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Armscor M200 - Hammer fails to fall

4K views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  Dutchboy 
#1 ·
A strange thing happened at the range today, and I'm wondering if any of the forum experts have some ideas about what happened.

The revolver was an Armscor M200. 38 Special. Externally, it looks like a Colt. Internally, it may be different - I don't know. I've shot about 1000 rounds with this gun. No problems with it.

After about 25 rounds today, I had a problem while shooting single action. The first two shots were fine. On the third shot, I cocked the hammer, and pulled the trigger. The hammer fell forward just a tiny bit, maybe 1/16", and then it stopped. I don't really remember what happened next. I think I held the hammer with my thumb, released the trigger, and the hammer came down slowly as the trigger moved forward.

I swung open the cylinder, and looked things over. I didn't see anything interesting. Then I lined up the cylinder, closed the gun, and pulled back the hammer to cock it. The gun was cocked, and the cylinder was lined up with the round that I just tried to fire. When I pulled the trigger, the same thing happened, the hammer fell forward just a tiny bit and stopped. I kept the gun pointed down range and slowly released the trigger. The hammer slowly came down as the trigger moved forward.

I swung out the cylinder, dumped out the remaining rounds and looking things over. I saw nothing interesting. I dry fired the gun in single action a couple dozen times. No problems.

Then I finished the box of 50 rounds, and had no further problems.

Does anyone have an idea about what was happening? I've never seen such a thing before. The gun was perfectly clean and lubricated before I started shooting today, by the way.

Thanks for the input.
 
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#2 ·
hmm.. interesting?

does that gun have an integral trigger lock mechanism that uses a key?

any other safety hammer setups?

I have a friend with a bersa thunder that was engaging the hammer block without the safety being on.

stripping it down, cleaning and lubing it solved the problem. now.. that's a semi auto.. not a revolver.. but i have seen some revolvers that use a lil key to trigger lock them..
 
#4 ·
I think Armscor has a lifetime warranty. Perhaps they will fix it.
I've got one of these that was my dads. It's never been fired. But I know he paid less than $200. for it. Altho they look like a Colt, they certainly are not. 1000 rds might be the magic number as to when they shoot loose.
I'm curious as to what weight ammo you use. I know that the S&W M-66 .357 is said to deteriorate quickly using lighter bullets. I wonder if this also pertains to (cheaper) .38SPL revolvers?
 
#5 ·
Mostly I've shot 158 grain lead bullets at moderate velocities. All of it was reloads. The gun isn't loose at all. Nothing has really changed with the gun over the years, except the trigger has smoothed out quite a bit. The only problem has been these two strange failures of the hammer to fall. I have not been able to recreate the problem with dry firing.
 
#6 ·
I took the revolver apart and figured things out. Here's the deal: This revolver has two sears, one for single action and one for double action. The double action sear comes first. The single action sear comes second. When the gun is cocked in single action, and the trigger is pulled, the two parts of the double action sear need to be able to slip past each other, without touching, in order for the hammer to fall all the way down. In my gun, if the trigger was pulled just barely enough to break the single action sear, it was possible for the double action sear to catch and stop the hammer from falling all the way. The solution was to take some 600 grit sandpaper and polish down the tip of the little arm on the hammer that lined up with the double action sear face on the trigger. By shortening that tip a tiny bit, I opened up the clearance and made it harder for the double action sear to catch when the single action sear let go and dropped the hammer.

I'm not sure why the problem developed. Maybe it's because 95% of my shooting with this gun has been double action, and the double action sear wore funny. I don't know. But, the problem seems fixed. We'll see how it goes next time I take this gun to the range.
 
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