Bad cylinder on the new 500 S&W Magnum.
 

Welcome to the Forum.

You may want to contact S&W's customer service department if you are concerned. Me, I wouldn't worry about 1/100th of an inch. By the way, those cuts are called "flutes".

The flutes are purely cosmetic and therefore have nothing to due with the function of the gun.
But yeah, it would be nice if they were aligned right.

Jim

If you want perfection, then I suggest you purchase a Freedom Arms Single Action. The precision fit and finish leave every smith (pc included) out of the park looking in.....

Thank you for the comment! I spent about an hour on internet trying to find some name for these things. I looked through hundreds of diagrams, and I could not find anything. Unfortunately that flutes asymmetric is really noticeable when you look from the top. The right side of the frame continues in the flute without the step; and there is a well- noticeable step on the left side; the cylinder looks shifted to the left. I sent an e-mail to S&W; we will see how fast they will respond.

The important thing is for the chambers to align with the barrel. You will need a range rod to check them, available from Brownells. If they list a .500.

No, they don't list .500 rod unfortunately. The visual inspection shows no troubles there. What is the optimal barrel-to-cylinder gap for S&W 500? I know that in general it is .006" with the range of .004~.010”. Is it the same for a big gun?

The only company that bores cylinders and the barrel in line is Freedom Arms. Everyone else is done via cnc but not inline with the barrel when this process is done....heck so you get one out of 5 or 6 chambers that dont shoot that great and get some lead or copper fowling...it happens...I enjoy my 500, the fun factor is off the scale!!!! If your bummping out that much I can send you some of my 500 grain max charge hand loads...you will forget your caliper and guages because they cant measure the smile on your face!!!

I give a tip of the hat to the junior member for his careful examination of his new revolver. I'd send an e-mail with these very same pics to customer service demanding an explanation. I also find that a b/c gap of .009+ is entirely unacceptable on a revolver that chambers a 60,000 psi cartridge. Hopefully, Smith will immediately send out a return label and get this gun squared away.

Interestingly enough, over on the reloading forum, is a thread about a 500Mag Kaboom. I'm not going to speculate on the cause, but if I was going to shoot a cartridge that produces rifle round pressures in a revolver cylinder, I would want a b/c gap of no more than .004, and that cylinder better be milled and timed spot on! Keep us posted on how Smith handles your inquiry.

I purchased a M29-10 that the alignment of the flutes didn't match up correctly with the charge holes.
I had bought it because it had a excellent bright nickle finish, and a great trigger pull.
After a few days I noticed that when looking from the top the cylinder didn't look lined up with the barrel.
After examining it carefully I realized that the alignment of the flutes was off, but the charge holes did align with the bore.
I called Smith & Wesson as I was worried about the strength of the cylinder, but they told me that it wasn't a problem and it wouldn't weaken the cylinder, that it would be safe to shoot.
I thought that they would at least want to check it but they said no, it would be fine.
So I loaded some test rounds, starting light and worked up to some heavy loads, testing each charge hole one at a time and it was fine.
It turned out to be a very accurate revolver

In my opinion, that is completely unacceptable in a brand new and expensive gun. I certainly would not be able to trust that everything else on or in the gun was also machined correctly and that the gun was safe to shoot. I would definitely send it back to S&W insisting that it be corrected.

Thanks everybody for your comments. The gun is back to S&W for repair. I was passing Springfield MA during my business trip and dropped it off to S&W plant. I will keep you posted.
The special thanks to TDAN, I copied to my S&W repair claim your "a b/c gap of .009+ is entirely unacceptable on a revolver that chambers a 60,000 psi cartridge"; I really like that opinion!

Today - just in one week! - I received my pistol back in the mail. The cylinder was changed to the new one, it is nice and neat now; b/c gap was adjusted to 0.006” (from 0.01”). Good service! Thank you S&W!

That's great news!

My cylinder had problems that went beyond cosmetic and S&W made a prompt repair. However, the new cylinder (like the last one and like your old one) has the flutes off-center. I know it's a minor flaw but it's not what you expect when you drop close to $1000 on a new gun from a company that at one point, tried to make its' name synonymous with quality, double-action revolvers.

I guess it also surprised me since I had just assumed that the entire cylinder was milled at once--obviously it's not.

500 S&W cylinder symmetry
 

Hi there. Your .500 S&W mag is perfectly good, and its cylinder symmetry is correct. If you look at the photo you provided carefully, you'll notice the triangle drawing is not symmetrical, because its center line is not perfectly straight, and not hitting the center of the concave (the human eye can easily be fooled). If you were to move the triangle's center line to the left slightly, the triangle will be closer to being perfectly aligned. The top of the center line is slightly closer to its right. I measured it, and the line needs to be moved slightly to the left to be symmetrical. Your gun is fine.

Glad to here you got the cosmetic issue with your gun resolved.

You are going to need to shoot a lot more than 10 rounds through your gun to become proficient enough to protect yourself from a bear is it becomes necessary.

Good luck and be safe.