How important is it for the gas ring of a m19-3 to be fixed in the cylinder?
I was cleaning earlier and it came out, very easily.
How important is it for the gas ring of a m19-3 to be fixed in the cylinder?
I was cleaning earlier and it came out, very easily.
How important is it for the gun to be "in spec" to you? I don't think it'll blow up and kill the neighbor's dog, but if it's loose it probably won't serve its purpose well. So you'll get crud on the yoke barrel and may experience cylinder binding sooner than later between cleanings.
It was the 19-3 where they first moved the gas ring to the yoke, and then shortly thereafter moved it back. Numrich has the gas rings in stock. You might email someone like Glenn or your buddy Sokol since they probably have the fixtures and tooling to actually press fit the gas ring correctly (and fit correctly).When Senior Product Engineer Richard L. “Dick” Baker asked that question after arriving at S&W–from Ruger–in 1976, he was told that the gas rings had been coming loose on some guns (actually separating from the cylinder) and binding things up, so it was decided to make the gas ring part of the yoke in order to correct the problem
edit: I'd make a joke about JCN hammering gas rings in until no more would fit and then angle grinding the last one down to size, but they don't make 19-3s anymore. If it were a current production gun that you could #YOLO it and then ship it to the factory if that didn't work out with some tepid excuse of "welll... I tried a local gunsmith" I'd say go for it. But given the vintage I'd just have that one done right the first time. Especially while it's still an option and guys like Glenn or Sokol aren't retired yet.
edit2: I don't know if you've ever done much black powder revolver shooting, but the whole "crud accumulating on the axis/arbor/yoke barrel/whatever" is a common problem there. I've got an 1858 and the solution for dealing with the problem that the gas ring later fixed was to lube it and also clean it every few cylinders. If you look at the cylinder of the Remington 1858 or even the Colt 1851 you'll notice they're flat on the front with no provision for a similar part. This is what the gas ring on the original S&W hand ejector was designed to fix. As more and more crud accumulates you'll notice the double action trigger probably get stiffer, any rotational movement of the cylinder get more problematic, etc. AFAIK this isn't so much a safety issue as much as it's a major "quality of life" issue.
Last edited by jh9; 01-18-2022 at 07:17 PM.
Yeah, Glenn was the one who got this one a couple years ago.
Red locktite it is. If it doesn't work I'll just clean it off.
Rocksett maybe? Then you could at least water soften it if needed later.