How To Evaluate A Used Revolver
Does It Run — Or Should You?
Vintage guns like this Colt Police Positive Special often look great and shoot even better. Often, but not always!
I think very few of us would be likely to declare the revolver “dead.” In fact, I believe most of us find them to be serious tools still eminently suitable in 2024 for punching paper or for defensive use — even those made more than a half-century ago!
Perhaps you’ve spied a vintage revolver in a local consignment case, sitting like the proverbial puppy in the window as the kids pass it over for their striker-fired wondernines. Such revolvers typically offer years of shooting far out of proportion to what are usually modest asking prices. However, these guns certainly aren’t getting any newer with the passage of time and perfect functioning isn’t guaranteed.
I’m pleased to share a few criteria I use to separate screaming deals from potential headaches and wall hangers. I hope these tips will lead to good guns going to good homes.
Revolvers are less “simple” than people think and each piece of the lock work plays a critical role.
Normal Functioning
Your first test should be to subject the revolver to the usual gamut of expected operations. After verifying an unloaded gun, make sure the hammer cocks and the trigger drops the hammer in the single-action mode and where applicable, verifying the double-action mode works as intended. Pay attention to the feel of the trigger — does it seem frozen, unduly stiff or extremely gritty?
Because these steps involve dry fire, it’s a good idea to bring some snap caps along with you for any gun you’re considering purchasing. A good gun store should have some. A private seller most likely will not — and may not take kindly to you rapidly snapping the trigger of their gun without them.
You’ll also want to open and close the cylinder, making sure nothing feels stuck or frozen. Does the ejector rod move freely? Does the cylinder spin without resistance? Does the ejector rod appear bent in any way?
he dimensions of small parts are critical, especially where
the trigger interfaces with the hammer sear. You don’t want
just anyone making changes to them.
Timing
Since a revolver’s most important job is to revolve, it’s essential to screen for more subtle issues. When one begins to cock the hammer or pull the trigger, an intricate dance of small parts commences. The “hand” connected to the trigger will begin to press up against the notches of the cylinder ratchet, turning the cylinder to index the cartridge until the cylinder stop prevents further rotation. Ideally.
When the timing is worn, usually as a result of degradation of the hand, cylinder star, or cylinder stop, this chain of functioning is disrupted. Commonly, cylinders will be misaligned enough to shave lead — that is, when the side of the bullet scrapes against the rim of the forcing cone. If so, expect a spray of fine metal mist through the cylinder gap. It may hurt and it will degrade your accuracy.
You’ll want to check the timing separately for each chamber, since cylinder notches and ejector ratchets aren’t always uniform. To do this, cock the hammer as slowly as you can. At the end of the hammer’s travel, the hand should push the cylinder into alignment for the next cartridge and the stop should lock the cylinder in place. If the cylinder must be rotated by hand to “click” into alignment at full cock, the revolver’s timing is bad.
Why perform this test slowly? Supposing the gun is cocked vigorously, the hand gives the cylinder more power to “carry up” by virtue of extra momentum imparted to the rotating mass. Guns carry up more easily when shot in DA as opposed to SA, since the deliberate rearward motion of the trigger gives a good upward shove against the cylinder star.
I’ve heard some claim everything is fine if the gun can be carried up through normal DA trigger operation or by cocking the gun “like you mean it.” I strongly disagree — if the gun doesn’t time right even on a single chamber, it has a problem and it’s only going to become worse with use.
A cocked hammer should stay cocked,
even when pushed on or wiggled.
Safety Checks
These should be instant dealbreakers, since they could lead to dangerous safety issues. Any kind of structural crack should be a no-go. Most commonly, you’ll find the problem manifested as a 6 o’clock crack on the forcing cone, or running lengthwise through the frame just south of the rear sight.
Here, some users confuse the seams of a revolver’s side plate or trigger group with a crack. As a general note, cracks are typically irregular, whereas the seams of removable pieces tend to be continuous curves or unbroken straight lines.
