Ruger Super Redhawk LBR - Double Action Problem

[peterogers]

Hi folks - thought i'd pick at the gestalt brainpower of the forum

I'm lucky enough to own a Ruger Super Redhawk LBR in .357 - a gorgeous hunk of gun but it's giving me problems. It single actions fine, but on double action it's giving me an intermittent problem. When firing rounds, occassionalyy it won't double action - the hammer seizes up about two thirds of the way through the stroke, sometimes you can pull through it with a lt of effort, sometimes not. You have to swing the cylinder out, put it back in and it will work fine. This only happens on live rounds, and only immediately after having fired a live round. It will cycle spent cases without a problem. I'm not short stroking it (a known issue), and it will happen whether you are firing rounds slow and deliberate or fast fire. A good friend of mine has dissasembled and cleaned it, and he can't see anything wrong with it. He's also test fired it and come up with the same issue. I'm figuring that one of the internal components has some wear on it, but i don't know what to look at - i don't want to start replacing internal components at random until the problem clears as that way lies financial ruin Anyone had or heard of a similar issue ?

[Born Again]

Try a harder crimp on your reloads, my guess is that the recoil is pushing a bullet head forward far enough to touch the outside of the barrel forcing cone.

[Keef]

See Pete, you need to get your crimpers out!

Thanks Steve, that's not something we had thought of.

Pete and I use similar reloading kit and I have never had to crimp in either my Marlin 357 or Taurus 357. Crimping will need another die, will it not?

[Born Again]

I've got a set of dies if you'd like to try before you buy.

[peterogers]

Thanks Steve - good idea and definitely worth taking a look at. I've been shooting factory and getting this problem - would factory not already be crimped ?

[peterogers]

Something just occured to me - when cleaning the gun i've noticed a slight lead deposit to the right of the forcing cone. The cylinder rotates counter-clockwise so that might tally up.... I might try loading the gun with a single live round and 5 empties, see if i still get the problem...

[Born Again]

Factory should be crimped properly, but all the symptoms you describe point to the heads pulling forward out of the case. When I used full loads in 357 and 44 I always had to use a hard crimp right down into the cannelure, not good for case life.

[Keef]

Pete, if you've been using club ammo it's possible that it was reloads done by Ash so they may not have been crimped.

Were the rounds in a proper sealed factory box with the make on or were they in a dark brown plastic box? The plastic box was likely to have reloads in it.

[peterogers]

Keith - i've shot both, reloads and the factory Magtech they've got in at the moment. Same results with either.

[flintlok]

If you go to the like below you will find a discussion of someone who had the same issue. I had a similar problem on a colt pistol where the pawl was bent and binding. Sometimes the binding issue occurs with light loads and worn cartridges. On firing the spent primers may back out of the cartridge and impinge against the recoil shield when you ratchet the cylinder. Your problem sound more like the issue found in the link.

http://www.rugerforum.com/phpBB/viewtop ... er+binding

[peterogers]

Thanks man - it did occur to me that the primers may not be seated completely flush, so i've been inspecting the back of the cartridges. Though to be honest i've been looking at them before firing, not after.... definitely another thing to check

[peterogers]

Update time

I took the revolver to the club on sunday, and tested with 50 rounds of factory Magtech .38SP. Sadly, it's not either the bullet heads or primers locking the cylinder.I ran tests with full cylindes, single and double rounds - clear blue sky between spent primers and the recoil sheilds, and the bullet heads would have to travel a hell of a distance to obstruct the forcing cone. So i've handed the gun off to my mate Wayne, he's shot more pistols than half the Met and he's got a friend who's even more knowledgeable on wheel guns He did notice a slight movements in the cylinder, so that's where his investigation will start methinks.

I finally got a response from my enquiry to Ruger - possibly the most useless one ever they suggested the problem may be due to the trigger / cylinder rotation timing. Yeah - thanks for that. And then they said I should contact Viking as the UK Ruger importer. That's going to help a lot - talk to the importer who can't supply them, in fact who's probably never seen a Super Redhawk, real constructive suggestion.

[RichardH]

Can I suggest a phone call to Joe Beatham at the gun shop in Cat Street Barnet

He's a wheelgun guru IIRC

Rich

[peterogers]

Thanks Rich - i'm fairly confident in Wayne's ability to sort the problem, but should he get stuck i'll definitely be looking your man up