Colt 1892 cylinder play

I don't own one of these but I know those long grooves in the front of the cylinder lock it even tighter when the trigger is pulled. Like the previous poster said... should be tighter when the trigger is pulled.
 
Looks like the lockup is decent. Its pretty much just lateral pressure from the top of the trigger pushing that cylinder tight against the stops. So if you try to move it with your fingers its going to move with enough force. I have a swiss 1882 and 1892 ml that operate sort of similar. Finish does look pretty worn, guessing this is somewhere between 3-3.5k?
 
Well, unless you have an oddball improved unit... a '92 has 3 locking systems that are separate, yet sort of work together.
It should have the original lock up with the rachet. The 89's pioneered this... ah hem...genius system. Sort of suspends it between the hand and cylinder latch.
But the cylinder would 'free wheel'. A Navy sailor dropped his '89 and 'unalived' himself.
So Colt added on a 'sorta' regular bolt lockup. Some of the 89's are machined for the upgrade.
(An aside, I need a skilled Gun plumber to open the bores on a donor 38 LC cylinder to 41 LC to upgrade mine.)
Back to storytime.
But the cylinder would still freewheel. So there is a 3rd system to lock it in place. You can see the little detents further out on the cylinder.
This unit in the link attached has pretty good lockup for what it is.
I've seen 92's in 38 LC a few times...the years had not been kind to them.
One had been fired a while with bad timing, the side the the barrel, throat maybe? It looked like the feed ramp for a semi auto, but ragged.
The unit in the link? I'd say the timing is about as good as these units get.
 
Something I did while sorting the timing on my 1889 (which is the base timing mechanism for your 1892-the other stops are secondary locks) is prime 12 empty brass and fire 6 single action and 6 double action.

Mark brass orientation and position and you can see timing at the moment of firing for each cylinder and action cycle.

As it got closer to timed the single action pin marks were centered and as it got better the double action were centered as well. Double action tended to over rotate slightly due to wear in the hand, hand slot and ratchet faces as well as crane play/flex. Momentum carries the cylinder past the play as the hammer is dropping.

I would expect an 1892 to be easier to make accurate pin strikes in double action due to the cylinder stops.
 
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