move back quite as far before it falls as it will in Single Action mode (cocking the hammer manually). This is as it is supposed to be. It is part of the design of the mechanism. You can check this out for yourself by operating the gun very slowly and retarding the hammer fall with your thumb. But the cylinder of a S&W revolver should always lock into place ever so slightly before the hammer goes to full cock in Single Action mode, or it falls in Double Action mode.
The only reason this should not happen with a S&W Double Action revolver is if it is old, and there is wear in the moving parts. The amount of wear will depend on how much it has been shot over the years. Or how much it has been played with.
I buy lots of old revolvers. S&W Double Actions, and various old Single Action revolvers. When I am inspecting one the first thing I do,
after first making triple sure it is unloaded, is bring the hammer to full cock, then push forward against the hammer with my thumb. The hammer should NEVER push off and fall from full cock if the trigger is not touched. Never. If it does, the gun is unsafe. The next thing I do, and this applies to you, Is operate the mechanism very slowly, using the thumb of one hand to cause drag on the cylinder, while the thumb of the other hand controls the hammer so it does not fall all the way. With a Single Action revolver I can obviously only do this as I cock the hammer. With a Double Action revolver I do it in both modes. As I said earlier, with a Single Action revolver, it may require a very small amount of over travel of the hammer before the cylinder locks up. With a Double Action revolver, the cylinder should lock up just before the hammer either goes to full cock or falls.
With an old revolver, if the timing is not perfect, I will then make a judgement call on whether I can live with a revolver who's timing is slightly off from wear. In truth, in normal operation, the cylinder generates enough momentum as it spins to carry it all the way to the locked position. That is what S&W is counting on in your case. When you operate the gun the cylinder will continue spinning all the way to the locked position, and there will not be a problem. A brand-spanky new revolver that behaves like that would never have made it out the door many years ago when highly skilled assemblers were tuning the action before hardening and final assembly, and there were more in process inspection steps than there are today. I just grabbed a S&W 32-20 Hand Ejector made in 1916. The timing is still as perfect as the day it left the factory. I have others S&W revolver of the same general age that have a tiny bit of wear in the mechanism and if I operate them very slowly they might not go completely to battery before the hammer does its thing. But in every case, a nice strong yank on the hammer in Single Action mode, or a good strong pull of the trigger in Double Action mode will get them into battery properly. But before I reach for my wallet, I make sure I understand what is going on with each of them.
For the timing to be off on a brand-spanky new S&W is just wrong, one of the reasons I never buy brand new Smiths any more.
