I have cleaned my fair share of GP100's in 34 years.
I have cleaned my fair share of GP100's in 34 years.
Regarding fouling in GP100s:
I shot 302rds through my 5" GP100 today, bringing it to a total round count of 507. I have never disassembled it, just did normal cleaning without disassembly after my last range trip (before this one). After about 172 rounds today (total round count 377) I occasionally felt some additional weight in the trigger. Not every pull necessarily. I took out my cleaning brush and scrubbed the cylinder face, rear of the cylinder, both sides of the ejector star, the forcing cone, and bolt face. It seemed to help for a bit and I kept doing that every few cylinders or more for the rest of the range session. All ammo was Magnums today except thirty-eight rounds of .38 Special. The first
Same thing happened, more or less, with my 4" stainless GP100, which before today's range trip was at 510 rounds fired. By the end of this range trip it has a total of 605 rounds through it.
I assume (hope) that this is a product simply of the gun getting dirty, rather than a sign that timing is starting to go out or something, is this correct?
Edit: I’m home now and I don’t feel additional resistance on both while dry firing, but I did give both a little scrub at the range before putting them up.
Last edited by SwampDweller; 02-29-2024 at 04:13 PM.
Pretty much just grime. Over time build up will cause issues. Typically I'll clean my revolvers after each range trip (generally 150 to 200 rounds): bore snake through barrel; wipe down of exterior surfaces with particular attention to cylinder face, forcing cone, and under the extractor star. Lead will typically give you more dirty surfaces so typically I stick with jacketed, plated, or coated ammo.Originally Posted by SwampDweller
no one sees what's written on the spine of his own autobiography.
Ammo used through both has all been Federal American Eagle 158gr SJSP, Remington 158gr SJHP, Hornady Critical Defense & Duty, and Barnes 125gr. I don't know if the semi-jacketed bullets could be more dirty, but either way I suppose it's time to break down both and give an internal cleaning maybe.
Those are pretty low round counts for needing an internal cleaning. If you keep the barrel cylinder gap, extractor star, and chambers clean you've covered a lot of bases on a revolver. I've got revolvers with thousands of rounds down range that I've never touched the internals on.
no one sees what's written on the spine of his own autobiography.
If I have read this right, you shot 359 rounds of magnum ammo plus 38 of .38 in one range session?! WoW, you go girl...
To answer what has already been answered, yes, its carbon build up. You will be good to go after a good cleaning.
It kind of puts a damper on the myth that revolvers are reliable and never malfunction.
Alright. I feel a little bit of grittiness sometimes with the 5" but I'm going to give it a good normal cleaning as you describe. The 4", which has 605 rounds through it, feels normal, but my range session round counts with that have been shorter typically than the 5", so it has had more cleanings in between.
Those Hogue Tamer grips make a world of difference. I didn't feel any fatigue at all.If I have read this right, you shot 359 rounds of magnum ammo plus 38 of .38 in one range session?! WoW, you go girl...
To answer what has already been answered, yes, its carbon build up. You will be good to go after a good cleaning.
It kind of puts a damper on the myth that revolvers are reliable and never malfunction.
I see revolver reliability as DB has described: they're not as reliable as semi autos in that semi autos can run through 1k rounds in a range session without a hiccup, whereas revolvers typically cannot without cleaning. However, in actual real-world shootings, revolvers can be more reliable if they're clean and well maintained.
So I did a normal cleaning on both without any kind of disassembly. Y'all were right, no detailed disassembly/cleaning was required. The triggers feel totally normal. It's also possible that yesterday, I was perceiving heavier trigger weight because I was shooting 400 rounds of un-modified double action trigger pulls and my finger was likely getting fatigued. This is supported by the fact that the tip of my trigger finger was a little bit numb during trigger pulls by the end of the range session.
Something weird happened a bit earlier. I was cleaning my 4" GP100 that has 605 rounds through it, and during cleaning I simply pushed the cylinder back in as normal (it wasn't disassembled, just swinging it back in like normal). It was extremely stiff and when I did finally get it in, the trigger would only come back slightly and stop. I fooled with it for a moment and swung the cylinder back out, and then it was back to normal. I can't seem to replicate the phenomenon. Closest I can come is if I push the cylinder back in but slightly not all the way.
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