Need advice on Colt 38 Police Positive

[MizSophie]

Hoping someone can help. I have a pre WWll Colt 38 police positive which has been stored for some time. I took it to the range this past week. The first 6 were true joy. Then I started having failure to fire. I maybe got 14 shots off before I said, enough. So any gunsmiths around here have experience with this type of gun? I live in Metro-West.
The ammo I was using was recently purchased and it is MagTech 38 S & W, 145 gr. I believe.
Thanks

 

[dcmdon]

Did it FTF fired in both double action and single action?

Have you cleaned it?
If you ease the hammer down, can you feel it binding or hanging in any way?

Did the rounds that didn't go off have primers that looked much different from the ones that did go off?

Pics of the primers of ones that went bang and ones that didn't, would be VERY helpful.

Don

 

[MizSophie]

Hi Don,
Yes, I cleaned it before going to the range. I also dry fired ( Single and DA) before going . Seemed very smooth . I even had range personnel look at it briefly before going in to shoot. Once inside I only fired DA. I have six rounds that failed. I can see the imprint on the primer. The rest of the ammo looks good to my untrained eye. So when each failed, the trigger kind of got stuck (hard to explain) in the back position. (as if I was shooting single action, which I was not). I was planning on maybe going back and having one of the range personnel fire it and give me their opinion. This Colt is a nice gun and the wood grips are so comfortable in my hands. Anyway, I would post a picture but not really sure how yet. New to this forum so I need to learn how to do the quotes and post pictures.
Thanks for your help.

 

[dcmdon]

Do the primers for the rounds that went off look any different from the primers that didn't go off?

Is the firing pin indentation noticeably different?

 

[MizSophie]

Yes, there is a difference. The six that didn't fire have an indentation on the primer. After the misfires, I emptied the barrel so there were some rounds in that barrel that had not misfired. But 6 total have the small indentation mark.

 

[dcmdon]

Well, they are all supposed to have an indentation mark.

The real question is did the ones that failed to go off have a weaker indentation than the ones that did go off.

This only matters if you only wacked the primers once. If you kept running them around trying to get them to go off, then the answer to this question won't tell us anything.

I'm trying to figure out if your revolver delivers a consistent wack to the primers that is right on the edge of adequate. So some go off and some don't. . . OR if the revolver delivers wacks that are inconsistent. Some good that set off the primer and some weak that do not.

If each case was struck only once, then we have something we can do some diagnostics with.

Don

 

[mark056]

As far as a gunsmith goes , I recommend Mike LaRocca in Worcester. He would be familiar with your PP. He's the only guy in Mass I'll take my Colts to.

 

[dcmdon]

As far as a gunsmith goes , I recommend Mike LaRocca in Worcester. He would be familiar with your PP. He's the only guy in Mass I'll take my Colts to.

Does he do S&Ws also?

 

[mark056]

Yes and does some very nice custom work.

 

[MizSophie]

THe six misfired ones have a tiny pin hole mark on the primer which is different from the others. I didn't keep trying to fire. Once they misfired, I set them aside.

Thanks for the tip on the guy in Worcester.

 

[Dadstoys]

Try pulling off the grips and see what it looks like around the mainspring ect. Look for rust/crud. Some of the old gun grease they used will turn to a shoe leather like material after decades. If you see rust take it to a smith. If is just cruddy, leave off the grips, take some CLP , give it a good emema. Stick the straw into the slot along the timing hand, cock the hammer, blast down there, up into the area at the top of the mainspring ect. Work the hammer/trigger, repeat and let her drip dry a bit. See if it helps

 

[airdrop]

Sounds like hammer speed and power problems, seeing what is going on under the grips is a must. This is an old gun an like the other post grease and possible rust be come prime suspects. But a week hammer spring should be looked at as well, a good gunsmith might be a good thing to think about . If you love it then give it the care it needs you want it to function as best as it can ,it may save your life someday.

 

[dcmdon]

Thats why I was asking about the primers. As others have said, there is a good revolversmith in Worchester. So its probably a no brainer to have him give it a once over. I don't know about the DA Colts but the SA guns are just a nightmare with all their leaf springs.

Don

 

[50 BMG]

As far as a gunsmith goes , I recommend Mike LaRocca in Worcester. He would be familiar with your PP. He's the only guy in Mass I'll take my Colts to.

I agree Mike is great but he is pretty backed up but well worth a call to him. When you cleaned it did you take the grips off? Sometimes grit gets in there and if it travels up into the trigger area it can cause it to hang up. I have one also and although I never had any issues with it I remember when I first cleaned it and took off the grips there was dust and some old lubricant that had hardened like cement.. Remember these are older pistols and sometimes internals can become weak from age and need to be replaced. Congrats on your Colt.