Perhaps a relevant date to define when S&W quality may have begun to decline would be when Carl Hellstrom passed and the family sold the company. As to CNC machining, my wife and I had a personal guided tour of the S&W plant in 2000 when we stopped in to visit. They showed us two CNC work stations which were operating as we watched.

This point in time was especially difficult for S&W after the infamous "deal" the company president made with Andrew Cuomo and the Clintons. The company was for sale with no buyers until Saf-T-Hamr stepped up with few bucks and a lot of guts.

I toured again in 2008 with the SWCA group and the place was humming with many CNC stations and lots of very young, green newbies doing assembly. CNC had a huge impact on the skilled labor component of gun assembly. CNC parts will fit up with very little fitting.

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Bob.
SWCA 1821