I have a Super Redhawk in .454 Casull, and last time I took it shooting, I found that the cylinder would bind up when shooting. Meaning: when I tried to cock the hammer, I encountered resistance. I found that the hammer wouldn't cock unless I manually turned the cylinder with my other hand at the same time. This has never happened before, and even after this happened, I set the gun down, let it cool down, and then shot some more, but at a slower rate, and it didn't happen again after it had cooled a bit, so I think it has to do with the gun getting hot from shooting at a relatively fast rate, and likely the accumulation of carbon and lead on the surfaces abutting each other there binding up.
I've taken this gun shooting several times before, but I was always shooting .454 Casull, and you necessarily can't shoot that stuff very fast. This time, I was shooting .45 Colt, which I can shoot a little faster, and that's what the gun was choking on - not that I'm some sort of speed-shooter or anything, just that without the wrist wringing in between shots of .454, it was more like a normal shooting rate.
I cleaned the front of the cylinder and the breech end of the barrel thoroughly tonight with a 3M pad and Hoppes, and later polished them with Flitz, but honestly they weren't very dirty. Maybe enough to matter for the extremely tight tolerances this gun is made to, but just not a whole lot of carbon. Even though I've got these surfaces clean now, and can see metal on both surfaces, when I hold the gun up to a bright light and cock the hammer 6 times, there is still a spot in rotating between two of the chambers where there is only a partial gap, so I think no matter how clean I get these surfaces, the gun will be really tight, and prone to binding up in the future after shooting dirty enough ammo (not that the ammo I was shooting was that dirty - it was Herter's brand .45LC - but I'm guessing that I hadn't cleaned the gun adequately before taking it to the range that day).
My question is, has anybody encountered this problem with their SRH, and what did you do to fix it?
To me, it seems like a very careful application of fine grit sandpaper to the breech end of the barrel to widen the cylinder gap by half a hair would solve the problem, but it seems that I may be crossing into the realm of at-home gunsmithery that may be better left to a professional. Thoughts?
I've taken this gun shooting several times before, but I was always shooting .454 Casull, and you necessarily can't shoot that stuff very fast. This time, I was shooting .45 Colt, which I can shoot a little faster, and that's what the gun was choking on - not that I'm some sort of speed-shooter or anything, just that without the wrist wringing in between shots of .454, it was more like a normal shooting rate.
I cleaned the front of the cylinder and the breech end of the barrel thoroughly tonight with a 3M pad and Hoppes, and later polished them with Flitz, but honestly they weren't very dirty. Maybe enough to matter for the extremely tight tolerances this gun is made to, but just not a whole lot of carbon. Even though I've got these surfaces clean now, and can see metal on both surfaces, when I hold the gun up to a bright light and cock the hammer 6 times, there is still a spot in rotating between two of the chambers where there is only a partial gap, so I think no matter how clean I get these surfaces, the gun will be really tight, and prone to binding up in the future after shooting dirty enough ammo (not that the ammo I was shooting was that dirty - it was Herter's brand .45LC - but I'm guessing that I hadn't cleaned the gun adequately before taking it to the range that day).
My question is, has anybody encountered this problem with their SRH, and what did you do to fix it?
To me, it seems like a very careful application of fine grit sandpaper to the breech end of the barrel to widen the cylinder gap by half a hair would solve the problem, but it seems that I may be crossing into the realm of at-home gunsmithery that may be better left to a professional. Thoughts?