New S&W 686 plus - hanging up?

[Rush2112]

Not sure if I would call it a hang up or not, but I just purchased a brand new 686 plus and shot 100 rounds through it last week. They were factory Blazer hollow points. After shooting 7 rounds for the first time, all of which were shot in single action, on the very last round, the trigger would become extremely hard to pull with much more resistance, almost as if it was sticking. All of the previous 6 rounds shot fine in SA, except for the 7th. I thought perhaps it was just an issue with shooting it for the first time, however it continued to do this every time I reloaded, only on the last round each time. Now, I am rather new to revolvers, but is this normal? Does the gun just need to be broken in a bit more, or should I be taking it back to my LGS for them to inspect it? Anyone have any similar experiences?

[MARINE DIVISION TWO]

Check to see if primers had bulged after firing a few in the cyclinder would bind up,Also dirty ammo buildup,when cyclinder is empty does it still bind up ?

[zachomega]

Send it back. Could be a bunch of things. I once had a 617 that the barrel and cylinder would rub after very few shots. Made unleashing it and shooting it very difficult.

Could also be internal to the timing. I have an older 686 that probably needs a shim internally for the side plate. It too sticks if all of the internals aren't pressed all of the way down. It can easily be recreated with the side plate off.

That said, don't play with your new revolver. Let Smith and Wesson take care of it.

-Zach

[zachomega]

Check to see if primers had bulged after firing a few in the cyclinder would bind up,Also dirty ammo buildup,when cyclinder is empty does it still bind up ?

Also this. Forgot all about bulged primers. You could also try different ammo.

-Zach

[frankski]

You say this happens in single action, after the cylinder has rotated, so the effect of a bulging primer would seem less likely to be the culprit.

I have two 686+, never had such a problem with thousands of rounds from .38s to max .357 loads.

I’d send it back for a full diagnosis.

[Xringshooter]

Unload it. Mark a cylinder with a marker and close the cylinder with the marked cylinder at the top. That gives you a reference point to use in case it locks up. Cock the hammer SA and dry fire. Continue to do SA and see if it malfunctions. If if doesn't, load it with fired rounds (check the fired primers to insure they are not sticking out), put the marked cylinder at the top and perform the test again. If it works fine then something is happening when you fire live rounds. If it malfunctions with the empty cylinder or with the fired rounds, you can test again with the marked cylinder at a different location to see what happens. Then contact S&W and explain what is happening and what you tried. They should send you a prepaid mailing/UPS label to send it back to them.

You can also try dry firing it both DA and SA a good number of times and see if that changes anything. It might be a burr somewhere that just needs to be smoothed by the dry fire exercise.

[Berncly]

I would be interested in seeing updates as this develops.

[Rush2112]

Update: I started to troubleshoot last night by just dry firing, both with the cylinders empty, and also with fired-brass in them, all fired in single action. In both instances, I wasn't experiencing the "stickiness" on any of the pulls as I was experiencing before... each pull felt fine. If I get a chance this weekend, I'm going to shoot a few different types of factory ammo through her to see if I can get it to happen again. Not sure if it's an issue with live rounds only, but again I had zero issues last night when when dry firing. I will report back with my findings. Stay tuned...

[Bang]

Sounds like something only real firing can create. Assuming it is recoil-related, and it happens on the last shot, think each round fired lightens the total weight of the handgun. Six fired rounds, six less (say 148 gr times six). I would fire six, reload the six, bypass the six and fire #7 and see what happens. If all is well, the gun needs the weight of the unfired rounds to absorb the recoil. The question would then become why.

The single-action system hanging up from a recoil-created anomaly is hard to envision. I would remove the side plate, fire the six rounds, and watch for a change in relationships as the 7th round is staged. (Remove the plate after firing round 5).

[Gunsnwater]

Bullets pulling out? Last one hits forcing cone?