sleeve in one chamber in cylinder

[Smokin Gator]

I have a friend at work who has his father's S&W model 66. One of the chambers has what appears to be a steel sleeve inserted that prevents either a 38 special or 357 mag round from being chambered. The other chambers all have the normal cylinder throats. This one appears also to have the normal cylinder throat and then in front of it it looks like this steel sleeve was fitted. Someone else thought the chamber had not been fully reamed, but I don't think that's the problem.

Is this something that someone would do,possibly after identifying the least accurate chamber, to prevent use of that chamber? Would a bullseye shooter do this? If it's a sleeve, I figure a local smith could get it out. If it's some problem during manufacture, of course S&W should fix it. Any ideas? thanks, Mark

 

[rcmodel]

No idea.

It wasn't made that way though I betcha!
It could not have possibly made it out of the S&W factory in that condition.

Possibly a broken case stuck in the chamber??

At any rate, if you send it back to S&W, they will fix it.

What you got right now, that just ain't right!

rc

 

[BADUNAME37]

What are those people smoking?

Sorry, could not resist.
I cannot think of any reason there would be a sleeve or some blockage in any chambers of a revolver. I suppose the cylinder may not have been completed, however, that would most likely not get through QC. I suppose, if someone worked at S&W and had access to parts, they may have arranged to have a part walk home with them one day.

 

[Deaf Smith]

I suspect the 'sleeve' is just part of a case that separated from a round.

Called case head separation.

Wasn't there on purpose but the defective case split around the thin part of the cartridge and left a ring of itself in the chamber.

You might try getting a cleaning rod with a very thick brass brush and seeing if you can get the 'sleeve' to come out. If not by the brass brush itself heat the cylinder a bit with a flame and then try the brush, unloading the gun first of course!

Deaf.

 

[waidmann]

+1 Deaf Smith

 

[rcmodel]

heat the cylinder a bit with a flame and then try the brush

But not burn your fingers hot hopefully!


The Model 66 cylinder is heat-treated stainless steel.
So I'd go easy on the heat & flame.

Probably just some penetrating oil over-night, and then the bronze brush would work better anyway.

rc

 

[Lost Sheep]

Pictures? From the front AND from the back. If it is a separated cartridge we might be able to tell.

I had a friend (who really should have known better) ask me to load my Ruger Super Redhawk with only 5 rounds in the 6-chamber cylinder when I went to scout bear-baiting sites with him. He had bought into (rightly) the concept of leaving an empty chamber in a revolver to preclude accidental discharge from a drop and (wrongly) applied that reasoning to the Ruger which is immune to that happening.

So, maybe someone disabled a chamber on purpose?

Dumber things have happened.

Lost Sheep

 

[rcmodel]

+1

Seems the most logical explanation.

Whatever it is wasn't put there by S&W I betcha.


At the least, it was put there by a mis-guided soul who thought it unsafe to carry with a round under the hammer on any modern DA revolver.

At worst, it is a bulged or damaged chamber someone blocked to keep from using it any longer.

Regardless, it will probably come out if we can figure out what it is.
Then we can try to figure out why it was there.

rc

 

[Smokin Gator]

The "sleeve" appears to be cut too perfectly square for it to be a case seperation. It looks like a finished piece, not jagged at all. As far as quality control, did you guys see the 686 cylinder on the exterior had the flutes cut for a 7 shot cylinder, but had 6 chambers. Or it was the other way around, flutes for a 6 shot model but with 7 chambers, I can't remember. One of the chambers was directly under the thinner wall where the flute is cut. It was posted about on a lot of the forums, last year I think.

Yeah, if someone didn't want to use that chamber it would be simple enough to mark it without basically disabling it. I don't have the gun, it's my co workers. Mark

 

[Salmoneye]

It could not have possibly made it out of the S&W factory in that condition.

Stranger things have made it out of there...



http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=472575

 

[slimpickens]

Over twenty years ago, I had an aquaintance who put a sleeve in a model 25 cylinder because he wanted to have the hammer down on empty chamber.
That way in his mind, he was not allowing the gun to hit the ground with the hammer first and discharge.
The sleeve was big enough that a cartridge could not go in.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I'd try a good penetrating oil, like Liquid Wrench. Plug the chamber and fill it with penetrating oil and let it sit for a day or two, then try a new brass brush and see if the obstruction comes out.

 

[Sam1911]

Very unlikely probably, but did your friend's dad ever do tactical simulations training. Somethin similar is inserted when using Simunitions to keep live ammo from being inserted into the gun during the training session.


http://simunition.com/en/products/conversion_kits/6-revolvers
http://simunition.com/upload/products/conversion_kits/feuilleTechnique_en_60.pdf