Weird Smith M41 Trick

[fourarmed]

When the frame on my old HS Victor cracked in the third location a couple of years ago, I bought a new S&W 41. I mounted an Ultradot sight and Fung grips, and made it my bullseye gun.

It is reasonably accurate and functions well, but it has one quirk that is driving me crazy. More often than not, the first round of slow fire goes in the five-ring at 1:00, and the hole is noticeably elongated, indicating that the bullet is tipping. This is with CCI SV ammo, and occurs even though I break the shot in the black. It only occurs with the first shot. After that, everything is normal. For a while, I tried to convince myself that I was causing it by flinching, but I don't think even I can flinch enough to cause keyholing, and I almost certainly flinch more than once.

I haven't yet designed an experiment to see if cleaning, lubrication, disassembly, or the way I hold my mouth has any effect on this problem. I thought I would ask around if anyone else had one that does this.

[frankenfab]

Are you by chance closing the slide on the first round by releasing the slide stop and letting the slide slam shut? If so, maybe that bullet is struck by something at a different angle or speed when the action closes, damaging the bullet?

[I'll Make Mine]

Are you by chance closing the slide on the first round by releasing the slide stop and letting the slide slam shut? If so, maybe that bullet is struck by something at a different angle or speed when the action closes, damaging the bullet?

If the first round is loaded from the magazine, releasing the slide stop and letting the action close on its own is the closest you'll get to the way it loads the second and following rounds. Closest you'll get, but probably not identical; I'd agree, it sounds as if something is damaging the bullet in that first round. Try loading as you normally do, then pull the magazine and eject the first round (carefully) for examination.

The magazine is as likely to be at fault as the action, BTW -- does this happen with more than one mag, assuming you have spares? Is the bullet hitting something inside the well when you insert the magazine (this would happen with all mags, of course)?

[Shiloh]

What do you suppose caused the cracking??

Shiloh

[fourarmed]

Frame cracking on Victors seems to be endemic to their design or construction. Apparently, they all did it if fired enough. Don't know why the other military frames don't seem to have the problem. Mine had one crack when I bought it. I went ahead and shot it for years until I noticed two new cracks starting on either side of the ejector.

[wv109323]

Is the first shot from a clean bore? I very very seldom clean the bore of a .22 LR. I clean the chamber quite often but leave the bore alone. A .22LR will very seldom lead the barrel.
Another thought : Has the pistol been field stripped before each bad shot? I know if I removed the barrel from a High Standard I would drop the slide against the breech face two or three times to seat the barrel in the push button takedown. could be something like that.

[kcajeel]

On the later Hi-Standard models the frame has a tendency to crack at the milled out area under the right hand grip. The crack being a horizonal line at the right side of the frame rail. This is believed to be caused by using hi velocity ammunition and aggrivated by the recoil springs weakening over the years. Pull your slide off and turn it over, you can see your spring. I bet you can see physical wear patterns on it. New springs can be purchased from Brownells and Wolffs Gunsprings.
Be good to the old girls and feed them standard velocity.