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I'm trying to decide if this is a "problem" or I'm just being silly. I recently purchased a new S&W 629 6" revolver. It shoots great and seems to be accurate, but when I was cleaning it, I noticed that the Cylinder is FILTHY in a way I've never seen before in any of my revolvers. I'm used to the slight burn/carbon ring near the face of the cylinder on the portion parallel with the barrel, but it was fouled in an odd triangular pattern pointing away from the barrel that was about .5" long, that for the life of me can not get clean. I got out a set of feeler gages and found that on the right side of the gun the cyl gap is .006-.007 but on the left side I was able to get a .014 gague in, which to me seems a bit large, and the fact it's that different concerns me.

Am I being absurd, or should I contact S&W?

Is the cyl. Gap uneven on all cylinders? Sounds like a bent crane maybe from somebody hollywooding the cylinder in and out... they make alignment tools but id call S&W and have them fix it.

A lead remover cloth should get the carbon off wherever it may be. They work well for the coon eyes too.

It sounds like you may have a defective gun. I would definitely call Smith & Wesson.

Interesting..... I have not noticed any uneven burning on any part of the cylinder of my 5" M29 Classic, but then I wasn't really looking for it either. Now you've got me worried enough to go check it to make sure. I suppose I'm being a little obssessive compulsive about it, but there it is.

The main thing I've noticed about dirtyness is that .44 magnum seems to leave more powder residue in the chambers and in the barrel than does .44 special (in that same revolver), or than .357 magnum/.38 special in my other revolvers. I have the dies, brass, and primers for reloading .44 magnum, but no bullets yet, so almost everything I've fired through it to date (since 1996) has been commercially loaded ammo. So I'm assuming that lots of residue is par for the course with the cartridge.

I did notice that .44mags are a little dirty compared to other rounds. The rounds I've fired in my Ruger Alaskan .44magnum do leave some residue, but nothing I couldn't get off with my usual cleaning products, the S&W was a different story. Though, the ruger has a .003-.004" gap instead of the .007-.014" of the 629.

Taking a closer look at the 629, the gap at the top of the forcing cone was larger than the bottom while still being larger on the left than the right

Oh well, it was delivered at Smith this morning, we'll see how that goes.

Being only an "armchair amateur" gunsmith, it sounds exactly like a slightly bent crane as mentioned above. The good news is that it's about a 5-minute fix once it makes it to a smith's bench.

Since you sent it to S&W, you'll be happy with the result. From what I'm told, their procedure with any gun shipped to them is to fully strip it, and check everything, verify and bring into spec all the fits and adjustments.

When you get it back, it should be better than a new off-the-shelf 629!

Let us know how it works out!

Well, I got the revolver back a week or so after S&W got it.

Install new BBL.
Replace Yoke screw.

The gap looks better and measured very similarly to my Alaskan (.005-.006) so assuming she shoots ok, I'll be happy. One oddity, the grip on the revolver was installed completely wrong, as in, I could see through the frame with about a 1/3" gap. I put it together correctly and it's fine, but still odd

Makes you wonder who repaired the cylinder if they can't install the grips correctly.

RECIT wrote:Makes you wonder who repaired the cylinder if they can't install the grips correctly.

Musta' been a late Friday afternoon, or early Monday morning!

RECIT wrote:Makes you wonder who repaired the cylinder if they can't install the grips correctly.

Union workers . Probably had 1 person put the left half of the grip on, 1 person put the right half, and a 3rd person to put the screw in. The screw guy can't straighten the grips so out it goes!

I have own several S&W weopons.
FYI
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