…or, “what the heck you doin’ that for?”
The market is being flooded with used revolvers right now. There are some truly great deals to be had, but there are also a few pitfalls to avoid. Many potentially terminal problems may not be immediately apparent.
Revolvers are generally very durable machines. They’ll endure decades of neglect, but that resilience means that some owners will inflict excessive abuse. Some people will use them as test-beds for reckless handloads, and when the gun gives out, they’ll sell it off to a hapless buyer. Others see them as platforms for some truly questionable home gunsmithing experiments.
What follows is a list of things I check to ensure that the gun I’m evaluating hasn’t been rendered unusable or unsafe.
My primary area of interest is Smith & Wesson revolvers, but most of these checks will help with other makes.
- Open the action and spin the ejector rod gently. It should not wobble at all. If it does, someone has made a habit of “slapping” the cylinder shut. You know, just like they do in every movie and television show. I sometimes get arguments on this, but the practice kills good guns. It leads to the heartache of bent cranes, warped ejector rods, worn-out cylinder stops, and broken homes. I’ve seen direct evidence. If the rod wobbles, walk away: it costs too much to fix.
- Close the cylinder. Pull the trigger to the rear, but keep it pulled once the hammer’s fallen. This puts the gun in full lockup. The cylinder should not have excessive movement from front to rear. A slight bit of play is normal, but more than the thickness of a driving license means that the gun is likely shot out. These things are strong, but not invulnerable. An unfortunate mix of alcohol and handloading can lead to a life of regret and a gun nobody wants to buy.
- While keeping the trigger pulled, wiggle the cylinder side-to-side. Again, there will be some play, but if it feels like it’s going to trip over to the adjacent chamber, the gun is either out of timing or the cylinder stop (or attendant spring) is abnormally worn.
- Release the trigger. Hold the gun up to a light and check the gap between the cylinder face and forcing cone. You should see a very slight gap. It should be wide enough to slip a piece of paper through, but not so wide as to accommodate a business card. If the gap is too small, the cylinder will likely bind up under the least amount of fouling. If it is too wide, accuracy and velocity are compromised. Taurus revolvers are shockingly inconsistent on this front, and this is one of the many reasons I maintain a strong distrust for their wares.
- With your weak hand, apply light pressure to the sides of the cylinder. Very slowly, pull the trigger to the rear while “dragging” the cylinder just slightly. At the beginning of the pull, you should hear a faint click. This is the cylinder stop disengaging. Just before the hammer falls, you should hear a second click, which is the stop locking the cylinder on the next chamber. If the hammer falls without the second click being audible, the gun is out of timing. It will have misfires, and is probably unsafe to fire at all. Trust me, picking chunks of brass out of your face is less fun than it sounds.
- Slide your finger in a straight line down the length of the barrel. Look for bulges. If one is present, the gun had a squib load at one point, and the owner didn’t catch it. The technical term for this is “oopsie,” and the barrel is effectively ruined.
- Cock the hammer and give it a good push forward. If it falls without the trigger being pulled, somebody got too aggressive polishing the sear. The gun is unsafe. Such are the wages of thinking that having a dremel tool makes one a violinist.
- Check the sideplate fit. The edges where it mates with the frame should be flush. If not, it was bent because someone either pried it loose with a screwdriver, or they whacked it with a hammer to force it back on. These can’t be easily replaced, and a bent sideplate is a good indicator that the owner didn’t understand the virtues of patience or subtlety.
- Examine the sideplate screws. If any are missing, well…they’re not even trying very hard to rip you off. If they’re mismatched, I’d have the same concern. Some collectors don’t like to see any wear on the screws whatsoever, but if it’s to be a working gun, I’m not too concerned. If it’s a former law-enforcement gun, that just means the armorer was doing his job. However, if you see tool chatter around the screws, or if the heads have seen some gouging, you’ll want to do some closer checks.
A few words on refinishing are in order. Rebluing or renickeling a gun kills its value to collectors. Some folks will consider the condition of a refinished gun to be as little as 5%. To shooters, it might not matter as much, but it certainly reduces the asking price, and you need to check the quality of the work.
The big red flag is when the seller insists that the finish is original when it plainly is not. This means they’re hiding something. It’s not worth the risk that the new blue or nickel finish was used to cover some dreadful pitting underneath. Someone who put the money into decent refinishing will likely use that as a point of advertising, not a dirty little secret to be kept.
With the exception of early stainless guns, Smith & Wesson has always used case-hardened hammers and triggers. If those parts are nickeled, or if they have shiny flats or blued highlights, it’s a decent bet the whole gun has been refinished.
Is this fatal? Possibly not, but it requires some close inspection. Check the rifling and be sure it’s even and not “washed out.” Same goes for the etched logos. If it looks like they’re swimming under an oil slick, the refinishing was poorly done. Look for wavy patterns around the screw holes.
If you find the job to be acceptable, it still reduces the value of the gun by at least a third, so offer accordingly. Provided that it passes the checks above, the choice is yours.
None of this is stuff I came up with on my own. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Jim March’s excellent article on this subject, from which I learned a few of these tricks. The rest comes from being surrounded with wiser, more experienced folks than myself. Consider the information public domain, and use it well.