[buffytvs39]

Picked up my new 605 Poly Protector on Sunday Night. Brought it home and gave it as thorough of a cleaning as I could. Monday morning took it to the Range. FIred Blazer 158gr JHP, Handload 140gr Jhp, and Handload 38 Spc 125Gr JHP. I fell in love with the revolver, at least when it would work. Occasionally it would seem that the revolver would lock up and not fire, on all three loads. In working with it I found that I could get it to cycle if I pulled the hammer back, with great difficulty, and set it up single action. At that time the single action trigger pull would become horrendous, and once it took a left and right finger together to discharge.
In inspecting my brass at the range I saw some scratches on primers for the rounds that were difficult to fire, so I figured it may be due to the tight tolerances of the fire arms, and maybe some high primers on my handloads, but this didn't explain all the malfunctions.

Upon returning home I inspected all my brass after tumbling and I found scrape marks on the edges of many of the rims. Removing the cylinder and inspecting the back of the firearm I saw brass scrapes on the top near the firing pin and the bottom. Pulling out my magnifying glasses I saw that there were definite height variations in both locations.

Using a fine file i spent 3 hours gently lowering the high spots on the top and bottom until they were almost flush with the low spots. I would periodically check the tolerances by running 30-40 brass pieces through and check the cycling. After this work I was able to cycle all the brass without issue.

I need to take it out to the range to be sure, but I may have solved the issue. Now I will just need to blue the areas I worked on.

 

[claude1]

I hope it works out for you my Model 85 protector polymer 38+P is in for repair now. My cylinder would not work in the single action mode. But it worked in the double action mode. I looked it over real careful and could not see what was causing the problem. I really like the firearm I just hope Taurus will be able to repair it. Good luck with your 605.

 

[Rossi]

Did it do this on the first couple of rounds? Did you clean it and try cycling it after you where done shooting? Wonder if the cylinder gap is so tight that a little powder residue makes the thing hang up. Happened to me recently on a couple of old S&W's.

If you cycled it at home without problem before shooting it, but had problems after putting some rounds through it, I'd check the cylinder gap. Good luck.

 

[buffytvs39]

Did it do this on the first couple of rounds? Did you clean it and try cycling it after you where done shooting? Wonder if the cylinder gap is so tight that a little powder residue makes the thing hang up. Happened to me recently on a couple of old S&W's.

If you cycled it at home without problem before shooting it, but had problems after putting some rounds through it, I'd check the cylinder gap. Good luck.

It actually hung randomly during the whole time at the range. Fine filing the recoil shield, and then polishing seems to have resolved the issue. The area where the recoil shield meets the top strap seemed to be the worst area. Even with all my filing the area around the firing pin still has most of its finish so it seems the areas around were high.

 

[buffytvs39]

Wanted to post an update. Did a lot of research on revolvers and basic smithing after my issue. Found out that the SAAMI standards for 38 special head space is .060"-.074" Worried that my filing may have altered my revolver out of spec I did some head space checking. I used a new piece of 38 special brass with a rim thickness of .0545. I put it in the cylinder and indexed into position in front of the firing pin. I then used feeler gauge to find the space between the rim and the breech face. I added this value to the .0545 for the rim. I repeated this for each cylinder chamber. My head space ranged from .0565-.059. This is under the SAAMI spec. So this means when I got my revolver it was well out of spec. That would explain the problems I had with the cylinder locking up on me.

I measured all my brass and loaded rounds and all the rims are below the lowest headspace reading, so I plan to leave it as is, but I will have to make sure and clean it well after every firing.

Now I like to tinker and have a workshop full of tools, and I have done some basic gun smithing before so I decided to tackle the issue instead of dealing with a warranty return. But I am disappointed that a firearm would be allowed out of the factory so far out of spec.

 

[flavafamily]

My 605poly was shipped to Taurus on 11/08/12 for not ejecting the empty cartridges. Taurus advised me of a 6 week turn-around time on 11/15/12. I am still awaiting the return of my revolver or some correspondence to say what is really holding up the repairs as it is still in a status of "awaiting parts". Is this normal? Is anyone else experiencing or have experienced the same problem with either the revolver or the repair time?

 

[rdeegan42]

Have you heard anything back from Taurus? I am interested to know if they fixed the issue.