44 mag with locking up hammer.

[Doc Holliday13]

A friend of mine just bought a brand new S&W 44 mag. He said he was shooting yesterday and the hammer assembly locked up on him and the cylinder spins freely. I havent looked at it yet but I'm guessing that it needs cleaning, the sear stoned lightly, and to be lubed.

I haven't seen it yet so I'm just thinking out loud right now.

[eljefe]

Send it back to S&W and they will fix it under warranty.

[Edubya]

S&W will probably send him a "pick up" tag. It should not cost him a thing (except a couple of weeks of non-use).
I do think that someone with a lot of shooting experience ought to try to get the same failure though. A friend of mine was having troubles with his Kimber and I took it out to the range and had not one failure. He was inserting the magazine too gently and the first round would fail to feed.

EW

[454PB]

Before he sends it in for repair, there are two common (and easily remedied) problems with S&W revolvers:

The ejector rod can loosen to the point that it ties up the action. Tighten it by turning it COUNTER CLOCKWISE.

Sometimes unburned powder gets lodged under the ejector ring, preventing it from fully seating. Years ago I use to use Hercules 2400 and I had this problem frequently.

[Doc Holliday13]

Send it back to S&W and they will fix it under warranty.

Well it might not be broke. My line of thought is that its dirty and has a lack of lube. Sending it S&W would put him out of a gun for a few weeks. I'm pulling it apart this afternoon when I get up from bed(i work night shift)

[eljefe]

Good on ya...I hope you realize that gently stoning the sear, as you eluded to in your first post will void his warranty.

Best of luck.

[Char-Gar]

Eljefe beat me to it. You start tearing into that pistol and stoning parts, the warantee is gone, gone, gone. A new pistol should not be doing that. Resist the impulse to tear into it and have you pal sent it back to Smith. If you don't, he might not be your pal at the end of this road.