Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing My revolver stopped revolving

Hello, all. Before I begin this thread, I would like to mention that I have been aware that revolvers can malfunction for some time now and that the matter of revolver vs. autoloader is probably better discussed in a different thread.
With that said... I NEED HELP AND I NEED IT BAD.

I am the proud owner of a .454 Casull Freedom Arms Model 83 revolver. It's a fantastic gun and amazes me every time I pick it up. I especially like the wonderful fitting and tight tolerances. That said, those tight tolerances became a problem for me today. I went out to shoot a few rounds. After the second round I noticed that the cylinder was hard to turn, so I inspected the spent casings and saw that I had a blown primer. I removed both spent casings and all was well, so I shot a third round. I went to cock the hammer again, but it wouldn't budge past the first hammer notch and the cylinder would only turn an extremely short distance.

I took the gun home with extreme care (after all I still had two rounds in the other chambers - thankfully NOT below the hammer) and tried removing the cylinder. I took out the pin and opened the loading gate, but - again - the cylinder would not budge.

After some thinking I shone a light through the gap between the breechface and the rear of the cylinder and - sure enough - there was something that wasn't supposed to be there. It looked like the firing pin was stuck in the primer and had locked up the gun this way. Since my gun thankfully is a newer model I unscrwed the firing pin bushing and took the pin with it's corresponding screw out.

I looked through the gap again and the obstruction was still there, so I concluded that it must be either a high primer or the primer having flown into the firing pin hole. Now for my question...:

How the heck do I get it out of there?

I have the idea to use a scale modelling saw that would be thin enough to fit the (extremely narrow) gap and saw through the primer to get the cylinder turning again and then punch the rest out through the firing pin hole. Does anybody here have an idea on how I might get the cylinder turning again and the primer out of there?

As always, help is greatly appreciated and I will be thankful for every answer.

P.S. The rounds I shot were Magtech 260gr. Soft Points if that might be the cause.

can you take a small punch and tap the primer back in the case ?

Absolutely incredible. I couldn't quite get a punch straight into the firing pin channel because the hammer wouldn't cock fully. But following the idea of getting the primer back in the casing, I got a cleaning rod, carefully put it down the barrel into the casing and let it fall on the casehead a few times. Worked like a charm, the cylinder turned and I got the casing and the rounds out. Turns out there was a brass "plug" in the firing pin hole, I suspect from the blown primer.
Thank you very much for the help!

Also my gun seems to have taken the whole affair in stride, as it is back to working like a clock with no clue of anything having ever happened.
Here are a few pictures of what happened:

Happy endings are good.

I'd snoop around the net and see if that Magtech ammo has any complaints. I don't load for that cartridge but I think special care in bullets and primers is called for.

Its probably fine. But I'd sure be curious.

It might be worth checking the firing pin protrusion to be certain it is not too long and that it has a nicely rounded tip without square edges.

Two posters ahead gave helpful suggestions.


I'll be less helpful by blunt.

Somethings wrong, figure it out before you shoot again.
At the least, try different ammo.

FA has super CS.

I'd give them a call. For sure they've seen about everything and I'd think they'd have some suggestions.

DF

do you think that it might have been a bad primer ?

Bad primer or no, the gun should not have done that. Revolvers are not completely reliable. I quit buying/shooting S&W’s long ago for that reason.

I own two S&W 460’s as toys. So, they don’t have to be totally reliable.

I had a similar situation on a 9mm 1911. It would occasionally punch a hole in the primer on all loads, all primer brands, etc. The firing pin hole in the breach face had a small raised ring around it that was punching the primers. A little work with a fine stone cured the problem.

I don't really know about the primer, but I heavily doubt that it was the gun. I got a little sticky extraction on some of the Magtech ammo, so there's that.
The breech face is smooth to the touch and when I inspected the firing pin, it was nice and round. I'll have to shoot some more of the Hornady ammo through it.
Thanks again for the advice.

Decapitated it and have a good look at that primer.