What's the significance of "pinned barrels"? Is there an advantage or disadvantage? I understand that it's a clue to the vintage of a gun, but wondering if functionally important one way or another.

Pin needs to be removed to unscrew barrel.

Thus no barrels coming loose while shooting.

Are you suggesting that barrels sometimes come unscrewed from shooting?

Here's an earlier thread discussing the subject that may be of interest.....

What is the advantage of Pinned Barrels?

Thanx very much for the thread..............interesting conversation. I think I know what I need to now.

S&W eliminated the pinned barrel in 1982 and counter bored cylinder of magnum revolvers at the same time.

The pinned barrels are evidence of a bygone era when parts were hand-fitted and aligned to the frame. It was a time when quality was of more importance than quantity. They were phased out around 1982 along with other machining practices that were considered standard at the time (recessed cylinders, and ribbed triggers and backstraps). Through "cost cutting" S&W deemed them unnecessary and too expensive and time-consuming. It is no better than the method used to crush barrel to the frame today, but it seems that the revolvers which were pinned had fewer issues with a well fit barrel to frame.

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Ephesians 6 (Armor of God)

Barrels fitting remains the same pre and post pin era; the pin was overengineering done away with, yes, to cut costs -- but cost-cutting isn't de facto quality cutting.

The significance of the pinned barrels, OP, is sentimentality for a time when revolver building is remembered as superior because the lemons have been forgotten.

I wonder what the comparison would be reference over/under clocked barrels coming out of the S&W factory these days. I don't know one way or the other, just curious.

Well, I'm just going with the number of pictures of misaligned barrels I see on this forum, but I can't recall a picture of a pinned barrel over or under clocked. See lots of the others. The pin was the final step in assuring that the barrel was aligned properly. Not so now . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Does s&w have employee benefits for eye glasses?

I wasn't trying to "open a can of worms". The facts seem to be that pinned barrels went out some years ago. There seem to be different opinions regarding whether the pins were superfluous or not. I'm happy with the info y'all have provided. With a lot more exposure to both pinned and not pinned I may develop an opinion of my own, in the meantime I'll enjoy the forum conversations and learn what I can.

Didn't say it didn't happen, just that I see more pictures on here of non pinned ones . . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

I have both pinned and non-pinned and am happy with both. I would not use that detail in determining my interest in an item. Generally speaking, as has already been said, it is most useful to me in determining, at a glance, whether or not the gun is pre, or post, 1982.

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But then, what do I know?

I like the pinned barrel models, but it is because they are older and show a time when detail and craftsmanship were of more importance. I have guns both with and without the pin and all function fine. I do have a model 18 that came out right after the pin was discontinued and had the barrel begin to move. This was before I had a lathe. I made a small punch and made some small punch marks around the barrel shoulder where it meets the frame and torqued it up straight. The punch displaced metal and that contacted the frame and increased the torque needed to clock it correctly. I know this wasn't the "correct fix. But, it has never moved again over many years and many rounds and holster time. Probably wouldn't work as well on something larger than a 22lr.

As far as the pin being important as to keeping the barrel in perfect alignment it ISN'T. The barrel must still be fitted correctly and torqued up correctly. Case in point. I bought a 1917 that didn't have the original barrel. Replacement was also a 1917 barrel in poor outer condition. It was installed in the frame with the pin. You could rotate it maybe 5 degrees either way from timed. I got it cheap. Removed the pin which was perfectly straight and fit the hole tight. The slot for the pin in that barrel looks perfect. I have several other N Frame barrels. Most will screw into that frame and allow the pin to be installed and still move the barrel either way a few degrees. I am going to mill the frame for adjustable sights and install a 1950 barrel I will need to adjust for this frame. A barrel needs to hand tighten to just under a 1/4 turn then be torqued to true before the pin is installed to be tight and remain, so pin or no pin. If it doesn't have enough torque it will come loose even with the pin.

Seems to me that for a number of years S&W had a lot of trouble with barrels when the eliminated the pin. There have been numerous complaints of barrels with front sights of center, sprung frames from over torquing, etc. Maybe they got all the kinks worked out eventually.

To me, eliminating the P&R was nothing more than cost cutting, it did nothing to improve the guns, and is symbolic of retreating from the days of craftsmanship. P&R Smiths have panache. Yes I know not all were recessed, speaking in generalities.

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No life story has happy end.

While it is possible for a pinned barrel to be SLIGHTLY OFF center, the process of pinning DID eliminate the drastic canted or clocked barrels that have been of recent interest and discussion here. In order for the pin to line up with both the frame and barrel slot, it has to be somewhere very close to straight. IMHO S&W SHOULD start pinning once again and customer service and their repair department might have a lot more time to do more productive work rather than fix shipped guns. Just my opinion of course...........

Personally I have never seen a "cranked" pinned barrel, not say they don't exists, just never put eyes on one. Agree with the comments above, a bit more TLC before things were shipped out the door "back in the day"

The L frames were the first guns to ship without the pinned barrel and were that way from their introduction in 1980. Other models were phased in without the pin. I have an early 586 that has been shot a lot since 1980 and it has been perfectly aligned from the day I bought it.

I too prefer the pinned barrels, but I cannot say that it is really needed as Smith has produced them for 35 years. If it was a serious issue, they would have surely corrected it, as they did with the floating hands.

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Richard Gillespie
FBINA 102

I've owned both types and no difference from a shooters point of view. I prefer the 2 piece tensioned barrel to either.

I had a 19-3 with a slightly misaligned barrel. It was my first experience watching an armorer make use of the S&W supplied Babbot Bar. (He asked me in advance if I was sure I wanted to watch).

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I can understand the problem with canted barrels. Pin versus no pin makes little difference to me. Seems no real advantage either way.

One question though......why does anybody need to unscrew the barrel on their gun?

Not so much a question on needing to unscrew the barrel as to the barrel working loose, back in the day early Model 29's used in metal silhouette shooting had a problem of working themselves loose from shooting lots of heavy loads. S&W did beef them up the long barrel (10") models didn't have the problem after the upgrade.

Wouldn't be a regular thing for any particular revolver, but the two most common reasons are barrel replacement, and lathing the barrel shoulder back a turn for resetting forcing cone/cylinder gap.

I just acquired a 66-7 and can't wait to see how it shoots. I'd love to find a 620.

The pin was dropped over 30 years ago, so I think we can quit puckering in fear of barrels coming off.

I have had a barrel unscrew on one gun: a Ruger.

It's also the only gun I ever had to send back to the factory.

The pin is a symbol of a bygone era and probably adds some collectible value.

Found this American Rifleman article dated 10/28/2014 that discusses the "pinned and recessed" revolvers and thought it worth sharing.....

American Rifleman | Pinned and Recessed Smith & Wessons