Anyone here have a S&W 59?

[Samdjr74 11]

Hi all,

 

I recently picked up a s&w 59 and had a few failures to eject. I was wondering what others are shooting through these guns and what works best in them. I'm shooting lawman ammo now and had about 3 failures to eject over 100 rounds.

 

Thanks,

Sam

[dajonga 396]

I have a 659, the second generation of that gun in stainless steel. I love the gun and have never had a failure of any kind. These guns are known for their super reliable operation.

 

The easiest thing to do is buy a few different brands of ammo to see if the gun is Lawman Intolerant.

 

Your 59 is getting on in years. If it were me, I would consider replacing the recoil spring, the magazine spring and possibly the ejector.

[JohnnyB 4,321]

Check the feed ramp on the barrel. I polished mine to a mirror finish many years ago and never had an issue.

Also, have you had all the failures using the same magazine? If so, that could be the culprit.

[GRIZ 3,369]

I have a 659, the second generation of that gun in stainless steel. I love the gun and have never had a failure of any kind. These guns are known for their super reliable operation.

 

The easiest thing to do is buy a few different brands of ammo to see if the gun is Lawman Intolerant.

 

Your 59 is getting on in years. If it were me, I would consider replacing the recoil spring, the magazine spring and possibly the ejector.

I carried a 59 for a couple of years and was issued a 659 I carried for 5 years until they made me give it up for a 6906. Never had a malfunction with the 659 and loved the all steel construction.

 

There's only 3 issues I ever saw with this class of S&W semiautos:

 

1. Cleaning the slide upside down and letting all the crap settle in the firing pin channel. This would lock up the firing pin and is not your problem. Blow it out with Gunscrubber, Brake Kleen or air.

 

2. Recoil springs changed about 3-4k rounds.

 

3. The tip of the ejector would break off but the gun still would run okay. Compare yours to what it's supposed to look like by looking at an exploded view on Numrich's website.

[Samdjr74 11]

Thanks all for the advice and info. First it seems to happen on 3 different magazines but they are all roughly the same age as the gun. The ejector tip looks like the website so I'm guessing I'm good there. I'm going to polish up the ramp as much as possible, give it a good once over and try the lawman ammo again. If I still have a problem, I'll start looking at the springs.

 

Thanks,

Sam

[Old School 611]

Failures to eject are a product of timing the ejection cycle,

Too much spring means not enough distance in cycling to eject (not your problem),

Too little spring means your slide is bouncing off the frame and returning before the case has cleared the ejection port.

First step in an old gun, fresh recoil spring.

[Samdjr74 11]

The cost of the spring is so cheap I just went ahead and ordered a factory weight one. Thanks, hopefully this will take care of the issue.

 

Failures to eject are a product of timing the ejection cycle,

Too much spring means not enough distance in cycling to eject (not your problem),

Too little spring means your slide is bouncing off the frame and returning before the case has cleared the ejection port.

First step in an old gun, fresh recoil spring.

[GRIZ 3,369]

The cost of the spring is so cheap I just went ahead and ordered a factory weight one. Thanks, hopefully this will take care of the issue.

Good idea. Stay with factory weight springs. Many problems with handguns start when someone thinks they know more than the engineers who designed the gun swapping out different springs.

[Samdjr74 11]

Hi All,

 

I just wanted to follow up with this. I got a new recoil spring from Wolfe the other day and had a chance to shoot the gun last night. The problem is still there but not as bad so we're making progress. However last night when I got home from the range I pulled the gun apart to clean and the barrel bushing broke in two. For those of you who don't know, the barrel bushing on the 59 is two pieces of metal brazed together, well the brazing came apart. I ordered two replacements from Numrich, which looks like the only place to find them. 

 

So I don't think the bushing has anything to do with the failure to eject but last night I gave the gun a really good cleaning and made sure everything was lubed up. I believe this gun was re-blued at some point, is it possible the blueing has caused a tolerance issue with something?

 

Thanks,

Sam

[GRIZ 3,369]

Did the barrel bushing come out of the slide before it cracked. IIRC the bushing is fitted into the slide and doesn't normally come out of the slide. If it did that might be causing your problem.

 

There is no surface build up with bluing. Rebluing would have no effect on functioning.

[Samdjr74 11]

Did the barrel bushing come out of the slide before it cracked. IIRC the bushing is fitted into the slide and doesn't normally come out of the slide. If it did that might be causing your problem.

 

There is no surface build up with bluing. Rebluing would have no effect on functioning.

 

I noticed the barrel bushing during it's removal last night when cleaning. So it wasn't there the day before when I replaced the recoil spring. I don't have a picture of my broken bushing but here's one from online showing the bushing "assembly"

 

 

When I removed it last night the outer ring was spinning free of the center bushing but the night before it wasn't. So maybe this was on it's way out and I never noticed a crack at the brazing.

[GRIZ 3,369]

The barrel bushing could wobble around when the slide is going back. That may cause your ejection problem.

 

Your busing failure is rare. When my agency used 659s and 6906s they would make us aware of failures. I never heard of a barrel bushing failing like yours. Thats out of 10,000+ 659s and 6906s.

[Samdjr74 11]

The barrel bushing could wobble around when the slide is going back. That may cause your ejection problem.

 

Your busing failure is rare. When my agency used 659s and 6906s they would make us aware of failures. I never heard of a barrel bushing failing like yours. Thats out of 10,000+ 659s and 6906s.

 

 

After I found the bushing problem last night I did some research and it seems a couple people saw this issue but it's not wide spread as you mentioned. One person stated that he pulled the trigger and part of the bushing went down range. Hopefully a new bushing will correct this. I was hoping to find a one piece design but it doesn't sound like it was ever made.

[Samdjr74 11]

Ok, final update on this. I got my new barrel bushing on and took the gun to the range yesterday. 50 rounds without one failure to eject! So it seems that between the replacement recoil spring and barrel bushing, the gun is working like a champ. Thanks all for the help on troubleshooting this one.