Many years ago I bought a used OM .357 Blackhawk 4 5/8" which I really liked even though I shot 'patterns' and not 'groups'. If I shot lead sized to .359", it would 'group' about 6" at 25 yds off a rest. I moaned about it for years at our shooting range and one old friend said that he had an extra cylinder that he'd give me to cure the problem. Years passed and we never got around to meeting up for an exchange. Fast forward to this year; he was having a problem with one of his Freedom Arms guns; for some reason, he didn't want to send it back to FA, so he sent it to a "gunsmith" who charged him hundreds of dollars (not including hundreds of dollars shipping back and forth) only to tell him that he thought my friend needed to send it back to FA. The "gunsmith" also told him that he eliminated one of the springs in the FA that was doing nothing (whatever that meant). I was very sure that the "gunsmith' had done nothing, so I volunteered to take the FA apart and see if we could see what was causing the problem. So myself, the owner of the gun and another very mechanically astute buddy took the gun apart. We were able to verify that there were no springs "eliminated"; however, we could not 'see' the problem. Our guess was that there was a problem with the hammer/trigger engagement that was causing the hammer to bump forward under the lightest recoil (if I remember the way he described the concern). Anyway, we actually were able to reassemble the thing (it has a lot of springs and a complicated design that is nothing like Ruger simplicty); but we got back together and it functioned albeit without correcting the problem. My buddy insisted on 'paying me back' by giving me the cylinder he had for my sick Blackhawk. We met at our range yesterday and behold, his (rather pristine) cylinder dropped right in; no end play and it locked up and timed perfectly. I shot several 5 shot groups of different sized bullets and loads. All were an immense improvement; my old gun was "saved" to run many more years than either he or I have left. He brought me two boxes of mint Blackhawk hammers/triggers and all the misc parts, springs and screws we all die for but I couldn't find it in my heart to accept them. I told him that I would certainly reach out to him if I ever need something. We are both closing in on the great RoundUp, and I wondered if he was telling me something. Hopefully we both get more years to hobble into the hollow where our range sits (where we talk way more than we shoot).
J.
J.
