smith and wesson 19-5

skicat

I will soon come into possession of the police trainer revolver listed above and I am wondering is there a good way to evaluate the amount of barrel wear as pertains to the rifling? I'm trying to gauge how much life is left in the thing.

Mark C has gauges he uses to measure the Garands he sells and I'm wondering if there is something similar I could use on a model 19 with a 6" barrel?

CapnMidnight

I would be more worried about the action getting lose, than I would the barrel being shot out. Generally speaking, if you run a lot of 357s through a model 19, they will loosen up and have timing problems, way before the barrel is shot out.
W.D.

charliemeyer007

I knew a guy that ran over a million rounds in a S&W wheelgun, still shot fine. +1 for loose lock up in a well used 19 is the most likely issue, 2nd would be damage from improper or too much cleaning and tons of dry firing and Dick Tracy slamming it shut.

dcs shooters

Check the forcing cone very close for cracks [;)] If it was fired with a lot of full house 357 ammo, it could be cracked. That is why S&W brought the L frame out [^]

beantownshootah

quote:Originally posted by skicat
I will soon come into possession of the police trainer revolver listed above and I am wondering is there a good way to evaluate the amount of barrel wear as pertains to the rifling? I'm trying to gauge how much life is left in the thing.

Mark C has gauges he uses to measure the Garands he sells and I'm wondering if there is something similar I could use on a model 19 with a 6" barrel?

Never heard of such a gauge for a revolver.

If you want to get a good look at the bore (which is what you're asking about) then the best way is to use a bore-scope. But just shining a small light through the breech with the cylinder open and staring into the muzzle can still give you useful information. If there is pitting in there or corrosion, or serious barrel wear, you can probably see it just like so.

But as already mentioned above, the barrel is probably the LAST thing to go on a gun like this.

These guns will basically run forever with "just" .38s, and if this is a true police trainer, there is a pretty good chance it actually was only run with light .38 practice rounds.

With the K frames like this, a steady diet of .357 magnum rounds, especially the 125 grainers, will eventually cause "end shake" (that's front/back looseness in the cylinder), knock the timing out of whack, or crack the forcing cone. You can also look for flame-cutting of the topstrap inside of the frame right behind the forcing cone. The amount of erosion at that spot will roughly correspond to the amount of .357s put through the gun.

You didn't ask, but these are fantastic guns, by the way; excellent for training, home defense, or even hunting.

skicat

Thanks gents, I'm already a fan of the model 19. This will be my third one and I actually used another in much better shape to take my last Whitetail buck. I will be selling or trading this one as I don't need it. My goal is to accurately portray the gun when I do go to sell it. Along with good photos, I wanted to refine my description of the gun to minimize the chance for disappointment for the future buyer.

I will be closely examining and searching for wear in the areas suggested when I pick it up on Tuesday.

62fuelie

Another spot to check is the top-strap above the forcing cone. The high pressure gasses from magnums erode that area and form a cut that will be visible if it has digested a lot of magnum loads. The "K" magnums were intended to provide the capability of firing full-house loads for duty, BUT were expected to use light .38 loads for most training. We cycled our duty magnum loads (W-W 110 grain JHP) once a year and fired the monthly qual with them. Our Model 66's held up just fine for the 6-7 years we issued them before going to autoloaders.