Pistolero
Well-Known Member
No, not necessarily.
Some are, some go a long time. The issue is "baked in" the design. Take a Colt revolver and cock the hammer and
hold back the trigger just at firing. Then wiggle the cylinder. Then do the same with a S&W. The Colt is
locked up absolutely solid, but the S&W has a noticeable bit of rotational "slop". Folks think this is bad on
the S&W but it is why they keep time. Without line boring each cylinder hole in the frame of the gun it will
live in, using the cyl stop notches to align it, it is impossible to get each cylinder hole to line up perfectly
with the barrel. The lateral misalignment WILL be "corrected" at the instant a bullet leaves the cylinder
and enters the barrel - no matter what force it takes to make it happen. Won't bend the bullet, but
WILL flex the frame and push on the other parts.
At the moment of firing a Colt has the hand pushing the ratchet up hard, holding the cylinder against
the cylinder bolt (stop). When there is misalignment, the hand or bolt gets a mighty whack each shot fired.
Some guns (a lot of them) have very good alignment on all cylinders, will go a long time before they
wind up with a short hand. Other guns have a cylinder hole or two that are a touch off - will slowly
beat the hand into submission, get short timing issues. A few have many "bad" cyl holes, timing goes
more quickly. Most Colts are well made, last well.
Since your gun is old and has good timing, it is pretty likely to hold it for a long time, and the good
accy shows this too. Colts are more complex inside too, and parts have some critical shapes that
interact. When tuning, take off a few thousandths too much in one area of a couple of parts and you then
need to compensate by taking a touch off of the other end of a different part. Can take some tail chasing
to get it all "happy".
Old, surviving Colts that have good timing when you get them is a sign of a well fitted, happy
gun, and will likely stay that way for a long time, well unless it hasn't been shot much. If it shows
honest wear (meaning it was shot a good bit) and it is accurate and timed well, expect a long life.
Too much hand fitting required due to design tends to make Colts not as easy to build in today's
environment. S&W's design does well with "good enough" tight manufacturing tolerances.
Of course, huge amounts of manufacturing sloppiness is covered up by the fact that few shooters
can shoot a group better than 6-8" at 25 yds with ANY pistol. So, even a pretty horrible job will
satisfy a very large part of the market.
Bill
Some are, some go a long time. The issue is "baked in" the design. Take a Colt revolver and cock the hammer and
hold back the trigger just at firing. Then wiggle the cylinder. Then do the same with a S&W. The Colt is
locked up absolutely solid, but the S&W has a noticeable bit of rotational "slop". Folks think this is bad on
the S&W but it is why they keep time. Without line boring each cylinder hole in the frame of the gun it will
live in, using the cyl stop notches to align it, it is impossible to get each cylinder hole to line up perfectly
with the barrel. The lateral misalignment WILL be "corrected" at the instant a bullet leaves the cylinder
and enters the barrel - no matter what force it takes to make it happen. Won't bend the bullet, but
WILL flex the frame and push on the other parts.
At the moment of firing a Colt has the hand pushing the ratchet up hard, holding the cylinder against
the cylinder bolt (stop). When there is misalignment, the hand or bolt gets a mighty whack each shot fired.
Some guns (a lot of them) have very good alignment on all cylinders, will go a long time before they
wind up with a short hand. Other guns have a cylinder hole or two that are a touch off - will slowly
beat the hand into submission, get short timing issues. A few have many "bad" cyl holes, timing goes
more quickly. Most Colts are well made, last well.
Since your gun is old and has good timing, it is pretty likely to hold it for a long time, and the good
accy shows this too. Colts are more complex inside too, and parts have some critical shapes that
interact. When tuning, take off a few thousandths too much in one area of a couple of parts and you then
need to compensate by taking a touch off of the other end of a different part. Can take some tail chasing
to get it all "happy".
Old, surviving Colts that have good timing when you get them is a sign of a well fitted, happy
gun, and will likely stay that way for a long time, well unless it hasn't been shot much. If it shows
honest wear (meaning it was shot a good bit) and it is accurate and timed well, expect a long life.
Too much hand fitting required due to design tends to make Colts not as easy to build in today's
environment. S&W's design does well with "good enough" tight manufacturing tolerances.
Of course, huge amounts of manufacturing sloppiness is covered up by the fact that few shooters
can shoot a group better than 6-8" at 25 yds with ANY pistol. So, even a pretty horrible job will
satisfy a very large part of the market.
Bill