Is it necessary at all to open up a revolver to clean and/or lube inside?

lavino

lavino

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I am always curious about this. Is it necessary under normal condition? Manual never suggest you to open up the trigger cover and do any cleaning so I assume you should be fine without having to mess around that? Does it get dirty and need cleaning etc? Revolver usually have a pretty long life right? Unlike a Glock which I eager to take apart on first one arrival I don't feel comfortable to peek inside my revolvers =( Will all the parts fly apart when you open the cover?
 
I am more of a semi auto guy but I have and appreciate a Smith 586. After a shooting session, I clean (with ballistol ) the nooks and crannies of the cylinder, the chambers and the barrell. Also the forcing cone and all. But I never really disassembled it and it is shooting just fine. Oh yes after many hundred rounds, I do the full barrel clean with wipe out. It is quite effective.
But this is me.
I will let the real revolvers experts chime in now.

Gilbert
 
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I'll pop the side plate off of my Smith revolvers and do a really good clean and lube every four or five years (after they start feeling a little sluggish). It's not needed as a regular thing.

Auggie D.
 
I find that BP guns it's a must. 3 cylinders of shooting my Uberti 1858 and I couldn't believe how every nook and cranny of the internals was coated in black soot. The polished stainless finish didn't help in hiding it either!
 
No I'm sorry - not a gunsmith strip. Just a detail strip and clean. Sorry. Perhaps I misunderstood. I dont, say, remove the trigger assembly and such, no. Sorry. That I do maybe once a year depending on the usage. My apologies.
 
All the major fouling that happens on the revolver are on the cylinder, crane and barrel. There's seldom any reason to open up the side plate to clean the internals.
 
Trinimon said:
All the major fouling that happens on the revolver are on the cylinder, crane and barrel. There's seldom any reason to open up the side plate to clean the internals.
Click to expand...

That is my take on the subject as well. For most people, myself included, more harm than good will come from removing a revolver's side plate.
 
I occasionally stick the little tube on the can of G96 into the inside of action and give it a shot. This washes the crap out and lubes it.

I stick the tube into the slot on the backplate and in the opening behind the trigger.

I think removing the sideplate is likely to do more harm than good, unless there is a problem with the gun.
 
Oil and crud does get into and behind trigger internals and can slow things down with the congealed oil and can start to wear things out, they are not hard to strip and clean just learn how!
If you shoot bullseye powder ie: .38 special it is real dirty W231 works best
Strip once a year is good.
 
Oh and Ganderite Google Mil-Spec # on G96 read it all it just might surprise you, combination cleaners and oils combined do not work the best!
 
Gillis2 said:
I am more of a semi auto guy but I have and appreciate a Smith 586. After a shooting session, I clean (with ballistol ) the nooks and crannies of the cylinder, the chambers and the barrell. Also the forcing cone and all. But I never really disassembled it and it is shooting just fine. Oh yes after many hundred rounds, I do the full barrel clean with wipe out. It is quite effective.
But this is me.
I will let the real revolvers experts chime in now.

Gilbert
Click to expand...

No it won't fly apart. But there is a right way and many wrong ways to take the screws and cover off. I did searches on how to take a S&W apart and also got the right tools to do it. It was a little intimidating first time but wasn't that bad.
My Ruger SBH is really simple compared to a double action though.
 
I pulled the side cover off my 629 for the first time after 12K rounds just to have a look. Black oily dirt that washed out with spray parts cleaner. A tiny bit of grease reapplied to the pivot points and now back to my usual operational cleaning.
I would say that just spraying through any available openings followed by some oil would probably have accomplished most of the same thing but I was curious.
Knowing how little wear there is on the internal parts, it will be a long time before I bother taking the side plate off again. Might remove the cylinder and crane more often since it is only one screw but not every time.
 
I saw and bought a SW Model 17-3 from a gunsmith, some years ago. It was stuck up tight. He said that's not a problem. I paid him and we did the transfer process. In the meantime, the gunsmith submerged the complete revolver in a tank of "secret formula" all purpose cleaner and lube. Two days later, my Model 17-3 came out of the tank and the action felt as smooth as my 686-3. Had no problem with the 17-3 for 8 years until I traded it away.

Since I saw that trick, I never bothered with opening SW sideplates. Just dumped complete revolvers (less grips) into a container of Ed's Red for a couple of days. I blow compressed air through the little openings at the trigger, hammer, recoil shield and inside the grip frame.

A lot easier to strip and clean Ruger a GP100.
 
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