First time I have ever had an issue with my Freedom Arms, more than 1500 rounds. Was shooting some 300gr Sierra bullets over a starting charge of Alliant 300-MP, bullet hit the target, however, when I attempted to cock the pistol for the next shot, the cylinder wouldn't budge. Brought it home, managed to get the base pin out, and when the cylinder freed up, a chunk of lead and copper dropped out, and when I extracted the fired case, it gave the appearance of the pistol going off without being fully aligned. Alliant 300-MP is slower than H110, I really shouldn't be able to get enough in the case to cause harm, but I am going to pull the remaining rounds just to be on the safe side.

Dave

cylinder indexing, check the hand for damage

I can find nothing wrong with either the hand or the bolt. Using snap caps, I have been unable to duplicate the malfunction, and in fact see no way this could have happened. I have emailed FA and we will see what they have to say.

Dave

If you finished loading the cylinder, then eased the hammer down, instead of bringing it to full cock, before easing the hammer forward, then fired the first shot and had this off-center hit, that's your problem. Always close the loading gate and bring the hammer to full cock before
easing it forward and commencing shooting. This allows the cylinder to be properly locked.
I've never seen recoil in a FA cause the cylinder locking bolt to drop and allow the cylinder to rotate out of place enough to cause this, so it is unlikely that the load has anything to do with the problem

Good point Ken, something we should always do with SA's.

While I have put more than a few rounds through this one, I have never paid attention to that detail.

Dave

They confirmed that because I went from half cock to full cock after loading, I induced the "not properly indexed" issue. Gunsmith was very nice, and described to a T what I did, and how to avoid it happening again. Thank you for your inputs gents, put my mind at ease.

Dave