old model locked up

Hello Friends,
My Old Model Blackhawk locked up after the 14th round the other day . It is a safe queen that I prepared for the range by a little cleaning and oil, I was only going to fire 5 rounds but it was so sweet to hear it cycle and shoot that I loaded the next 5 and then 5 more. When I felt resistance drawing the hammer into fully cocked I slowly jiggled barrel, trigger and hammer to bring it into free spin and unload the unfired 15th round. I hope I didn't do any damage. When I got home I gave it a thorough cleaning and noticed the trigger spring and plunger appear to be crooked or bent to the right behind the trigger when fully cocked, however it appears to be functioning. I never noticed this in the past and wonder If this is an issue with the gun locking up. I have never opened up this gun beyond removing the barrel and grips for cleaning. I was shooting a very mild 38 special fmj round not a 357 round. The Blackhawk is as it left the factory in 1972 with no transfer bar. I don't post much on here but I enjoy reading a lot and have gained valuable information about Ruger single actions and firearms from this forum. Would it be wise to open up the gun and inspect the trigger action myself and go as far as I feel comfortable? I have always tinkered around but am not sure…by the way the gun was 14 for 14 hitting target, 7 hits on center @ 40' not bad for an old gun and these old eyes….lol Thank You
Frank

I think you meant removing the cylinder and grips, not barrel. But to the point, it sounds like someone did a more thorough disassembly and didn't get it quite right upon reassembly, which really isn't too difficult.

I would look on YouTube for a video that shows complete disassembly and reassembly. If you can find one, use it to take yours down. It's possible that more than one thing isn't quite right. That way you can be certain everything is as it should be. Once that's done, if the problem persists, consider sending it back to Ruger for repairs, but understand that if you do they will return it to you with the safety conversion. They should return the original parts so you can always convert it back, should you decide to.

Sounds like good shooting! Old eyes like ours can still shoot ok, if we can see the sights!

Thanks BPGuy, That is what I will do, I have viewed some of the videos on you tube and I will have to view the video a few times . Hearing you say its not that difficult makes it more comfortable to tear it down and reassemble. I have heard many times that people were not satisfied with the transfer bar fix on the old models, but one step at a time and we'll see how it goes ....Your right though as long as we can see the sights these old eyes are still working lol... Thanks Again

If you do take it apart, please use a gunsmithing screwdriver with appropriate sized blade. And be careful not to grunge up any of the screw slots or scratch the frame.
You could also have had a high primer or case that didn't seat fully.

Re:..."When I got home I gave it a thorough cleaning and noticed the trigger spring and plunger appear to be crooked or bent to the right behind the trigger when fully cocked,..."....

Just so you'll know...you shouldn't be able to see the trigger spring when the gun is assembled, just the plunger. In other words, if you're seeing the trigger spring, then the spring/plunger assembly has been installed backwards...and yep, that can/will cause the spring to become bent or kinked.
Same deal with the pawl spring/plunger assembly too, only it's worse because the pawl spring doesn't have "seat to sit in" like the trigger spring does, so it just sorta "hangs out in mid air" while you're trying to re-align/re-install the grip frame...so be careful of that if for some reason, you take the grip frame off.

Hope this helps.

DGW

There is a spring and a plunger on the hammer. Chances are it is rusted or frozen from moving.

RPM Enterprises said:

There is a spring and a plunger on the hammer. Chances are it is rusted or frozen from moving.

Click to expand...

^^^^This is my guess^^^^^. When one of my Blackhawks "lock up" I always look at that hammer plunger first.

Dan

Welcome to the forum.

I read that you've never had the gun apart except Cyl and grips. So most of the above is irrelevant.

I take it that now it cycles fine. If that's correct, there's only one main possibility; once the gun heats up from firing a couple of cylinders full, the front face of cyl is rubbing on the back end of the barrel at the barrel-to-cyl gap. Lead build up will do it, but you cleaned the gun.

Hold the gun up sideways to a bright light and inspect the light space showing in the gap. Turn the cyl with gun on half cock and see if the light space disappears or partially does. Also remove cyl and check the cyl front face for barrel rub marks. A couple file strokes on the end of the barrel will solve the problem. It's not rocket science, the gap can vary from .004" to .008". This is not uncommon on old models when Ruger held to tighter tolerances.

The hammer has little leverage, especially the shorter 22 hammers, to cycle the action against a slight restriction like rubbing the barrel. You were right not to force the hammer back, it puts undue strain on all the small action parts. Let us know what you find.

all good points above, we see this all too often with a gun, mint, or still "like new" and from sitting, they get "gunked in place" sluggish, or the first time used, one of the plungers mentioned above ( trigger hammer, and pawl) get out of shape, or stuck back.....something as simple as a few drops of Kroil in the right spots, and let it sit , work the action and see what happens, and yes you can get Kroil into and at those spots without having to take the gun apart,( its the oil that creeps)...all the old timers told us over the years, remove the grips, and simply soak the gun over night in a pan of kerosene, blow it out with an air hose, soak it down with any good gun oil, blow off all the excess ,again, with an air hoes...and work the action, MOST of the time, this works..............then if need be, take it to a good gunsmith, that KNOWS single action revolvers, NOT a Glock Armorer 8) :roll: :wink:

BIgMuddy said:

RPM Enterprises said:

There is a spring and a plunger on the hammer. Chances are it is rusted or frozen from moving.

Click to expand...

^^^^This is my guess^^^^^. When one of my Blackhawks "lock up" I always look at that hammer plunger first.

Dan

Click to expand...

My only experience with a Old Model "locking up" was a .357 Flattop. Like you I carefully disassembled to remove the cylinder and watched while easing back on the hammer. A few drops of Hoppes#9 down the face of the hammer and then let it sit so the oil could penetrate the possibly corroded spring/plunger overnight and It worked perfectly next morning and has ever since.