Ball detent lock-up does not line up. I mean it is way off. It is essentially one tiny corner of metal that reaches over the top of the ball... Barely reaches over the top center point of the ball. The center points of the ball and the hemispherical cutout the ball should click into are off by nearly an eighth of an inch!

I am describing a brand new gun, bought on the internet... Picked it up from my FFL this afternoon.

I sent them an email. Ball is in their court. I will give them a chance to make it good with a new gun or different model or refund.

Stay tuned.

Wow, that's not good for a new design. I will be following this thread.

I inspected a 66 and 69. As far as i can tell the ball is so far from center it can't be a defect, it's actually the way it is supposed to be. Doesn't look "right" but function is what matters.

I received an email response within a couple of hours. They are assigning a representative to handle my Inquiry/complaint. They say it may take up to 5 days for the rep to contact me.

@Shocker... Maybe they can explain that to me. That would be some fancy 'splainin'. Man, it's not like it's gonna "wear in" for a perfect fit in a couple of hundred rounds. Balderdash... I've seen some detents in my life... This is not how they are supposed to fit.

My M69 is the same way. They are all built that way but I agree, it doesn't seem right.

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Dick

There's a previous thread on this issue. S&W's reply to the customer query was a politely indirect way of saying 'it's normal'. I'd be surprised if you get a different answer.

Does anybody have a photo?

The ball detent on my m-69 is not centered either, but it has enough of a grip on the ball to do its job (it just looks shoddy). When I sent mine back to the factory recently I asked them to look at it, but they did nothing to address the issue. So I think its ok with them.

It really should be an embarrassment to S&W to be sending out guns that look like that. You can see the ball on mine is centered in the crane but no way can the ball be centered in the notch cut out in the frame.

One tiny little corner trying to capture the ball. To those who say this looks functional... I disagree.

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Thanks Harry. That was very elucidating! No wonder people are concerned.

Cleanharry: yours is a lot worse than mine, I have just over half of the ball inside the notch.

I dont get how they can ship out a new gun that looks like what i see in your picture. Maybe they hired some of the guys from Remington who were in charge of the Marlin fiasco to build this gun (lol).

Wow that is not right...if that the way they designed it ...shame.
You know at our aerospace facility the designers do everything in 3D Modeling. Unigrapics is a common program. Then they build tooling from there. Often it looks right in the computer but when all the stack-up tolerances that occur when cutting metal there are disconnects/defects/misfitting parts. Then they have to rework the tool to get it right in real life. This looks like they went from 3 D design to production...it works and they are now in the midst of fixing the little glitches. I am not for sure this is the reason they can't make it right but would bet a small lunch that they are re- tooling the fix and until that is done their company line is .."its functional." aka.. they don't have anything thing to give the customer that is any better..yet.

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John 1:17
NRA Life Benefactor

It maybe "normal" but it isn't right. I love S&W revolvers, but turning out this kind of work is stupid and annoying.

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JIM
NRA Pistol Instr

Theory: Because of asymmetry in the frame, the forces of firing are going to make the frame flex so that ball detent becomes more engaged with more stress. Hence, the offset.

Thank you
Since I kicked the hornets' nest, I have read the thousands of words on this subject. Thank you for the discourse.

First, let me admit that my lack of knowledge about "partially-engaged" detents - compounded by other forum posts taking the position that it's wrong - led me to jump on the wagon.

I wanted to love this gun, heck, I bought one!

Now, after all this talk, after all this reduction of post-purchase dissonance... I am sorry that I criticized with limited research.

The model 69 functions great, is fun to shoot, accurate, feels great in my hand and is the best looking revolver profile I have ever seen. I can't wait to shoot it again.
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Harry