Sometimes incompetence, hesitancy, and laziness pays. This time it did.

I wrote in these forums some plural number of years ago that I had a piece of crap Model 63 S&W “Kit Gun†22 LR caliber revolver that I had bought brand new. The problems were two. By the time I wrote about the two, I had made them three.

One problem was that the rear end of the barrel had been finished with a band saw. A burr partially obscured the forcing cone. No joking.

The second problem was that after every 500 or so shots, the cylinder would get so stuck in the frame that it had to be pounded upon to open the action. I called Smith and Wesson. Bless their hearts, they had me completely disassembling the cylinder, soaking in solvent, cleaning all the parts, and re-assembling. That fix lasted for about one brick of ammo, and the revolver went in the back of the safe. If I wanted to breathe solvent fumes after every brick of 22 ammo, I’d just as soon sniff paint and keep shooting.

I helped cause the third problem, and the good folks at Brownells cooperated. I had attempted to correct the forcing cone burr using a defective Brownells’ forcing cone reamer. I made a few passes with the defective tool and boogered the forcing cone. A kind employee at Brownells offered to remedy the situation by sending me a new tool, and if that didn’t fix the problem, he would send me a new barrel.

One of you (Sysephus, I believe), sent me a PM offering to take the gun off my hands. Never having sold a gun, and uncomfortable with going to the effort of figuring out how to do it, I sort of didn’t act on that very fast, while I thought about deciding what to do. My laziness has been rewarded, because the gun works now.

The cylinder-locking-shut problem had nothing to do with fouling. It had to do with the ejector rod working loose. Re-assembling after thorough cleaning has the effect of tightening up the rod and allowing the action to open. To make a long story short, a little counterclockwise twist of the ejector rod tightens up some left-handed threads, and that keeps the cylinder from sticking shut.

Long story:

The ejector and forward cylinder locking mechanism have four major parts: The ejector star (hollow), the ejector rod (hollow), a plunger on the underside of the barrel that hooks into the end of the hollow ejector rod, and a solid narrow rod that runs through the ejector star and ejector rod. The ejector rod has left-handed male threads that connect it to left-handed female threads inside the shaft of the ejector star.

When the shooter pushes the cylinder latch button forward, the solid narrow rod depresses the plunger on the underside of the barrel. The solid narrow rod comes up a little better than flush with the hollow ejector rod, so now the plunger isn’t hooked in the end of the hollow rod any more. The cylinder now can open without being pounded on.

The reason that a complete disassembly, cleaning, and re-assembly corrected the cylinder-locking-shut problem was that I was screwing the ejector rod fully into the ejector star shaft. Back that ejector rod out a little, and the solid narrow rod is a little too short to be flush with the end of the ejector rod. The plunger catches on the lip of the hollow ejector rod, and the cylinder is stuck shut. Turn the ejector rod counterclockwise a bit (remember, it’s left-handed threads) and the cylinder opens and shuts as it should.

The barrel? Well, I have been a bit lazy about that. Until the cylinder-locking-shut problem got corrected, I wasn’t very enthusiastic about re-reaming the barrel on a plinking revolver that malfunctioned every 500 rounds. Now that the gun actually functions, I’ve had it out to the range. It puts 6 bullets in a 1†circle at 10 yards. Sometimes, 4 or 5 of the bullets are in one hole. I think I’m mostly dealing with my ability to see a good sight picture. The gun is more accurate than my hands and eyes. I think I will edify my laziness and not ream any more of that forcing cone. I also don’t have to ask Brownells, “do you remember that new barrel you said you’d send me about 4 years ago?â€

I have owned a number of them and I have one now and have nothing but good things to say about them...They are a neat little gun and real handy..

I have had a S&W M 63 for maybe twenty years. As mentioned it's very accurate. I think they need to be cleaned far more often than every 500 shots!

Mine has rough chambers and fired cases will stick if they are not kept clean.

Overall this is a really nice gun. I like it a lot but still prefer the old Colt Woodsman.

Ray, Savage:

I agree there's not very much wrong with this gun (now that the band saw burr is off the rear end of the barrel). The problem was with S&W customer service. I think S&W was still British-owned when I bought the gun, and the new Safe-T-Hammer management may be running things better.

BTW, I do clean my revolvers, but I think completely stripping them every 500 rounds is excessive.

H. C.

I also have a S&W M63. Mine is also very accurate and I usually clean it way before 500 rounds (at least I think I do). However, just like Savage99, my favorite 22 rimfire is the Colt Woodsman. In fact, everyone in our family has one (4 total).

And I intend no offense to anyone at S&W except the guy on down the line from the one who cut the back end of my barrel off with a band saw and was supposed to finish the job. I'm sure the fellow on the phone meant well when he said to disassemble completely. I say "piece of crap" now merely to say that was my mistaken conclusion earlier.

I still don't see myself getting much use out of this Model 63, because the grips are way too small for my hands. Fortunately, I have a little daughter that I didn't have 4 years ago, and there is hope I can divest myself of this nice but unsuitable sidearm without having to sell it.

For the record, I have shot more than 500 rounds through it, pausing only to tighten the ejector rod, and the gun has performed this without malfunction. I did a "regular" cleaning, not a detailed stripping, and the gun looks good too. If not for the chatter marks from the breech squaring cutter tool (see the last figure on page 259 in Sweeney's Pistol and Revolver book), this would look like a new gun. I hope my daughter likes it.

H. C.

I have a 4" model 63 that I bought back in the 70's.
I've never been happy with this gun. I bought this hoping to have a good quality 22 revolver. The action is rough, the timing was off until I sent it back (and paid) for the timing to be fixed. The folks at s&w told me my problems came from not keeping the front side-plate screw tight. When I keep that screw tight the cylinder is hard to open and close. Also, there is not enough travel in the sights to center the group. My gun shoots several inches to the left.
Yes, it's small and accurate, but don't try to shoot mine double action. And remember to aim about 3-4" to the right of whatever you want to hit. I think I got a lemon. It has been back to Mass. 2 times.
For what I paid I expected to have a nice piece of machinery. Instead I got a balky, ill-fitted crappy gun. And s&w never did anything to fix it except send it back to me and tell me what I was doing wrong. I got tired of talking on the phone to some know-it-all with a ted kennedy accent.
Thanks for letting me bitch.

Have mixed experience with three .22 S&W's, 2 were good, one was junk. My late father's K-22 purchased around 1950 is a beautiful piece of gunmaking work, it simply does everything really good. I have a M651 .22 mag, with a factory fitted 22 LR cylinder that I bought in the mid 90's. It always functions and does everything well also.

In between was a Model 34 Kit Gun with a 2-inch barrel. What a piece of junk. It was very fussy about what ammo it would eject from the cylinder. Some brands nearly had to be beat out. With any kind of ammo after a couple dozen shots it would bind up so tight the cylinder would barely turn. Very big disappointment.

Back in the 70's I was starting out on my own, got my first real job, and started buying more guns. My first handgun was an H&R 22 double action revolver. One day I was at the library and I found an old book called The Secrets of Double Action Shooting. It talked a lot about Ed McGivern. The book is all about the real way to shoot a revolver - double action.
I read that book and practiced and got to be a decent shot with my H&R. The book said the best guns for double action shooting were S&W's. So I sold my H&R and bought the 22 S&W for twice what the H&R cost. Man was I pissed when the smith functioned like a piece of crap. Guess I should have traded it off. Instead I've tried to fix it and learned to live with it.