going Hollywood on GP100

Help Support Ruger Forum:

RoyD1960

Bearcat
Joined
Sep 19, 2009
Messages
4
Let a guy from work shoot a few 38s from my GP100 last week. Showed him how to load, cock and shoot both single action and double action. Everything looked ok so I give him the go ahead. While I was digging out some more ammo I see him reloading (good so far) then he does the hollywood flick to close the cylinder. Being a ruger, I thought it could take that abuse many times without being to concerned. After the fellow left I went to polish off the 38s and could not close the cylinder. I thought, OK lead buildup no problem and gave the remaining lead wadcutters away. After cleaning out the tons of lead the cylider still was way tight. I got to looking at the lock up and found sharp jagged edges where the cylinder passes the edge of the frame and appeard to be gauled. So was the small round bearing surface just in front of the cylinder. Took the whole thing apart and put the file to all those points and put them back to square and smooth. Works fine now but I was supprised at the softness of the material and ease that that it could be removed. Is this common for a SS revolver?
 

contender

Ruger Guru
Joined
Sep 18, 2002
Messages
25,396
Location
Lake Lure NC USA
Welcome to the Forum.
While it is a Ruger forum,, and you can expect a certain bunch to rush to defend ANY rugers,, it does seem odd that you found a problem after only 1 "hollywierd" type of slapping the cylinder shut.
To answer your question,, I'd have to say that "no" the metal isn't so soft that one bad closing would cause such a problem. UNLESS,,, something else happened to cause it to gall up. Without examining the gun,, it's hard to say just why it would have happened.
 

Snake45

Hawkeye
Joined
Mar 14, 2009
Messages
9,196
Location
+4020
"Hollywooding" a cylinder shut certainly doesn't do the gun any good (and might harm it after hundreds or thousands of reps), but it's nowhere near as damaging as Hollywooding it open even once or twice. This is because the latching mechanism, which is held shut by spring action and cammed open temporarily by the shutting of the cylinder, acts as a brake so the cylinder doesn't come to a sudden, unsupported stop, as it does when flicking it open.

I doubt your friend did any damage to your gun (unless he also flicked it open when you weren't looking). Absent further evidence, I'd mark this up to coincidence. I suspect your gun has been wearing in the pattern you describe for some time, and it just happened to become evident today.
 

RoyD1960

Bearcat
Joined
Sep 19, 2009
Messages
4
Thanks for the welcome. While going over the gun I noticed that the lock up that the cylider is mounted on will move forward about 1/16 inch or more but like it is spring loaded. Like if you were removing the whole thing after taking the trigger assembly off. Could him holding the gun pointing down and giving a viscious flick cause this assembley to move out slightly creating an overlap of steal. I love my rugers (but they are heavy) and anways considered them indistructable. Maybe this is just one of those odd " dont do it and you wont have any problems" kind of thing. I gave the guy a lecture on cylinder flicking and spinning like in the movies, dont expect him to do this again.
 

GP100man

Buckeye
Joined
Sep 13, 2006
Messages
1,386
Location
Tabor City, NC.
WELCOME TO THE RUGER FORUM .COM!!!!


The cyl has a plunger & spring asm that keeps it from coming out the frame , this is mounted in the front of the trigger guard & will let the crane move forward a bit , but should keep it pushed back under normal conditions , as to say the weight of the cyl with ammo should not overcome the spring tension.

In my opinion the Rugers are tank tuff , but in trade off for tank tuff is heavier parts such as the cyl asm & when ya get it movin & it comes to a fast halt or hits summtin it`s gonna leave a mark !
This is why I stopped dry firing mine & started polishin the parts , luckily I got by with replacin the cyl latch.

I do a qwik verseing on how I want my handguns treated BEFORE I let some 1 shoot em & tell em why as I go, usually they comply & we both enjoy a session of shootin!
 

56-210

Bearcat
Joined
Oct 12, 2009
Messages
41
Location
New Mexico
Had a guy we shot with, we'll call him "Mr Btdt Knowitall", and he did the Hollywood close with my GP...Of course he doesn't own a wheel gun...I said "dude, do not do that"...He started to say something, and noticing my obvious displeasure st*u... :)

Mark
 

Hired Gun

Bearcat
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
5
I had a cousin that thought that was the coolest thing to spin the cylinder and flick it shut. To date hes has a totalled Colt Trooper Mark III, Severly damaged a Redhawk in 44 mag and cost me $100 to repair my 686. He finally got a new hobby. Thank goodness. Now I don't let anyone touch my wheelguns until we have talked about this.
 
Top