S&W Model 17-4 binding up in DA

[absolute0]

I took my new S&W model 17-4 out to the range after work yesterday to check function and have a little fun. I was really looking forward to it, as this is my first S&W revolver and the model 17 comes so highly recommended.

I left disappointed, as I discovered 2 areas of concern:

1) I had a great many (maybe 1 round per cylinder) failures to fire. The firing pin was leaving a dimple in the primer, but the round(s) failed to go off. I tried a couple different brands of ammo, and had the same troubles with all. I was able to re-load and successfull fire all but 1 of the mis-fires.

2) The trigger/cylinder was binding up at times when shooting double action. The difficulty/bind up was happening about once ever cylinder fired, so it seems likely the same troublesome chamber was likely the culprit each time.

Are there any likely trouble spots that I (fairly handy but no gunsmith) can look at and possibly fix? Or would a better course of action be to bring her to a trusted Smithy for a full work over. I've never had trouble with one of my revolvers before so this is a new, not-so-fun experience for me


P.S. I love the way this revolver shoots! It feels great in the hand, has great ergonomics & trigger and I was shooting it better than my much loved Colt Diamondback. I wanna get this fixed!!!

 

[BigG]

Pop the extractor back and clean well underneath. You can blow it out with gunscrubber aerosol or similar. The extractor is also recessed for the cartridge rims and that needs to be clean. Probably the most common thing causing trouble with those finely made 22s is dirt. The cartridges need to go all the way in to the chambers or they will drag when you close the cylinder causing binding. HTH

 

[JoeHatley]

Double check that your strain screw is tight. If it shows signs of being shortened, replace it ($3 from www.brownells.com )

If your mainspring has been replaced, you may want to put a fresh full power factory one in. Also from Brownells.

Check to make sure the back of the barrel and front of the cylinder are REALLY clean. .22s build up fouling in these areas pretty fast and that will close up the barrel to cylinder gap, causing a hard double action pull.

Good Luck...

Joe

 

[absolute0]

Thanks Fellows!

I gave an extra good cleaning to the underside of the extractor & chamber recess areas and....~voila~....problem solved.

This gun just seems to ooze quality, when you work the hammer back in single action and feel the cylinder lock up tight. And the double action...it's even better than my Diamondback!

I put half a brick through her this morning without a hiccup....I think I'm in love

 

[Standing Wolf]

I gave an extra good cleaning to the underside of the extractor & chamber recess areas and....~voila~....problem solved.

I'd recommend stripping the gun all the way to the frame and cleaning it within a sixteenth of an inch of its life. If you've got a few trouble spots, there are probably more lurking out of sight. It's too fine a revolver not to take good care of.

 

[BigG]

Glad you could get that thing working. They are really beautiful pieces of machinery!

 

[thatguy]

In my experience about 98% of revolver malfunctions occur due to lack of proper cleaning. In 35 years of gun buying I have yet to buy a used gun that didn't need cleaning. I'd say 90% of gunowners do not do a torough job of cleaning revolvers.