How do you check a revolver cylinder for excessive play?

steve45

Ive always cocked the hammer and then just checked the cylinder play. It seems all revolvers have a slight amount of play. Is there a measurement? Thanks in advance, Steve.

charliemeyer007

They need to have some room to move. Alignment is more important to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JII__KNLYY0

rufesnow

What is called a "Range Rod", is used to check that the axis of the cylinder and barrel are aligned. Three different parts control this. "Hand", "Bolt" and "Rachet Surfaces" located on the rear face of cylinder.

If there is misalignment. Copper and lead, will be scraped off the side of the bullet as its fired. This can be potentially cause injury to bystanders, and destruction of the revolver.

steve45

Thank You Rufesnow

punchie48

Please correct me if I am wrong but I seem to remember some revolvers (think COLT) that time on the trigger. There would be excess 'play' when the hammer was pulled but lockup would be tight with the trigger pulled and held.

spasmcreek

the 22 revolvers i stuck long barrels on i tried to get 0.003 to 0.004 end gap...some of the cheaper import revolvers has up to 0.017...nasty.....used an 11 degree forcing cone reamer ..and heard somewhere that the large diameter of the forcing cone had a sweet spot at some +% of the bore size but have never found out the amount that is ???...played with 22 and 22 magnum as learning tools ..also had a variety of sizes of flat end steel rods to just slide down the barrel and when a cylinder was cocked and locked if the rod hung up on a chamber you had a problem

navc130

punchie48, my colt New Service revolver locks up exactly as you describe. However, I would not describe the cylinder as having "excess play" before lockup. It actually has very little play before the final lockup.