Cleaning a DW Revolver

[rdcinhou]

Well I took the used DW 15-2 2V that I bought to the range today and fired it for the first time.

I made sure that it was properly gapped with the feeler gauge that came with it. 

Just a note that when I bought it the gap was much larger than the gauge, which I've since learned from finding and reading the documentation can be dangerous as lead slag can be ejected through larger gap openings.

I shot about two dozen .38 SPC rounds through it before trying .357 magnum.

My aim at 7 yards was okay as I'm still learning the sights on this gun.

The .357 rounds....wow! I think I woke up the surrounding neighborhood and maybe even registered on any seismometers in the area.

It wasn't too difficult to handle though and I did stay on target.

My surprise came when I went to eject the empty casings and FOUR (4) of them didn't want to come all of the way out!

I had to use a pocket knife to apply a little more leverage to get them out.

I shot another SIX (6) rounds with the same result.

Looking at the empty casings, I didn't see any unusual deformations between the ones that came out easily and the ones that didn't.

I decided that maybe it just needed a good cleaning and cut my session short.

Getting home, I did a little internet searching about .357 magnum casings getting stuck and found that this is a common problem if you shoot both .38 SPC and .357 MAG in the same session. According to some other forums (I didn't find anything here!), dirty .38 SPC ammo leaves a residue that at the higher pressure and temperature of the .357 MAG will form a hardened carbon ring that is a bit on the difficult side to remove.

So at the moment I've disassembled the revolver and have the cylinder in a bowl "soaking"...first with Ballistol, then brushed, and now with Frog Lube followed by another brushing.  So far I haven't seemed to remove enough of the ring to allow an empty casing to insert easily in the four chambers giving me trouble.

I'm going to keep working at it, but just-in-case I can't get it clean enough--anyone have any suggestions ?

[SI VIS PACEM PARRABELLUM]

If the fouling build up in the cylinder is very hard you can leave the cylinder soak for a day in hoppes or what ever your favorite bore cleaner is. After soaking it should brush out nicely.
I grew up on revolvers and I will tell you for certain if you are going to shoot .357 and .38 spl in the same session you must shoot the .357's first. The .38's will always leave fouling further back in the cylinder and the .357 cases get hung up on that when they expand under pressure. Some amoo may be dirtier than others but this condition will happen with any ammo no matter how clean it fires.
This goes for any revolver where shorter rounds can be fired in magnum cylinders.
Also even if you don't do a full cleaning every session at least clean the chambers so you always avoid this issue.

[M1A4ME]

I only have S&W and Ruger .357 magnums. 

The S&W 586, shot thousands of rounds through it 30 years ago, never had extraction issues and it got .38's, hot .38's and .357's shot through it every range trip.

The Ruger .357 is a stainless Speed Six.  Same thing.  We never had issues so we shot it all.

If someone didn't want the noise/blast/recoil of the .357 they grabbed some .38's out of a box and shot that.

When I clean the cylinder I always used a brass brush and solvent and I would inset the brush to the point where the chamber starts to narrow down and then I spin the brush and work it back and forth.  That seemed to get the crud out of the cylinder, no matter where it was.

Clean it every time.  Every time.  Every time.  Skipping cleaning or cleaning steps just allows the crud to build up to the point where it causes problems.

Remember that each gun can/will be different.  When I got my S&W 586 I couldn't get through a box of .357 ammo without the cylinder starting to hang up on the forcing cone of the barrel.  After cleaning, the gap was only 0.018" using my blade style feeler ga.  S&W let one out that had way too small of a gap.  I had to open it up (file and stone, slowly, lots of measuring, opened it up to almost 0.040", just short of the minimum recommended - this was over 30 years ago, so my memory may not be correct) and it worked out fine.  I bring this up just as a point that some guns may have problems other guns don't, or may not have the problem another gun does.  They are all different, in some aspect.

I've heard some M1A rifles have extraction issues.  Brand new ones.  The chamber is rough and the brass sticks to it when fired.  The usual cause, stated by someone, will be a worn reamer that cut a rough chamber.  Take it to a gun smith and get it examined and polished to smooth the chamber walls.  Can you tell if the walls in your cylinder are smooth?  Do you have more than one revolver you can check for comparison?

Good luck with, whatever you choose to do to solve the problem.

[rdcinhou]

The gap for this Dan Wesson series is 0.006 and they supply the feeler gauge with each gun.

During my visual inspection the cylinder walls do look a bit rough.  I'll have to check for a gunsmith that might be able to do a polishing.

My only other revolver is a factory-new North American Arms Sidewinder in .22 WMR/.22 LR--but it has changeable cylinders for each caliber.

I was brought up to clean your guns after each shooting--you couldn't go to bed until it was cleaned and put away wiped-down.

It will be a week before I can shoot it again after my disassembly and soak/cleaning.

I admit that I am a novice at evaluating used revolvers before buying.  I learned an awful lot after-the-fact from pinned postings at www.danwessonforum.com.  I wish I had a printout out of their sequence check procedure when I bought this one--but it was from my favorite LGS whom I trust. 

The procedure at the other forum even considers that you're conducting the check at a gun show with the owner looking at you and recommends explaining what you're doing and why so they don't get anxious.

Thanks for the feedback.  I'll keep you guys posted on my progress.

[jameslovesjammie]

+1 so far to what everyone else has said about .357 and .38 being shot in the same chamber.

Check it out after a good cleaning.  If that doesn't take care of the problem, a good polishing is in order.

How I do it:

• Re-clean each chamber and remove any fouling and oil.
• Chuck a .40 cal bore mop in an electric drill
• Coat the mop with Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish
• With the drill on SLOW speed, run the mop forward and backward through each chamber for a few seconds
• Recoat the mop between cylinders
• Inspect your work as you go
• Re-Clean your chambers again

You aren't going to hurt the chambers or change the dimensions with this compound.  It is gentle enough to polish aluminum, so it isn't going to remove much steel.  After your first chamber is done, you will notice quite a difference between its smoothness and the un-polished ones.

After the polishing, carbon fouling won't stick nearly as bad and brass will come out easier; even .357 after a good dose of .38 Special that day.

[rdcinhou]

jameslovesjammie,

Thanks for the suggestion.  On the "other" forum, someone had suggested fine emory cloth on a dowel as a way to remove the build-up.

An oversized bore mop with a for-purpose metal polish is a much better idea!

Too bad I'm on an assignment away from home and don't have all my tools here with me.

[terry mc]

The gap for this Dan Wesson series is 0.006 and they supply the feeler gauge with each gun.

During my visual inspection the cylinder walls do look a bit rough.  I'll have to check for a gunsmith that might be able to do a polishing.

A couple of things,
I know this is an old thread but I have had 2 Dan Wesson Revolvers.
First fantastic guns, period end of subject.
I still have my model 715 with a 4VH barrel and an EWK 8" barrel with scope rail built in.

So on the feeler gauge if you have not learned it yet. check all your chambers with the feeler gauge.
There is some cylinder runout so some can be tighter than others, so set it for the tightest chamber.
You can also run smaller than the .006 that they sent the gauge for but you can run into fouling interfering with cylinder rotation ESPECIALLY
if you do not gap for the tightest chamber.

I did polish the cylinder bores on both of mine. It helps with the cleaning later.

Another thing I do is I try to keep a wooden dowel or screwdriver in my bag for when an empty case gets stuck.
you can then tap it out from the front side of the cylinder to free it up if you get one stuck instead of prying it out.

[rdcinhou]

Thanks for the suggestions.
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