firing pin hitting rim not primer

[Arkansas Harper SASS #33169]

A friend, shooting slicked up 38 Rugers has one pistol that on pulling the trigger on the first round gets a fail to fire, next 4 rounds goes off as expected.  Examination of first round shows a firing pin strike on the base of the cartridge.  He has checked the cylinders to ensure that he did not switch them between guns.  So what are your thoughts??

 

Thanks

 

Arkansas Harper

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

Remove grips and cyl and flush the inside with carb cleaner. Blow dry and add spray lube(NO, WD40).

 

[Tully Mars]

It's possible the cylinder is over rotating. If so it would be best to have the gunsmith that did the work correct it. Put weighted dummy rounds in the gun, cock it fast, then see if the cylinder can be rotated. 

["Big Boston"]

I'm with OLG on this. My guess, if the slick job is not the issue, is that the bolt is sluggish and the first drop of the hammer frees it enough to make it function normally. 

 

The Ruger action is dead simple, and if it's clean, it will work 99% of the time. I've had one or two issues that needed parts, the rest were just a clean to fix. 

 

I use Brake Cleaner, mostly just acetone under pressure. Dries without any residue. It will eat plastic. 

 

I've come to the conclusion that all SA revolvers are a bit flakey, harder to tune than a big block Chevy hot rod. 

 

BB

[Jonathan Slim Chance]

Is it the same chamber each time, or is it always only the first round each time?  If it's the chamber, I would suspect the slot where the cylinder stop locks in has gotten peened from "agressive" cycling (I had that happen to a .44 Vaquero years ago).  If it's always the first round, regardless of chamber indexing, then I would suspect the cylinder stop is in question.

 

But, I'm not a gunsmith, so take that with a grain of salt.

[Sedalia Dave]

Need more information. When the cartridge that doesn't fire is in line with the loading gate; where is the bad strike?

 

On the bottom. Closer to the trigger. Or on the top closer to the hammer. 

 

This info is needed to know if the cylinder is over rotating or not fulling indexing.

[Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L]

I had a bent cylinder stop pin in a S&W Schofield that would rotate in place. When the low spot of the bent pin was on the bottom, the cylinder stop would not raise high enough to engage the cylinder thus allowing over rotation.

 

It took me quite awhile to discover the problem. 

 

I would suggest cocking the pistol to simulate match firing (hard and fast) and see if the cylinder over rotates. If it does, stop and remove the cylinder to see where the cylinder stop is positioned.

 

 

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

Hey, OP-

Any updates?