I originally sent it in for excessive barrel gap,uneven barrel gap, and leading, and spitting.
I got it back 2 weeks later, with a note that says cut forcing cone , and repair barrel.
Upon inspection, it seems to me, like all that was done, was to tighten the barrel, to get to the desired gap. I can see the stress marks in the barrel, where the tool was used to crank it in. (barrel gap is still uneven... .005 everywhere, except the top which is .006).
I have not shot it yet, but will report back about the spitting and leading.
Hey, if they fixed it, I will be happy. But still not happy, about the stress marks on the end of the barrel, where it appears that, that cranked in on the barrel.......
P.S. Does anyone know how far the barrel must be turned to take up .002-.003 ?

Here are a couple pics. Noted the white spots in the metal towards the outside ring of the barrel (crown). I have looked at other new ones, and they do not have them.

I need to send in a new 686 with off-center barrel, been putting it off because of comments like yours. Can you post pix of the marks? Does anyone know if barrel threads are normal or reverse?

I would send it in if I were you. I havent even shot mine yet. Like I said , if it is fixed I will be happy. I am just not sure the route S&W took to fix the gun.... I hope it was the correct route.
I will try to get pics, but it will be hard to get such closeup shots with my, not so hot camera.

Well, at least one turn. Let's hope they took something off the shoulder instead of just relying on the crushability of aluminum. Personally, I don't think I'd worry too much about a B/C of +-.001. I've seen plenty of revolvers with far more variance than that.

The thing is that while they had the gun in their hands, and assuming they took the barrel off to cut the shoulder (I wouldn't bet the farm on that one) it would have been too easy to make the B/C perfect, new forcing cone and all. Yes, it would have taken a lil more time, but "dammit man take some pride in your work".

Is the 43C like my 317 with a steel lined aluminum shrouded barrel?

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NRA Benefactor

Yes, it has a steel barrel with the aluminum shroud. The barrel has some weird shape in the front , where the tool is used to tighten the barrel. I can see stress marks in the steel, on the tightening side (assuming, righty tighty, lefty loosey).

I concur with your conclusions. That would bug me. I'm pretty tolerant about most things, but I intensly dislike cosmetic damage. Upon resale, it's the first thing a potential customer will zoom in on.

Then, some number of years down the road when the new owner comes on this site asking about these weird marks, somebody will accuse Bubba of poor workmanship again.

For me, those marks indicate over torqueing. I'd send it back. I'd be wondering what overstressing the frame would do. If you're willing to live with it, then by all means shoot the gun, and soon, and if anything else crops up send it back again.

I'm sure S&W keeps track of comebacks. At least I hope they do. But, who knows?

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NRA Benefactor

I personally have never liked tha fact that S&W started the two piece barrel. I never bought one because I was always weary about the integrity of the metal and the fact there was two different metals to make the barrel.

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M.J.Hanna

The more I look at this, the madder I get! Everyone here always says don't worry, S&W will fix it.... Just send it back..... Well how many times do you think it will take? We are also talking time down... Well here goes another 2-3 weeks shot to heck!

Having had a Dan Wesson for over 25 years, the 2 piece barrel never bothered me.

Ya well that's the trick ain't it. The "S&W never does wrong" crowd will tell ya to be patent, yada, yada yada. I just wonder what options you'd have if you'd bought a different brand and had the same issues. I also wonder why S&W can't make a 6-$700 gun right the first time and then if they don't, why it take 2 or more returns to finally get it right.

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NRA Benefactor

Well I've been here 7 years and would like to know where this "crowd" is that says "S&W never does any wrong". I can't seem to find even 1 person who says that, but I'm

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Sure you did

First of all, if you're gonna quote me, please quote me correctly. Second, you're beyond belief you don't get the sense that there are folks 'round here that have an answer for for every "problem with S&W" thread that pops up. It's either "well, it's a production piece and you have to expect some issue occasionally", or "are you sure it isn't you" , or "you're being too picky". These are the folks I referring to. It's never "well S&W screwed up and there really isn't an excuse" from these folks. But, then again, if the shoe fits.........

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NRA Benefactor

Well, I did quote you exactly. No need to get personal with this "if the shoe fits" garbage.
Have a nice day.

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Sure you did

don't you just love the new guns they make now?

I do!!! I don't have enough money to buy em all... And for the record... as some have already seen.. I don't have a lot of patience, especially when someone screws up and even more so when someone is FOS...

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Jack C

I don't see getting a 10oz revolver without a two piece barrel. They are pushing the limit on these things.

To their credit, S&W puts out a lot of very fine stuff. But I can see getting ticked off after paying that much money.

I dont know who you are referring to? when you say they are "FOS", but I sure hope you are not talking about me?
My pictures show the idiocy and carelessness at S&W............NUFF SAID!

Allglock - it's frustrating when a firearm doesn't work like it should. It drives me crazy. Let us know how it shoots.

