Last year I bought a model 637-2, and considering myself a fairly savvy firearm owner noticed that the barrel was a little overtightened. But now 500rds later it seems that a combination of that problem and the cylinder bushing eating into the frame in the yoke cutout, the cylinder is contacting the forcing cone on the barrel and making it hard to open and close. You can also see a burr on the inside of the barrel at 10 and 2 o'clock. Now I'm sure this is not normal but before calling S&W I wanted to know if anybody else has experienced this.

Thanks
Chris

This sort of thing is better diagnosed with a picture or two if possible...

Sad to say, but your personal experience with current S&W quality control issues are not that uncommon.

If b-c gap and cylinder endshake were not set correctly when the gun left the factory, it will quickly worsen with relatively little firing.

You said that the barrel was overtightened? How did you determine this? Was the front sight leaning to the left?

If you can, take detailed digital photos of the problem areas. Post them here to give better details of the problem. Send them to the S&W Customer Representative along with descriptions and round count, etc. They will make it right and cover shipping too.

I just got my 637-2 back from S&W. I'd had it for seven years and had fired at least 4,000 rounds from it (almost all range loads). Then one session, it fired one round and the firing pin lost all interest in striking primers. According to S&W the firing pin bushing had failed, so they replaced the entire frame (!!), serial number and all. To get it back, I had it sent to my range/gun store, and then went through the whole background check again. I don't quite understand why the cheapest/easiest fix was to replace the frame (thereby bringing federal law into the equation) instead of the bushing, but I cannot complain about their price ($0, including shipping both ways). By the way, my problem had nothing to do with barrel overtorque, MIM parts or the internal lock.

S&W has been installing barrels by torquing them into the frame since 1980. For the first several years they had an overtorque problem with Airweight frames that caused cracks to appear in the frame after just a few hundred rounds fired. One still reads about this on web sites as if it was still a big problem. Personally I think that S&W, having used this installation technique for twenty nine years, has the overtorque problem under control.

Please, break out a camera and let us see what your problem is.

Cordially, Jack

I will try and post pictures later tomorrow if I can get my camera to not take ****** close up pictures! I can tell the barrel is over tightened due to the ejector rod to locking lug relation. And the fact that there are metal shavings hanging out where the barrel meets the frame!

This was the best picture I could get of locking lug


And the forcing cone, see how its shinny at 10&2 and see the "burrs" at 2 o'clock and where the cylinder bushing is eating into the frame!


I'm not trashing S&W, I own lots of them and yes the fit & finish is nothing like it used to be I just don't think this is right.

From what I see in your pictures something is wrong with that Airweight. In picture 2, the damage to the front inside edge of the frame is decidedly unusual (unless you often flick the cylinder into the frame like the movie stars do), and the seated ejection rod (picture 1) is off center. That spur of powder burn leading off from the barrel at five o'clock (picture 2) is odd also. Could it be caused by an underlying crack? I recommend you contact S&W.

Cordially, Jack

JayDubya, that was the same conclusion I have come too. And I definitely never hollywood the cylinder shut! That's bad mkay! I will be calling Smith soon I know they will make it right. Thanks for the second opinion.