I had a 360PD and after about 400 rounds the cylinder face started to pit. I do not use sandpaper, I do not own a steel or bronze brush. All my brushes are nylon, and I only use BreakFree.
The cylinder looked bad, the words stamped on the gun were blurred because they were double-stamped, and the finish looked bad. I sent the gun back to S&W, and they replaced the cylinder, and I think they replaced the frame because the wording on the gun was now sharp (guess they replaced the whole gun?), but then came another problem...
...the flag on the Internal Lock kept engaging when firing or when the gun was held upside down. I took the gun to a gunsmith this time to remove the lock, and apparently the flag was not put on right because the little spring was not connected.
I then heard S&W came up with a new gun that addressed the problems I was having with my gun: 360 M&P.
By this time I was upset that I had spent so much money on what I had considered an experiment on S&W's part which had gone wrong. I could not justify spending more money.
I had a hard time selling my 360PD because of the reputation of it being a very hard-kicking gun. I finally sold it for about half of what I paid for it. I took that money and bought a Glock 21 (.45ACP).
Three months ago I bought a S&W 342M&P .38spl. I LOVE IT! Everything I wanted in an off-duty gun with a stainless steel cylinder.
Now if only I can find some ammo to shoot it...
