Learning to Take Care of Revolvers

[10-6]

Hello everyone,

Younger guy here, bitten by the wheelgun disease and thinking about collecting/using them long-term. If I wanted to learn how to do self maintenance on these guns (Smiths, Rugers), where would I get up to speed?

I've looked for online armorer courses like: https://www.americangunsmith.com/pro...sson-revolvers

Where else should I be looking? Coming from a background of little technical expertise but willing to learn.

[03RN]

Youtube

[Wooosh]

For S&W revolvers, the Kuhnhausen shop manual is a great resource.

For Ruger revolvers, information is a lot more scattered and difficult to find. Gary Bunker (Iowegan) over on the Ruger forum published a couple of guides on Ruger revolvers years ago.

[fatdog]

Subscribe to American Fighting Revolver and start absorbing Bryan's Maintenance Monday segments, a wealth of good info there that you can actually trust.

[That Guy]

For S&W revolvers, the Kuhnhausen shop manual is a great resource.

For Ruger revolvers, information is a lot more scattered and difficult to find. Gary Bunker (Iowegan) over on the Ruger forum published a couple of guides on Ruger revolvers years ago.

Kuhnhausen has written manuals (plural) on Ruger revolvers as well. You'll just have to find the one that covers the models you are interested in.

Those manuals are more about fixing guns, though. Basic maintenance of a functional revolver can be learned perhaps easier and certainly cheaper through other sources, like the aforementioned YouTube videos (as long as you find the right one, that is ).

[jh9]

like the aforementioned YouTube videos (as long as you find the right one, that is ).

That's a load-bearing parenthetical.

There are good and bad videos on youtube by people who do and don't know what they're doing. For a new guy, making the distinction isn't obvious or easy.

Is OP willing to spend money?

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1014247174?pid=262030
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1014251272?pid=472501

Jerry Miculek knows a thing or two about S&W wheelguns. If you want to start out right, get info from a known-good source.

I have the first DVD, and it's good stuff. It's a very good example of both "show and tell". He outlines some function checks (timing, etc) then includes a detailed, step-by-step disassembly/reassembly as well as how to do an effective and simple action job. For someone starting out, I would begin there rather than the Kuhnhausen manual.*

He does work the action with the sideplate off which is... controversial... even for steel guns. Rather than turn that into a multi-page thread drift it's probably best to say it's better to err on the side of caution and not do that. But everything else is good info and, just as importantly, presented well.

The second one I haven't seen but sounds like it might be more in line with what he's looking for. I vaguely recall that there's a lot of overlap between the two videos so be aware of that going in.

*- As mentioned that's for fixing broken guns, and even on that topic it's not exactly a light read and leaves a lot of blanks you have to fill in for yourself. I always saw it as more of a reference for reminding you about details or specs you might have forgotten but actually learned elsewhere. If you buy it as a "how to" guide it's going to be a mixed bag.

[10-6]

That's a load-bearing parenthetical.

There are good and bad videos on youtube by people who do and don't know what they're doing. For a new guy, making the distinction isn't obvious or easy.

Is OP willing to spend money?

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1014247174?pid=262030
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1014251272?pid=472501

For clarification, I’m absolutely willing to dole out the cash if it means I get the correct information and develop my own skillsets. I mean, I’ve already spent a king’s ransom on education, what’s another $100?

[JonInWA]

Simply cleaning and taking care of a revolver isn't difficult. Going deeper into things, where you're removing sideplates, trigger assemblies, cylinders, and going into detailed disassemblies, now that's a different story, and may well involve some specialized tools.

Assess what you need to do, and why. Then proceed, if indeed necessary, with decent, understandable guidance-be it print or other media. Have a decent workshop space, with parts trays and tools. Thinks things through, bot holistically and sequentially, and in advance. Don't be afraid to stop for a break or a larger period of time.

And if things get beyond your capabilities, defer to a knowledgeable gunsmith.

As in medicine, the idea is to do no harm (and to know when to stop before you do so).

Best, Jon

[Stephanie B]

Here is how the Secret Service and the FBI had their agents maintain their issue revolvers back in the day.

[jh9]

For clarification, I’m absolutely willing to dole out the cash if it means I get the correct information and develop my own skillsets. I mean, I’ve already spent a king’s ransom on education, what’s another $100?

That Jerry Miculek trigger job DVD is worth the $20 then. I'd say that in general, but especially if you're starting from a clean sheet of paper.

There should be several threads here where lots of people talk about things like cleaning regimens for higher-volume use. I'm not aware of any good videos that do the same, though.

edit: I guess the executive summary for S&W, at least in my experience, would be something like: Use a nylon brush and aggressively hit the forcing cone and front of the cylinder. Don't bother trying to get rid of the black rings, just make sure to get any buildup that wasn't getting blasted off. Gently brush / use a patch under the star. You can clean the actual chambers less often but enough buildup can cause problems with extraction. Clean the barrel not because you need to, but because if you let it get bad enough you'll spend an entire afternoon scraping all the lead out. Clean ammunition will make your life a lot easier on the last two points. But my IDPA gun could get Glock-levels of filthy and still run so long as I kept the cylinder brushed down in the right places. They don't really get "dirty" under the sideplate from just shooting. That's mostly environmental.