If it IS the lube, can you turn off the result by switching back to your old lube? That seems like an overly simple solution.
I own a good shooting Smith, but it sits in the rack in favor of a Maynard and a Sharps, so pardon my well intentioned comments.
This sounds like an over pressure reaction, so I’m leaning toward a different cause. For instance, have you introduced new lead to your loads, or maybe a new mould, even if it is the same listed size as the prior ones? If so, do you use a sizer of some kind to make your bullets somewhere near the usual .515 to .518 diameter you need for a CW era 50 caliber, or are you a dip luber?
I’m thinking that you have oversized bullets with hard lead, say about .520 or more, that is causing a pressure spike during ignition. I shoot very hard lead, but I run them through a Lyman or a Starr sizer to get them down to .518.
I have seen a Smith partially unlock during firing, but in that instance, it was a maintenance problem. There was foreign material between the latch and the receiver that prevented it from closing all the way.
Bob Anderson
Company C, 1st Michigan Volunteer Infantry
Small Arms Committee
"I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them."
- John Wayne in "The Shootist", 1976
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