Charter Arms

[Pababear]

I liked my friends SS 4" Path finder revolver.  He's been having problems with it for years.  After 20 rounds of CCI, carbon builds up on the face, and he has to use wire tooth brush and COMPLETELY clean the hand gun.  He's a former cop, Sate Police and NRA firearms instructor.

I wanted the same gun, and called Charter Arms today if the problem still exsists.  They said that all the revolvers had that problem.

I've got two Taurus revolvers that don't.

How about the S&W model 63, both old and new?
Papabear

[tombogan03884]

All revolvers get soot on the face of the cylinder, I've never heard of it doing anything but looking dirty.
Was he shooting factory loads or reloads ?

[Timothy]

My .357 got a bit crusty when I ran a lot of .38 spcl through it but never enough to jam the cylinder against the forcing cone.  I ran several hundred rounds one weekend and never stopped.  My BIL's little S&W .22 revolver got really crusty too but again, it never slowed down.

I'd check the cylinder/forcing cone gap to Charters specs.  Might be a bit too tight.

[Pecos Bill]

Bingo Timothy! I had the same problem when I ran some 44 Russian Pyrodex loads through my SAA a few years back. Found out the barrel/cylinder gap was too close. The barrel had been replaced without properly checking the gap. Gunsmith refaced it and problem solved.

[Pababear]

We were shooting factory CCI .22 target rounds.  He's had the face done before.  My 941 Taurus gets crappy but will shoot.


At this point I have given up on Charter Arms.

Has anyone had this with a smith and Wesson 317 or model 63?

[Sponsor]

[PegLeg45]

Not a S&W, but years ago I had a Taurus Model 66 (basically a S&W clone) that would begin to bind up and the cylinder would drag after around 100 rounds of Federal full wadcutter target loads.

[fightingquaker13]

Never had an issue with my Rugers, and I'm not as fastidious as I ought to be. I've got an old cop model Smith .38 and it runs fine too, but I've never put more than a box through it. I think that guns are an area where you get what you pay for. There are some deals (like some of the Taurus models and RRI 1911s), but I think you're wise to avoid Charter Arms. Buy a used name brand instead.
FQ13

[ellis4538]

I have had the carbon on the cylinder face of a S&W 642 but it never caused a one problem with functioning.

Richard

[kmitch200]

I have a pre-1957 S&W .22 revo that used to bind like that.
When I had Nelson Ford fix it he said that it's pretty common with .22s because people tend to shoot the shit out of them.
(Plus this thing is about as old as I am.)

He adj the cylinder gap and it's good to go.

http://www.thegunsmith.com/thegunsmith.html