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Old 08-18-2011, 08:55 PM
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FirebirdV8 FirebirdV8 is offline
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Originally Posted by BruceB View Post
Very interesting. I have seen other pictures of 39 no-dash pistols with that strange line on the extractor and always assumed it was broken or cracked. By that time in the production the slide serrations had moved forward as well.

Did those late 39 no-dash examples have the newer 5 land barrel rifling?
I thought that same thing when I first saw one, but then I learned about the history of the ISP pistols. They were the first ones to discover that a heavily fired 39 no dash extractor was a weak point. They basically told S&W to fix it or go fly a kite, so they fixed it with a really wide version of the extractor coming out with the 39-2. On a side note I also realized through some limited metal work experience that metal rarely, if ever, breaks so nicely and cleanly in a straight line like that. Notice that there is also some spring tension holding the rear of the extractor, by the line, up. If it was a broken normal style no dash extractor it would be flopping around and not staying up on its own like that.

My research on the barrels is a less detailed, since most people don't show pictures of their barrels. However, from what I can tell, the higher twist rate rifling was maintained through around A250000, well into the -2 series before they switched to the new style barrel. It was probably just an economic choice for S&W. They ordered a large lot of the older style barrels so they didn't have to keep ordering them, and realized some bullet weights don't like the higher twist rate. So the new and old style barrels are intermixed throughout 39-2 production. So, in other words I don't know what kind of barrel any given 39/39-2 will have, but I can make an educated guess based on what I have seen.
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Last edited by FirebirdV8; 08-18-2011 at 09:00 PM.
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