Tap, Rack, Bang Equivalent for Revolvers? Clearing a Revolver Jam Fast?

[Spooler41]

All I can say about this is ,that in more than 60 years of shooting I've
never had a revolver malfunction. That said ,I do believe there is a remote
chance that a revolver will jam, but I've never had it happen.

......................... Jack

 

[old lady new shooter]

There should be zero debris under the star. If you are getting debris or powder under the star, you are not clearing the empties properly. The muzzle goes vertical and the empties fall clear of the cylinder.

Kevin

Thank you, that's what I thought. The day I went to the outdoor range a range officer appeared once and repositioned my 686 while I was ejecting with the muzzle vertical but, I confess, not facing straight ahead downrange. I said "Doesn't it have to be pointing straight down when you eject?", and he said no, it can be slanted. The rest of the visit I still pointed it straight down to eject but was careful to face it directly forward at the same time.

 

[entropy]

I've only had two revolver malfunctions, and actually one happened to my Dad, using my handloads.

I loaded up some 125 gr. HP's with a compressed load of Blue Dot which twice caused malfunctions. The first was in my Colt Trooper MKIII, where the primer cup backed into the firing pin hole; I had the whack the cylinder open with a 2x4.

The second happened when my Dad was qualifying with his 4" Python. He'd grabbed a box of my loads and didn't look at what he had. About halfway through the course of fire, his firing pin broke. He rushed home, grabbed my Trooper, and finished qualifying with the rest of that box. He shot a 91/100, which was 3 down from his average. I never got the Trooper back, either. (He'd given it to me when I was 15.) He made me put the new firing pin in (and pay for it), but when his PD became the first in the nation to adopt the Glock, he sold me both of his Pythons for what one was worth. I still kick myself for selling the 2.5" to pay bills many years ago.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

I had a revolver jam up because I had left the firing chambers cleaned and oiled. First shot the case set back enough against the recoil plate that the cylinder would not turn. Clearing required one hand manually assisting turning the cylinder as I thumbed the hammer back. With the cylinder freed to turn, I lowered the hammer, opened the cylinder, ejected the cartridges, de-oiled the chambers, deoiled the cartridges, and resumed shooting. Lesson: before loading a revolver, I run a dry patch through the firing chambers to remove any oil left from cleaning.

The other cylinder jam was an old BP era .38 S&W with handloads of BP substitute. The firing pin hole in the frame was over sized and the primers cratered and bound up the cylinder. I pulled out the cylinder pin and pushed the cylinder out the frame opposite the cylinder hand. The load was light so it wasn't over pressure. I was told I should use harder small rifle primers next time, but I decided to clean the 19th Century antique thoroughly and retire it to wallhanger status.

I have had one instance where I had debris under the extractor star and had to brush it out before I could close the revolver. (Did anyone think unburnt flakes of Unique powder?)

So, I have had three memorable jams with cartridge revolvers in the fifty years I have owned revolvers.

 

[grimjaw]

On a S&W with firing pin on the hammer, I think it was 63, I had a primer blow back into the hole in the recoil shield (sorry, I know I'm not using proper technical terms here). It jammed the cylinder, but there was no damage to the revolver. All I had to do to get it to clear was hold the release latch and give it a not-too-hard rap on a corner covered with a rubber mat. However, I didn't know the specifics of the problem at the time, and I wouldn't chance that kind luck again on a malfunctioning revolver. Normally result to BUG.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

The original question is flawed. The mindset behind a malfunction drill should be Tap-Rack-Ready not Tap-Rack-Bang. The threat can change while you are tapping and racking.

If you practice and do it right, the threat won't have TIME to change.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I have a few failures with revolvers over the years. With Single Actions I have had trigger/bolt springs break. They were known for that. Even had a bolt break once.



A few times I have had a double action Smith bind up because of crud under the ejector star or the ejector rod backed out a tad. That's why Smith changed over to reverse threads on the ejector rod many years ago.

I have had to drive bullets that got stuck in the forcing cone back into the chamber. Not my guns, guns belonging to guys who loaded their ammo too light. Even had it happen to me not too long ago with an old Colt New Service and unreliable reloads from another source. That's why I usually only shoot my own reloads. These were free, won them as a door prize. I got what I paid for. And I would never use a wooden rod to drive a bullet back into the chamber, too much chance it would shatter and make things worse. That's why I have some brass rods in my tool kit.

Once you become familiar with revolvers, you know what to look for. They don't break down often, but occasionally they do.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

When I wuss-out on closing the cylinder.

Limp-wristing the closing of the cylinder is about the only source of a malfunction that I can remember being able to address immediately as in "Immediate action".

A whack to the left palm has dealt with that one for me.

An argument can be made that it is akin to smashing the forward assist on an M-16 and thereby potentially making things worse but it hasn't yet.


Todd.

 

[Plan2Live]

Quote:
The original question is flawed. The mindset behind a malfunction drill should be Tap-Rack-Ready not Tap-Rack-Bang. The threat can change while you are tapping and racking.

If you practice and do it right, the threat won't have TIME to change.

How long does it take the average bad guy to decide they don't want to tangle with a good guy with a gun once they see the good guy's gun and drop their knife/bat/pipe and turn around or raise their hands in surrender? I'm guessing a lot faster than the average concealed carrier can perform the clearance drill and that is why we teach Tap-Rack-Ready in our Concealed Weapons classes. Under a former lead instructor we used to demonstrate this using a blue gun and blue knife with the "good guy" doing a simulated Tap-Rack on the blue gun. An attacker can easily drop their weapon, turn on their heel and have their back to you in retreat mode in less time than it takes to tap and rack. I only offer this here since we do get a lot of new shooters visiting these pages and they need to hear all sides of an issue whenever possible.

