I'm following this one too. I recently had a similar issue with the barrel interior finish in a new 6" 586. There were burrs around the forcing cone and two of the rifling grooves were dark, one more than the other, and collected excessive leading. Inspection with a borescope showed a rough finish on those and a smooth finish on the other side of the barrel.

I sent it back, and it was returned in about two weeks with a note to the effect that it "met their specifications." Further explanation was that the finish was due to their new rifling process and should not affect accuracy. A manager I spoke to stated that he couldn't guarantee that a new barrel would be any better, so I declined to return it a second time.

Needless to say, I'm extremely disappointed, both in the initial quality and in S&W's failure to correct it. I also have a new 66-8 purchased in June, and I'm delighted with it. So I decided to get the new 586 as well with the above results. I'm going to put a few hundred rounds through the 586 to give it a fair chance, but I'm not optimistic. I've got other Smiths including a 625-6, a 617, and a Model 41 with which I'm very happy. But apparently my luck ran out on this one. It seems their barrel quality problems may be more than just occasional, and they have designed their factory acceptance standards to accommodate their manufacturing abilities rather than the other way around.

It looks as though S&W's customer base reduction program is coming along nicely....