You also want to make sure the previous owner didn’t muck anything up with a sloppy trigger job. When the hammer is cocked, it should stay cocked. Wiggle it with moderate pressure back and forth and side to side to test sear engagement. If the hammer slips and comes forward, that’s bad news!
More insidious are barrel bulges. Some will be ridiculously obvious — a ballooned-out section of tube often indicates a previous owner stuck a bullet and then shot another one behind it. In such cases, the barrel’s strength and accuracy are immediately questionable. With particularly bad examples, you’ll be able to feel the dimensional differences.
I also like to check the cylinder gap. Ideally, you should just be able to see daylight between the forcing cone and end of the cylinder. Between 0.004″ and 0.009″ is ideal. If the gap is tighter, you’re likely going to be encountering sluggish operation of the cylinder as it gets fouled. If the gap is much looser, the shooter will encounter velocity loss as a result of a larger quantity of escaping gas. If the gap is particularly egregious, sometimes the case when a shade tree “gunsmith” changes out a barrel, you could get velocity loss significant enough to stick a bullet.
If you don’t have a set of feeler gauges, here’s a trick that works for me. A dollar bill is about 0.004″ thick. If you can just get a dollar bill into the cylinder gap, it is ideal. Fold the dollar bill over once real flat, and the creased corner will be just under 0.009″ — about your max acceptable range. Supposing you can wiggle a credit card between the cylinder and forcing cone, the gap is far too large.
Also, if the cylinder can be wiggled forward and backward by more than about 0.002″ when closed, it has end shake issues that will need to be corrected.
Those little notches on a revolver’s ejector star aren’t
there for looks: It’s essential they be uniformly and precisely cut.
The hand and cylinder stop are small, easily worn parts — and hugely important to revolver timing
Down The Bore
With the gun safely cleared, you now want to look down the bore. If you lack a small flashlight, use a smartphone to bounce light off the recoil shield. While a little bit of gunk is probably fine, you want to make sure there aren’t any weird rings (possible bulges) and verify the rifling is sharp and well-defined. If the bore is pitted and looks like a sewer pipe, or if the rifling is now merely a suggestion, the gun will likely shoot poorly. I would also inspect the crown: It should be uniform and cut cleanly.
Additionally, you want to check bore and cylinder alignment. On every cylinder you want to make sure you’re seeing a perfect circle of light looking straight down the bore, with no view of any cylinder wall. If you do notice obstruction, it’s another clue the gun may shave lead.
I also like to hold the gun out in front of me to make sure the barrel is centered with respect to the frame, with no odd lateral cant or bent. Additionally, I want to ensure the front sight isn’t sticking out at an odd angle with respect to the rear sight to ensure a reasonable degree of certainty the gun will print bullets where I aim.
Want a Colt Python for $600? If so, don’t overlook revolvers with a little finish wear.
Cosmetic Issues?
Often, the ugly ducklings — those guns with a large amount of finish wear — make for great purchases. You know these as the prototypical “carried much, shot little”-types.
I wouldn’t be concerned with any wear at the sides of the muzzle and the high points of the cylinder. For police surplus guns, these are mostly signs of being unholstered and re-holstered more than anything else. You may find more finish loss on the underside of the trigger guard where the middle finger of the dominant hand sits. No biggie!
Quite often, a gun looks worse for wear than it actually is. If it checks out via all of the above diagnostics, you could have the makings of a great deal. Especially among the various gun auction sites, a great number of shooters are unduly deterred by finish loss and surface rust. Their loss can be your gain.
I would also add these various criteria can be applied to new guns as well! A well-made revolver from a quality manufacturer should pass all of these checks. You would be surprised how many actually do not and require warranty work to correct.
Armed with all the above tips, you should have a great reference for capitalizing on good deals while avoiding the unwitting purchase of a troublesome project. The only thing left is to get out there and find your next wheel gun!
