About that 'antiquated' revolver

that didn't go bang:
I wrote I want to know what condition it was in. I'd bet either zero maintenance for a looong time, or really old ammo. Or both. After I wrote that I remembered something, and it turned out I still had the book. One of the chapters is 'the gun that wouldn't shoot'. Short version: old officer who'd decided "I'll never have to actually use this thing" so he didn't; no practice, maintenance, nothing. Until one night he needed it and it didn't go 'bang', and he died.
...It was very obvious it had not been fired for a long period of time.

The barrel was very dirty and clogged with lint and dust. Several flakes of rust were removed in a subsequent cleaning...

Dust, dirt and grime filled all spaces between the side plate and frame. Two of the side plate screws had to be chiseled out with a special tool.

It was very difficult to work the crane in order to open the cylinder. The extractor star was frozen to the cylinder and the extractor rod was freed only after considerable soaking in a gun solvent.

Of the six live rounds found in the gun, two were misfires. The firing pin had made a positive strike with the cartridge primer in both instances. The misfire was caused by either a faulty firing pin or old ammunition. Tests will be conducted and a supplemental report will follow. The ammunition had to be soaked and pried out in order to unload the gun.

Could be there was an actual mechanical fault in the S&W the detective carried; I tend to have doubts. I'd love to know what the investigation actually finds.


Which also reminds me, Dad told me about something that happened back when we were living in a little town in northern OK. The local sheriff had ordered himself a S&W Model 19. It came in, he picked it up, loaded it, dropped it into the holster and went to work.

Almost a month later he decided he really ought to set up a target and make sure the sights were sending the shots to the right place. Up went a target, cock, aim, squeeze,
click.
WTH?
Wait a minute, no bang, try again.
Click.
It went back to the factory, and as I recall it was some fault with the hammer block: it wasn't retracting as the action worked, preventing the firing pin from reaching the primer.
And he'd been carrying it for a month...