red hawk problem

[soiledpamper]

a couple weeks ago i took a brand new red hawk 44 to the range and after every 2 or 3 shots the cylinder would not lock up and the gun wouldn't cock. i would have to manually rotate the cylinder until it locked in place. i was using federal 240gr magnums. has anyone else had this problem?

 

[Jimbo357mag]

Sounds like something was binding the cylinder. Maybe the case heads hitting the back of the frame or the cylinder rubbing the B/C gap or maybe the cylinder not spinning freely on the cylinder shaft. If there is debris under the ejector star it can cause a binding problem. Sometimes I have heard of debris in the form of small filings getting into the cylinder shaft and into the lockwork. It probably is a good Idea to give the gun a good cleaning and flush out all of any factory debris that might be in there.

There is the possibility that there is something wrong with the lockwork. With an unloaded gun dry fire and observe the pawl and cylinder rotation and lockup and see if there is something not working right.

 

[hittman]

Jimbo nailed it.

 

[soiledpamper]

seems to work fine dry firing.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

Check the empty case heads and see if they are dragging on the back of the frame. Try different ammo. I have had Mag Tech ammo do the same thing. The case heads were either too thick or out of alignment. It is possible there isn't enough clearance there and it will have to go back to Ruger.

 

[Kevin]

I've had similar problems in my GP100 with varying thicknesses of brass rims on cases. Some brass just seems to fit better, not sure why.

 

[hittman]

An old toothbrush lives in my range bag. Gets used most often for that gunk under the star on a revolver.

 

[soiledpamper]

thanks for the replies. i just bought some winchester 44 special and will try that next time.

 

[98Redline]

When the gun gets hard to operate, does the cylinder spin freely when it is open?

I have an SP-101 that will get difficult to operate if I just use oil on the cylinder/crane interface in the front, and shoot a bunch of dirty loads. The carbon gets up between the cylinder and crane and binds the cylinder up. Even when open the cylinder is hard to turn.
Switched from oil to Mobil 1 grease on the crane and the problem disappeared.

 

[soiledpamper]

yep, cylinder spins freely.

 

[flyerdoc]

I had a similar problem with my new Ruger Alaskan 44Mag. After about 40 rounds I got binding between two particular chambers. Problem resolved for the most part with a really good cleaning and ammo change, but I'm keeping a close eye on it, if it binds again the tolerance might be a tad too close and back to Ruger it will go

 

[steve8261948]

I know you said federal 240gr magnums but, were these hand loaded? Possibly a high primer?
Steve

 

[nn]

Talk to Ruger, the pall may be broke.

 

[soiledpamper]

factory magnums. no reloads.

 

[Captain America]

If it's not an ammo or cylinder clearance problem I would look at the relationship between the pawl plunger spring, the trigger plunger, and the cylinder latch. If anything in there is hanging up or that spring is wedged or broken that could certainly cause your problem but I would think it would show up during dry fire.