SAA clone repair in .44 mag

[Robk13]

Hello all, I finally made it to the range this weekend. All and all it want well, I took along my truck gun to stay in tune with it. It is an EAA bounty Hunter .44 mag made in Germany. I bought it brand new in 2013 and it's been great for about 400 rounds of special and full power magnums.

I believe something gave loose today when shooting the beast. It will now cycle when pointed at the ground but when pointing upwards it will fail to cycle the cylinder. If I point it directly in front of myself it will cycle, only when pointed up will it not cycle completely.

Can any single action guys help me out? Any advice is appreciated!

 

[ontarget]

You have a broken hand spring.

 

[Heir Kommt Die Sonne]

The hand isn't fully engaging the cylinder, is my guess. Actually had a similiar issue with a EAA bounty hunter a few years back, seemed to work just after it was cleaned.

In any case, just get a new hand spring or a new hand entirely

 

[Kp321]

Broken hand spring. Very common in SAA clones that stayed with the flat spring on the hand. Some went to a coil spring through the back of the frame, held in by the back strap for that reason.

 

[Robk13]

Okay so I got it stripped and the hand spring wasn't broken but had come out of the groove in the hand! It was tight as hell to get that spring back into the groove but it's snug and in there now.

I might order another hand and spring to have on hand. I also noticed that when I spin the cylinder manually it has a hell of a lot more positive click.

 

[Robk13]

This thing was tough to get back together, I'm still not sure how it came apart in the first place?

 

[Robk13]

Also thanks to everyone for the posts and feedback, if it wasn't for your responses I would not have stripped it and inspected the hand!

 

[J-Bar]

That is the reason Ruger used a coil spring and plunger instead of a flat hand spring in their single action revolvers. Some folks replace the old style flat spring by drilling a hole in the frame and installing a Ruger spring and plunger. The flat spring can also be replaced with a virtually unbreakable piece of spring wire. After a flat spring misbehaves a few times, especially during competition, you might want to consider one of those other options. Some individual guns seem to break hand springs more often than others. Here’s hoping yours lasts a while.