If that gun did not come with a lifetime warranty then why would you expect one? And anyway, even their current warranty policy states that it is only lifetime to the original purchaser.

Therefor, any way you look at it, the fault lies not with S&W but with the original purchaser who did not make sure the gun was good to go. S&W would have fixed it then, but he never gave them the chance.

I agree that it would be a good gesture to to do it for free, but you also have to figure in that it could become financially burdensome if S&W started doing warranty work on all their models of (old) guns.

EDIT: colt_saa's point below is good. i assumed that the OP bought this in "as new" condition. however, if the gunshop that he purchased it from received it from S&W back in 1981 then yeah, S&W should make good