New Smith 29 did what?

[tentcamper]

A couple days ago at a local gun shop I was drooling over a brand new blued 4 inch Smith 29. Very nice gun all the way around accept it had a small problem. Working the ejector rod back and forth it would frequently stick in the compressed or "fully ejected" position. Sometimes you could tap on the ejector star and the spring would give and it would reseat in the cylinder other times it would take a thorough push. We oiled the rod and it didn't change anything. I couldn't see any obvious signs of impact or bending so I'm wondering if that is indeed the case or there may be something else wrong with this? I know there have been discussions about QC from Smith and Wesson lately and perhaps I stumbled on to one...

Beautiful revolver otherwise but not something I'd want to pay almost $1100 for if it was going to have problems this obvious.

Any insight?

Thanks!

[revolvercranker]

While cylinder open did you spin it to see if the rod turned true? Yeah kind of like a new car with a big scratch. I think I'd pass on it.

[tentcamper]

Yes, cylinder spun free and true..

[revolvercranker]

Wonder is there is a burr a piece of debri in the internals? Too bad you can't unscrew it and find out.

[wilecoyote]

Feb 4, 2024 0:24:59 GMT -5 tentcamper said:

 cylinder spun free and true..                                                                                                                                                                  forgive me: ok about the cylinder, but the cylinder rod spun free & true too?

[tentcamper]

Feb 4, 2024 1:20:18 GMT -5 wilecoyote said:

Feb 4, 2024 0:24:59 GMT -5 tentcamper said:

 cylinder spun free and true..                                                                                                                                                                  forgive me: ok about the cylinder, but the cylinder rod spun free & true too?

If I am understanding you correctly yes, spin the cylinder rod from the muzzle end and the cylinder would spin freely. My Smith 57 and 629 exhibit the exact same trait..

On edit: I think I understand what you're saying now and I cannot answer with 100% certainty as I did not inspect the rod close enough for a detailed determination. I just watched a couple videos on YouTube that gave me pretty good idea of what to look for and I'm thinking maybe the ejector rod is not true and slightly out of straight by several degrees.

[wilecoyote]

the goal is to control if the rod, not the cylinder, spin not only freely, but overall true, without signs of wobbling_

a machinist ruler, bur ever a straight plastict ruler, placed near to the spinning rod, could help to find something more about that, aka bent rod or not, just in case_

[ridenshoot]

This is a partial quote from a post I wrote in another thread.  The gun in question is a new Smith model 25-15 that I bought a couple of weeks ago and this was my first outing with it.  I got through 30 rounds before the problem became apparent.  Just for your consideration.

"I shot the Unique load last and noted that it was vertically stringing pretty badly, I thought it might be my marvelous eyesight or the low charge weight causing that. After the first cylinder of Unique loads, I wanted to bench rest the gun to see if I could improve on the stringing group, so I loaded six more cartridges into the chambers and attempted to close the cylinder. No such luck, the cylinder was not closing, it would enter the frame about 3/4 of the way and then would go no further. I fiddled and fussed with it but was not able to figure out the issue. I considered a ball peen but decided to put it back in the box and spend some time with the 6" model 57 that I purchased with the 25-15 (did I mention how bad the weather was during all of those hours of OT?).

I considered calling S&W about the problem but I didn't relish the thought of sending the gun via UPS and trying to receive it back. I decided to take it to a local gunsmith who has been helpful in the past. Charley looked at it, pulled the crane and cylinder off, disassembled them and found a burr on the center pin. He figured the burr had been rolled over with each successive shot until it finally caused the gun to lock up. He has deburred the rod and the cylinder now goes into the frame as it should."


I'm hoping that is the only issue I have with this gun because I really like it and it appears to be pretty accurate.  As someone stated, it's a tough pill to swallow, spending a grand on a gun that needs further work.  I will say that I have purchased a bunch of the "Classic" Smiths over the last 5 or 6 years (including a nice engraved model 29) and this is the only one that has exhibited any issues.  The bbl/cyl gap on this particular gun is .010, whereas, all of the others that I have are around the more acceptable .004 measurement. 

[paleroadster]

Burrs are my QC failure from late S&W revolvers. One of the more frustrating things was in two instances I could have driven over to Roosevelt, and corrected the programs so the burrs I suffered from were never created.

I'd guess there is a burr sticking the rod. If it's a gun a really need, and the price is right with everything else checking out it wouldn't preclude me purchasing it.

[tentcamper]

Feb 4, 2024 15:17:17 GMT -5 paleroadster said:

Burrs are my QC failure from late S&W revolvers. One of the more frustrating things was in two instances I could have driven over to Roosevelt, and corrected the programs so the burrs I suffered from were never created.

I'd guess there is a burr sticking the rod. If it's a gun a really need, and the price is right with everything else checking out it wouldn't preclude me purchasing it.

If the dealer would allow a disassembly of the crane and cylinder and parts, I’m sure that could be discerned easily. I just don’t see a dealer allowing that on his counter, not that I’d blame them.

This particular dealer does not have a gunsmith in house either.

A shame because this was a particularly beautifully fit and finished model 29. I’ve been eyeballing this one for a couple months.

[revolvercranker]

If it that beautiful of fit and finish go for it. The problem can't be anything real serious.

[ridenshoot]

Ask for a discount since you know it will take a little work to fix it.  He can say no, but he might give you a little off of it to make it worth your while.

[gnappi]

I bought a used 686+ that has a similar issue, but it only did it in one spot in the cylinder rotation. I think it was caused by the PO doing a gangster flip shut of the cylinder which a call to S&W seemed to confirm.

I bought a replacement extractor rod and that fixed it :-)

[gnappi]

PS, back then the replacement rod was $13.59 and it was .025" inch too long at the knurled and. A few minutes with a Dremel and the buffing wheel got it fitting right.

[junebug]

Goes back to what my old gunsmith buddy always said. None of them are ready to run right out of the box. They should be but rarely are. They all benefit from a little tweaking .