I hate to bring up the lock but I was wondering if anyone has seen a failure with the 500 Magnum? I don't really have a choice but I won't buy one if they suffer from the same issues as the light weight, hard recoiling guns. Thanks!

I hate to bring up the lock but I was wondering if anyone has seen a failure with the 500 Magnum? I don't really have a choice but I won't buy one if they suffer from the same issues as the light weight, hard recoiling guns. Thanks!

....sorry, but I cant answer that particular question. Mickstix and I have been working on a replacement kit for the IL's, and I imagine that something along those lines would work for the X frame. Go to the post "Flat Top's IL Project" in the "Smithing" section of this forum and take a look and read....It may be something that is useful to you if you get the 500. I have heard of locks failing, mine never has in my 629, but I didnt want to take the chance that it would, and I have heard of those that have never failed...........

No problems on any of my "lock" S&W's (642, 460 & 500) purchased during 2006 & 2007...hundreds of rounds through all of them.

Same with my brother-in-law's two 500's.

Off to the Lounge in 3.....2......1.....

I just did a quick search on the sticky thread regarding the hated lock in the Lounge, didn't have the time nor energy to read all 69 pages of posts, but found no mention of the 500 there.

All 500s have the lock. I have two, one of the early production 8 3/8" guns and the 4", both being regular production and not PC products. Both guns have seen extensive use, especially the long-barrel. No problems whatsoever thusfar. I do believe it is possible to take the gun apart and remove lock parts, am sure that is treated in other threads, so if you want a 500 but are worried about lock malfunctions, maybe that would be the way-to-go. Fun guns to shoot. Wear good hearing protectors and a glove! Oh, and be a reloader or a Rockefeller!

Ya, I know there are more than enough threads on the lock. I didn't want to start an sh%t storm, just wanted info on the 500 specifically.

Thanks for the info. I skimmed over that ILS thread and didn't see anything on the 500. I'm not too worried about it, my 642 has a lock and hasn't given me any issues.

The locks are pretty well the same on all the guns, so I don't think one particular model will be more or less prone to catastrophic lockup.

I think they lock up mostly in rapid, double action firing. Do much rapid double action firing with that 500????

I've had 4 Model 500s including one of the earliest of the original 8.375" barreled models.

I now have only two .500s, one of the new half lug, 6.5"ers and a 6.5" PC model and I'll be saying with these two.

All four have been flawless from a reliability standpoint. I don't use the IL, the guns are in the safe when not being used but there have been no IL issues. Don

Sorry, all I can tell you is that while firing the tens of thousands of rounds that have been through my S&Ws with the ugly lock over the years, there has NEVER been a single lock failure. That includes all 4 of my 500 S&W revolvers.

Now the bad news, during those tens of thousands of rounds of firing lock equipped revolvers, one of the revolvers had a hand break making it totally unusable. So you might want to look at firearms that do not use a hand to bring the next round up. I know that the odds of a hand breaking are small, but why risk it.

Further bad news, one of those very same lock equipped revolvers got a grain of powder under the extractor and the cylinder would not open easily for loading. Clearly this would be an issue in a struggle for ones life. Perhaps we need to stop buying revolvers that have extractors.

A single shot would not have had either of these failures. Even a derringer would have less of a chance of stoppage.

__________________
"Acta non verba"

Nope, I usually take a nap and then go see a chiropracter between shots!

Sarcasm noted

I'm glad you have been lucky with your ILS guns, there are 27+ pages of those who are not so lucky in the ILS thread. I don't give a **** about the looks, I want to be sure my 500 will actually fire when I need it to. If my question offends you, don't answer.

Seems to me that you started the thread which, having previously read the 27 pages to be found in the Lounge, you knew might generate some diverse commentary. You also presumably knew that the 500 had not been mentioned in said thread, otherwise why post your question? You wanted to know whether anyone had trouble with the IL in a 500 specifically. Those few of us who have answered and who have fairly extensive amounts of first-hand experience with 500s have been accomodating in our efforts to answer your question.

I presume you also know that the subject of the IL is somewhat controversial, that it seems, at least in the eyes of many, to represent something more than a simple potential mechanical glitch in the guns, something far more deep and sinister. It is the devil's, er, I mean, the banner's work! It is PC run amok. It is an idiotic oxymoron wherein some bureaucrat is trying to make an inherently and deliberately lethal weapon "child safe", an absurdity. Oh, and I'm not being in the least bit sarcastic here, I feel all of the above things quite deeply. I truly hope that S&W will get some cojones one of these years and get rid of the lock!!

coltsaa's answer may have had a hint of sarcasm in it, but as I've mentioned this is a fairly passionate subject for a lot of people and I thought he actually did a very nice job of pointing out that there are any number of things that can go haywire with a gun, any gun, at the worst possible time. He was also relating to you his considerable personal experience with IL guns. I thought his post was, or should have been, very helpful to you and to have also pointed out some other aspects of reliability.

I appreciate all the responses, I know this is a big issue with most. There is a difference between a one-in-a-million issue like a spec of dirt locking up the action and a known engineering flaw. Everyone on these sites are passionate about firearms, but it's funny that you can only be passionate about certain issues - other issues will get you flamed. People need to leave the emotions at the door, these are tools that are built to do a job. If it was a range queen I wouldn't care if the gun locks on me.

Again, I don't really care either way. I wanted input from those who have these guns. I wasn't looking to start an arguement, if I was I would have said that LOCKS ARE THE DEVIL, WE SHOULD BOYCOTT S&W!!!

I'm still buying the 500, the lock won't sway my decision.

Bglimpse, indeed, get a Model 500. My perspective from the various forums is that serious shooters who have them almost invariably love them.

NOTHING gives you the vast power range they do and they're almost always very accurate guns but to really enjoy them, you must reload unless you're independently wealthy. Don

I have a 500 PC Hunter 10.5 barrel and have put over 11,000 rounds of Cast bullets through it. Most of them are full house loads and not one problem with the lock at all although I did loose the key in my reloading room, guess I better find it before my next hunt just in case it locks up on me !!!!

RR

bglimpse,

I own 5 different models of the S&W 500 and one of them, being the 2 3/4" ES model, is light weight and VERY hard recoiling and NONE of them have ever had a lock failure.

I haven't put as many rounds through mine as Ranger Rick but they've seen some of his 700gr tyrannosaurus thumpers

Stophel,

I have fired mine rapid fire on a couple of occasions. Rapid being as fast as I can pull the trigger, and all I can tell you is it gets very hot and smokes. You don't want to be in any hurry to unlatch the cylinder

Good to hear....

Those 700gr rounds sound pretty mean. I'm picking up the ES this weekend, I'll give it a workout and report back!