 

[MaterDei]

I rarely shoot revolvers so my experience is limited. With that said, I did have a timing issue with one of my guns. While it was still shootable, with every shot some lead was shaved by the forcing cone and stung my hand, but not enough to cause injury.

Not being an expert with revolvers I just sent it to Ruger who fixed it and sent it back to me within 2 or 3 weeks, gratis (except for the initial shipping to them). It has performed well ever since. Ruger also installed a new hammer block safety which surprised me. They sent the original parts back to me but I have not reinstalled them although I do prefer the old style hammer better than the new one.

 

[ACP]

I agree with others that the answer is a BUG.

And please read Mr. Borland's links to the Grant Cunnigham articles -- very informative, and very brief

 

[Twiki357]

I’ve been shooting revolvers since the early 1960s and only had two malfunctions. One because of unburnt Unique powder under the star and the other because of the ejector rod coming unscrewed. Neither was the fault of the guns. The ejector rod problem was the fault of improper installation by a prior owner when the gun was refinished.

 

[hemiram]

Except for my trash first gun, a Taurus 83 I bought in 1977, about 3 days after I turned 21, my revolver issues have been pretty minor, and most of them fixable by myself in a few minutes:

The Taurus had so many issues, they should have replaced it, but even though the barrel was only partially rifled, they insisted it was "fine", and refused to fix it. Sorry, I prefer to be able to shoot my guns more than six times without having to pound the lead out with a brass screwdriver.

1. Used Dan Wesson 15-2 had light primer hits. Previous owner had shortened the mainspring and replacing it had the gun at 100%. I fired that gun at least 5000 times after I fixed it, with zero issues.
2. Used Colt Python, blue, 6", the hand broke about a month and maybe 100 rounds after I bought it. A local GS fixed it. That was the most I ever spent fixing a revolver.
3. Dan Wesson 15-2 (Different one than above) Too long a grip screw, installed by me, made the gun unsafe. About 30 seconds with a grinding wheel fixed it.
4. Dan Wesson 15-2 (Another one!) The most worn looking one I ever had. Broken hand spring. I replaced it, and the gun was back up. I carried it at work for 3 years+ and shot it a couple of thousand times without any issues.
5. S&W Model 19, 4" LNIB. Trigger wouldn't return to firing position on the third shot after buying the gun used at a local gunshop. They fixed it for free while I waited. I don't remember if it was something actually broken, or it was gummed up inside from sitting in the box for about 15 years.

That's the total of my revolver issues.

My list of woes with both new and used semiautos would be a dozen pages long. I lost respect for several companies after dealing with warranty issues that weren't ever resolved, and gained respect, and they got future business, from companies that fixed the problems that came out of the box. One even replaced the gun, and tossed in a couple of free mags with it.

 

[evan price]

I've had a few ammo related malfunctions, high primers, light loads, that sort of thing.
Only ever had two real failures:
A Taurus 327 that lost the crane retaining screw and then the crane & cylinder fell out when I went to reload...that lost the cylinder stop plunger and spring and then it's DOA. And I'm STILL waiting for parts from Taurus since November...
A Smith 10-6 that was rode hard and put away wet, that broke a hammer nose during dry fire practice.

 

[BCRider]

A lot of you are focusing on a possible broken gun issue. That's way over the top in a "click-bump-rack-BANG" semi auto scenario.

There are really only two revolver equivalent issues I can think of.

The first would be a FTF due to a bad primer or the shooter's thumb getting in the way of the hammer and softening the fall. The "tap&rack" equivalent would then be to simply pull the trigger again and hopefully the next primer is good or the thumb that got in the way isn't there any longer.

The only other I can think of is a high primer causing the cylinder to not want to index. But a serious owner should be checking the ammo for this sort of issue before loading it in the gun or in any speed loaders.

OK, maybe a possible third option. After a reload if the gun isn't closed correctly and fully the trigger on a hand eject gun won't move because it's still locked out by the open action. The "tap&rack" equivalent to an unmovable trigger in such a case would be to hit or squeeze home the cylinder and crane.

This last option would be the closest to a badly seated magazine in a semi auto.

 

[Bama Drifter]

+3 bug

NY Reload... that IS the only answer unless you are dealing w/ paper target which is much more patient than a two or four legged critter (or snake) .

Also want to reiterate, whether you carry a 5 shot J-Frame or a 6-shooter, CHECK that your ammo isn't impeding cylinder movement before you head out. That means physically rotate the full cylinder making absolutely sure there's no high primers or long bullets to snag up. You'll be much more confident in your wheelgun!

 

[Saleen322]

Trained LE and was all revolvers in the beginning. The most common revolver problem I saw was extractor rods backing out. Did not happen often but it did happen.The most common shooter issues were jerking the trigger so hard that sometimes the cylinder rotated past the slot before the bolt engaged if the spring was getting weak. They would end up with a 5-shooter. The other common problem was ejecting the empties slowly with the muzzle down getting a case under the extractor. I complained about the revolvers until I started training Glock 17s. ...then I missed the wheel guns....

 

[pezo]

I once had out of spec remington lswchp+p rims cause binding. Simply opening lndexing and closing the cylinder got the gun up and running. There was a "step" in the nickel cartridge rims on just over half the box worth (two 50 round boxes half of the cartridges in each box). It's like whatever equipment cuts the rims was off.