I have been around gun stores almost 50 years. The local dealer was one of the largest in our area and took me under his wing to teach me to shoot. In return I would help him in the store when he didn't have enough employees on hand for free, but I got some great deals. I have seen defects in almost all brands, even a Browning Superposed, it almost beat us back to the store with the repair done.
Most hi volume mfgs have QC problems at one time or another, but have you talked to a young high school graduate lately? Labor force quality has declined. Seems to be a training problem mixed with a I don't give a s..t mentality.
Just my humble openion.

All manufacturing processes have tolerances. Most general machining tolerances are ± 0.002" (plus or minus two thousandths).

A manufacturing tolerance of ± 0.001" is very tight.

Parts of a revolver are machined to much tighter tolerances. The side plates are hand-fitted and the mating line is nearly invisible. That means that they are working to ± a couple of tenths of a thousandth.

A pistol smith can hand fit to a closer tolerance, but a mass produced weapon would probably be fine with ± 0.001".

I just sent it back,for the 2nd time, and asked for a barrel replacement.
I can only hope for the best!

It sucks that happened to you allglock.

I'd ship it back to them AGAIN. On their dime too. "S&W will make it right!".

At least thats what I read here several times a day. Good luck! Regards 18DAI

Two times back, and Over 4 weeks without my 43C, and still nothing......
Think positive think positive think positive....

Karma....

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Jack C

I call em like I see em.......

By saying that....how does that help me?........

allglock, In retrospect, if you had an inkling that any of this was going to occur would you have done anything differently from the beginning?

I have the 43C on my list of "wants", but it's not very near the top. I'm wondering if all this has to do with S&W trying to take advantage of the current rush on guns. Maybe it's time to just chill on gun buying until the hysteria subsides.

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NRA Benefactor

Well, my problem is.... My LGS can never find the guns I want, for some reason, and they charge top dollar when they do have them. So I chose to buy my S&Ws sight unseen, from an online dealer. That is where the probem arises. I dont think I will ever buy sight unseen again!
The last 5 S&Ws I have bought online needed to go back for repairs. That being said, I just bought a 438, at my LGS, where they had 3 to choose from NIB..... 2 of them were totally unacceptable and one was barely acceptable ( I had to replace the extractor on it because of binding).
So I dont know what to tell you?
I guess I will just buy used from now on.... Gunbroker here I come! I need a model 60-10 3" no lock...

For those of you that have the 43C-how's the trigger pull????

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Forum consigliere

Pretty darn good. A little lighter than my 642's factory trigger, consistent, and easy to stage for longer shots. I would not want it any lighter, and ignition has been 100% so far.

Trigger pull was good but to heavy. A 9 lb hammer and a 13 lb rebound spring and 1000 rounds took care of that. A clean out the innards and re-oil. Also I smoothed the triggers surface and removed the pinch point at the top of the trigger. Bigger Hogue grips that cover the back strap.I,m very pleased with this little revolver.

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T. Johnson

Does the torx nut on the two piece design actually thread to the barrel? If that's the case then its more than likely just holding the barrel shroud in place and not used to tighten barrel to frame. If the barrel is separate from the sights which are mounted on the shroud you wouldn't have to take a full rotation worth of barrel shoulder to set back the barrel. I don't know what pitch thread they use for the two piece design but that's what would determine the amount you'd need to remove to close the cylinder forcing cone gap.

Well, some good news! Got it back today, and all "looks" well... need some range time to check it all out.
Barrel gap looks good, so we should be good to go. (fingers & toes crossed).
Forgot to mention, they replaced the barrel, and overall down time so far, was a little over a month.

Good luck to you, allglock. Hope this is done, now.

ECS (alls&w!)

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CPT, Armor (Ret)
Luke 22:36

I guess you are now mostlyglock, instead of allglock. Shoot it and let us know how it goes.

Shot 150 rounds today. It shoots great, and all is well! This really is a neat little gun. Everyone should have one!

Congrats on the gun allglock! Sorry the journey was so long.

I just sent another of my S&W guns back for repairs... It is a 1984 model 60 with a broken hammer stud! Unfortunately, the shipping and repair will be on my dime since the gun was made before they covered their work.

I'm still waiting to see what the word is.

Edmo

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TRUTH: Don't delete my posts!

We purchased a new 43 C last week for my wife. She has a Bodyguard 38 and loves it, so she wanted the 43 C to match it and use for plinking.

Great Gun and she already loves it. However, we went to the range a few days ago to practice and we put 180 rounds of Mini Mag ammo through it. The trigger pull and cylinder rotation is amazingly heavy, so much so, that she could not fire several of the rounds. I found the DOA trigger to be quite heavy too. Besides the very heavy trigger, the empty shells were very hard to eject from the cylinder - even for me. The plunger could not simply be pressed - it had to be pushed on very hard.

We were both surprised at the characteristics of the new gun, because we expected it to be more like her Bodyguard 38 which has a great trigger pull and ejects spent shells very easily when the plunger is pressed. I was told by one of the Range Officials that the 43 C is built to very tight tolerances and that is why we had this experience. He suggested we contact S&W.

Before taking the gun to the range, I cleaned it and made sure there was no grease in the cylinder or the barrel.

Anyone else had this experience when their 43 C was new?