Polished and rust-blued the barrels on an LC Smith I have. It shoots fine, but it sort of hangs up and is difficult to fully open. It'll do it, but requires some extra effort to fully expose the cases for extracting them and reloading. I don't think this happened before. Any advice where to look for the problem? Thought it was likely metal particles, but have cleaned it out a number of times.

Thanks,
Steve

Perhaps something causing the extractors to hang up? Did you perhaps miss oiling the "tunnel" (don't know what it's calles) which holds the extractors and it needs lube?

Thanks for the responses.

It'll open, but just shy of allowing the shells to be removed unless I push a little harder, then it's open. But it'll slowly close up that last 1/8th of on inch again if I leave it open a couple of seconds.

Duane, are you talking about the extractor push lever, or something else I don't see (extractors are facing the right way)?

Did you completely disassemble the action parts? It sounds like the sear and hammer are out of time. The cocking bar may be pushing down inside the forearm metal because the sear could be a little short on cocking the hammer back enough. It is hard to solve without having it in hand to inspect. Check the forearm hanger on the barrel to make sure that it hasn't broken loose.

Les

It's not that unusual for them to be just as described. If you don't really remember if the gun was like this before the work, you may be looking for a problem that doesn't exist.

What you are seeing is the hammer(s) coming back to rest on the sear(s) after they are cocked by the opening of the bbl movement.
The length of the sear nose and the position of the sear notch on the hammer itself dictate where the hammer rests when it's cocked.

What is happening is that the hammer at full cock is a bit too far forward in position.
When the bbls are opened that tiny bit further, the cocking arm engages the hammer directly once again and under the mainspring pressure pushes it back.

It's the mainspring pressure of the lock(s) that you are feeling as resistance in that last 1/8 or so opening.
When you relax the bbls, the cocking arm working off the forend then releases pressure and allows the hammer to come forward again but only as far sear & hammer engage once again in the cocking notch.

Some hammer guns were (supposedly) set up like this to allow the gun to be carried loaded but with the bbls dropped open when hunting. A safer carry than closed and hammers at half cock.
The slight rebound of the bbls kept the shells from falling free of the gun while walking and traversing the field obstacles. Maybe some hammerless purposely set up this way too.
Most people find it annoying to use the gun this way.

You see this somewhat annoying feature in guns today that have been worked over sometimes. If the sear notch in the hammer has been re-cut or re-shaped,,or the tip of the sear recut/reshaped,,the same thing happens.

A longer sear nose can 'fix' the problem but it's not a kitchen table fix-it job.

In the LCS,,the cocking cam at the back end of the cocking rod,,the piece that actually cams the hammer into its full cock position can SOMETIMES be carefully reshaped so that it does not over-cock the hammer as it is doing.
It's backwards way of a fix, but it can be done. It's not an easy thing to do either and a touch to much,,the lock won't cock at all for you.
It's a touch, feel, and spotting in repair as you really can't see it at work.

Sometimes you see the crank(s) on the cocking rods up front ground on & thinned. That'll allow more clearance and do the same thing. But that looks like the butcher job that it is.

Some guns were designed that way as a safety measure. You could break the action open to cross a fence or ditch without the cartridges falling out.

The cocking pushrod/hammer/sear system being slightly long makes sense to me. And I'm pushing against the hammer springs to completely open it. I am glad to understand it, though I will probably leave it.

If I do try to remedy it, I'll try making a new sear with a longer nose using the old one as a model vs welding the existing one up and possibly changing another critical dimension while trying to fit it.

Thanks for the help,
Steve