Expert: Dean Speir - 9/6/2008

Question
Dean, Once every couple yrs my wife & I practice shooting. We're both beginners. We recall about 20 yrs ago we were at a practice range and one of the guns we were using jammed  or had some difficulty causing us to quit using it that day. At the time it was the only gun we owned, so we might have rented an add'l gun from the owners of the range. I tell my wife there is nothing about a revolver that can jam. I can understand a misfire because something doesn't hit right. She insists it was the revolver that somehow jammed. We've never had it repaired and it's fine, so I think it's a false memory, but she usually has a good memory. What are your thoughts? What can happen to a revolver to cause us to have to stop shooting at a range?

Answer
Usually when a revolver "stops shooting," Ed, it's because it's out of ammunition.

Revolvers generally don't "jam." They can' of course, "bind up" if a part breaks or maintenance is especially poor: excessive propellant build-up on the face of the cylinder, or on the other end, a poorly-seated primer partially backing out of its pocket. Both conditions would impair the cylinder's rotation.

I've also seen the rimmed cases of the garden-variety revolver round get caught under the extractor star, and that's often tough to clear.

Other... albeit rare... instances are when a squib-load (significantly under-powered) occurs, and the projectile (bullet) makes it into the barrel without fully clearing the cylinder. As I say, that's really unusual, because even just the force of an ignited primer and no propellant (powder) will normally send the projectile all the way into the barrel!

And then you have a different sort of problem entirely!

G'luck and I hope this was somewhat helpful to you. Make sure you share this with your wife, but only under the proviso of No Crowing!