Happy New Year to all!
I need some advice. I recently acquired a Crescent Arms 5-shot top-break revolver chambered for .32 S&W. It's a pretty little thing with about 98% of its nickel plating intact, and it even has bright case coloring on its trigger and hammer, so it looks nice in my collection. Its lockup and timing are as good as they ever were in such a cheap revolver. It looks like the gun was well cared for over the years, and seldom if ever used. Since the little gun looked OK, I tried it out using some extremely light handloads consisting of a shellfull of 3f Cleanshot compressed by a 78 gr. LRN bullet. The little gun worked fine single action, (wow, such power -- the bullets bounced off the end-grain log backstop!), but when I tried shooting in double action mode, the cylinder unscrewed inside the frame until the cartridge rims jammed on the recoil shield. I'm not very familiar with the workings of cheap top-break revolvers, but I know that kind of thing isn't normal. I wonder why it happens, and what might be done to correct it. I know making a paper weight out of the pistol is an option, but I'd like to correct its problems if possible. Does anyone have some ideas as to what to do?

Thanks for any info
Xzec.

Mainiac,
Check to see if the cylinder latch (I think this is what this is called) is in place. This is a small piece of flat stock with a catch at the end that is located on the underside of the top break latch. The cylinder will screw off in a counter clock wise direction if this latch is lifted although when firing double action the cylinder should turn clockwise. This piece if it is missing, or not dropping below the cylinder when the gun is closed could be your problem.
Hope this helps,
whizzum300