S&W trigger parts fragility?

[zork]

Awhile back, my cousin, a Texas HW patrolman and his rookie ride-along stopped a suspicious car that had tried to use a stolen CC at a local hotel. It was raining and night, so my cousin unholstered his S&W 357 mag and with a flashlight went to check things out. The rookie got out of the car and waited.

It was my cousin's habit to always check the state inspection sticker affixed to the driver's bottom corner of the windshield. He did so, then the rookie heard a gasp of surprise, there was gunfire and the car took off. The rookie clipped the rearview mirror with one round and shot out both rear tires.

My cousin died instantly from a 9mm bullet that entered his left arm and went thru his body clipping off the top blood vessels from his heart. They found the car disabled a short distance away and captured the bad guy in nearby woods. He was sentenced to death.

But with the help of various anti-cop and anti-death penalty groups, the killer and his lawyer had the first verdict thrown out. It seems like during the juror picking process, the state had not questioned one juror "hard enough" when he offered his opinion of the death penalty.

The second time around, the killer's defense was that my cousin tried to kill him first and he shot back in self-defense. Said he was just "shooting at shadows". The state produced my cousin's pistol and said that the internal mechanism of the gun was broken and could not have been fired. There were also 1 or 2 empties in the gun. Their case was that my cousin and his rookie had gone to the target range, and after a few shots my cousin's gun broke internally. He then stuck a broken gun in his holster and forgot about it. The state won it's case, the guy was given a 2nd death sentence which finally was carried out years later.

OK, so my cousin I grew up with as a big brother who was fanatically meticulous about guns and mechanical things carried a broken gun the last few weeks of his life. Except I remember a gun mag article about a sherrif? who was looking in a house for an ex-husband that was threatening to kill the ex-wife. He opened a closet door and was staring down the barrel of a large caliber handgun. The sherrif's gun was already pointing at the bad guy so he shot first in panic, then cycled the trigger so hard again that the lockwork broke.

Have any gun guys heard of this happening? That is, the trigger was pulled so violently that the gun could not have been fired again?

Just asking.....

 

[Glocktogo]

Sorry to hear the story about your cousin. Not sure why anyone would put a broken gun back in their holster and carry it on duty.

But to answer your question, yes. S&W revos have been known to break hammer mounted firing pins, shear off hammer or trigger studs (which are pressed into the frame), and occasionally "freeze" if the trigger isn't allowed to fully return to the at rest position before being pulled again. This "freeze" can also happen if the cylinder stop gets out of alignment with the slot in the trigger it rides in.

It's usually applying excess force to the trigger trying to overcome trigger freeze that breaks lockwork components, but it can happen otherwise as well.

None of this is to say that S&W revo lockwork is fragile. It's considered mid range between the more fragile and intricate Colt revolver lockwork and the beefy Ruger lockwork. The number of S&W revos with actual parts breakage is quite minimal compared to the number of them in use. There's a reason they sell more than any other revolver brand.

 

[azmrb]

There were also 1 or 2 empties in the gun. Their case was that my cousin and his rookie had gone to the target range, and after a few shots my cousin's gun broke internally. He then stuck a broken gun in his holster and forgot about it.

The prosecution was claiming your cousin was carrying a partially loaded revolver?


Lots of guns are more fragile than most people realize.
I've read more than once on other forums of someone shooting a rimfire rifle at the range, cleaning and storing the rifle, and next time they try to shoot it the firing pin is broken.
They know that no one has had access to the rifle(locked in a safe) so the only explanation is that the firing pin broke on the last shot.

What are the odds of that?

And a revolver is more fragile than a rifle.

 

[zork]

Thanks Glocktogo and azmrb. The prosecution's case was that the gun was broken and so my cousin couldn't have opened up on the killer first. They had a gunsmith testify that the gun was broken. That meant that the killer's story about him shooting in "self-defense" was nonsense.

My idea is that the revolver was fine until my cousin double-stroked the trigger when shot. I doubt anyone would have noticed a bullet hole in the ground with it raining. And this was back in the mid-70's before they had CIS, NCIS, and all the other evidence groups.

Anyway, thanks for the information.

Zork