Contender about to get under my skin

[x101airborne]

A while back, I sent my Gen 2 Contender in to S&W for failure to fire issues. They replaced EVERY internal part of the weapon and sent it back to me. I was grateful, to say the least.
Well, I put on the 30 Herrett barrel and wanted to fire form some brass and the thing will STILL NOT FIRE!!!!
From what I can tell, the safety thingy (yes, that is a technical term) does not drop out of the way far enough to let the hammer fall. What can I do to fix this? I would have thought coming back from S&W it would have been right, but obviously not. Someone help me afore I make this thing into a boat anchor about 30 miles offshore without a rope.

[BK7saum]

Did you only send the frame back?

The locking lugs have to engage far enough to push the "safety" out of the way.

If you have another barrel switch the lugs and I bet its fixed. To check engagement mark the lugs with a sharpie to see how far the lugs go back into the frame.

Brad

[BK7saum]

Just reread that you were fireforming.

If your cases are minimum headspace that can be the cause of your problem.

When fireforming snap the action closed on the case then open
and snap it closed again. That will get the case seated all the way and allow the lugs to seat to the proper depth for the action to fire.

Hope this helps.

Brad

[John Allen]

I had that problem with one of my barrels I sent the barrel and the gun back. My was the armor alloy one.

[scb]

Does it cock and the hammer drop and just not go off or won't the hammer stay back? Will the hammer stay back and not come forward when the trigger is pulled (that's what your description sounds like)? Will it dry fire? If it will dry fire it sounds like your head space it too tight.

[wolfe28]

Good Evening;

Try shutting the barrel a little more "smartly" and see if it will fire. I have a 22 LR barrel that would frequently misfire, and it was because the barrel lugs wouldn't engage the safety unless I really shut the action hard. Once I figured this out, I just polished the barrel lugs and the problem went away.

D

[uscra112]

A while back, I sent my Gen 2 Contender in to S&W for failure to fire issues. They replaced EVERY internal part of the weapon and sent it back to me. I was grateful, to say the least.
Well, I put on the 30 Herrett barrel and wanted to fire form some brass and the thing will STILL NOT FIRE!!!!
From what I can tell, the safety thingy (yes, that is a technical term) does not drop out of the way far enough to let the hammer fall. What can I do to fix this? I would have thought coming back from S&W it would have been right, but obviously not. Someone help me afore I make this thing into a boat anchor about 30 miles offshore without a rope.

Yep, I had exactly that situation on my Gen 1. Spent $$ with Bellm for new hammer spring and some other stuff, and went nuts getting the hammer spring in. Fiddled with lugs and the interlock 'til I was blue in the face. Polished the hammer block slide and the slots it rides in. Tried various ways of lubricating it. Then one day I had the bright idea to stretch the tiny little spring that drives it down when the sear breaks, and voila! All it took was some extra preload in that spring to get the slide clear fast enough so the hammer could fall without interruption. It just wasn't stiff enough to overcome the inertia of the slide! Wrote Bellm about it, thinking that he could offer a stiffer spring. He didn't even bother too reply. My solution doesn't make him enough money, I guess.

Fair warning, if you take yours apart, do it where that spring can't eject itself into the carpet. I dare you to ask me how I know!

[x101airborne]

Well, men. Yall were right once again. Too much pressure on the headspace keeping the lugs too tight to drop out of the way. Close it once, re open it, slap it closed again. Woorked fine. Problem is, this is a 30 herrett and it kinda looks like I will have to shave the rims on my brass. On a fireformed case, I cannot get .002 feeler gauge between the brass and the face of the frame. I am gonna have to do some more playing with this when I get time.

[BK7saum]

You should not have any problems. Just adjust your sizing die to give you a .001-.002" bump on your cases. Most of my T/C stuff will not allow a feeler gauge to fit in the gap on fireformed cases, because they have been expanded and the case head has been pushed back against the breechface.

I usually just adjust the sizing die where the action will close with no resistance and don't bother with the feeler gauge check.

Also, depending on how hot you load is, the contender/G2 frame can flex when fired. This gives no gap between the case head and breechface on fireformed cases.

Don't shave anything until you get a chance to size and reload some of your fireformed cases.

Brad