Hello. Picked this up with a trade and some cash yesterday. The previous owner was a man after my own heart, as it came with the original metal case and everything, including the original owner's LGS receipt. Minimal wear on some edges, obviously used but not abused. Very nice and smooth trigger. The spent case envelope dated in January 2008.

Question relative to the top pic rail: Does the R8, but not the TRR8, come from the factory with this rail installed? And do they basically intend that you won't be removing it. Two new TRR8s I've seen come out the box without the top rail attached, and the one new R8 I saw did (apparently) come out of the box from the factory with the top rail attached.

Suffice to say I tried to remove the screws, and the first two came loose with a little *oomph* but there appeared to be shat might have been red Loctite residue (really not positive), and the bit broke off in the third, and when I could see a new bit start to torque in the fourth screw, I took it to a LGS gunsmith who advised "they don't mean for you to take it off." Suspicious of this, I went to a different LGS and different gunsmith, who couldn't get either of the other two screws out by force, and didn't have a heat gun (?!) in the event that was red Loctite. I find it odd that the R8 would ship with the rail semi-permanently installed but the TRR8 does not.

Any thoughts or advice, especially from current or former R8 and/or TRR8 owners?

p.s. Since posting I've seen a couple YouTube vids from 2-4 years ago showing the R8 coming out of the case without top rail installed. Confused.

Attached Images

R8.jpg (98.6 KB, 203 views)

Previous owner probably put it on.

My R8 came without the top rail installed.
I hope that the previous owner did not lock tite those top screws. If he did.....yeah, a heat gun maybe or a torch.

Those screws do not require Herculean strength to tighten. I snapped a hex inside and proceeded to bubba up a drill with a small bit just to remove the top rail on mine. With the help of customer service, they sent me the screw I needed too.

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Congratulations!! Very nice find!

I have had both bought new and neither came with top rail installed.

Thanks for all the input.

After gathering together a padded bench vise, 2 different T10 torx bits, a T10 1/4" socket, and a soldering gun, and employing said items for about 20 minutes, I could not get either screw 1 or 2 to budge (all three torx heads have been permanently disfigured). Maybe I just couldn't get enough heat transferred to the screws with the soldering gun, and a torch or heat gun don't seem like such a good idea (I'm concerned the heat gun could mar the black finish on the gun---I'm not really sure what it is in the first place).

I think I'm going to call the mothership in the morning and see about sending it in to have that top rail removed as I'd really like the option of not having in on there. I figure surely they can get it off, and even if they have an "oops!" moment they'll fix their boo-boo. I just can't find a local gunsmith who's capable of what I thought would have been a simple gunsmithing task.

p.s. I think the one R8 I saw on display with top rail attached was either an anomaly from the factory or, more likely, the guy who put the gun on display attached the top rail for *****s and giggles and nobody else in the store knows he did that.

I have used a micro torch that runs on butane fuel to heat scope mount screw heads that were installed with loctite. They came right out.

Smith already emailed the shipping label to me, but I may try the mini torch before I send it off.

I dropped the gun off with FedEx and will let S&W work its screw-extracting magic. I do a lot of stuff myself rather than pay to have someone do it, but I just figured that with high temps and open flames, I was inviting trouble.

Maybe they'll slap some new grips on it, too.