Hi all. Has anyone, besides me, noticed a decrease in newly manufactured S&Ws lately? I work for a nationwide hunting/camping/fishing store (21 years now) and we received from one of our distributors a new Model 48 (we don't have a license for used guns). Since I've been looking for one of these for a few years, I immediately checked it out. When I pulled the hammer back, it felt gritty. Not as bad as some other brands, but not like the S&W I know. The single action trigger has creep at the beginning of the pull - definitely not the crisp, light break S&W has always been known for. I put the revolver back under the glass and went over to the new stainless guns (629, 686, etc.) and every one of them felt exactly the same as the 48. Every one of the 12 on the gun wall.
This makes me very - VERY - sad. I love S&W revolvers (and Models 52, 41, and 39) and always will. I own 41 S&Ws, going back to 1903, and belong to the collector's ***'n. I used to be the captain of the Browning Bullseye Pistol Team and used a Model 41 (more to that story if anyone is interested), along with my 52-2. This is beyond personal likes and dislikes such as round butts, stainless steel, side locks, and rubber stocks. The S&W trigger has always set them far apart from any factory competitor.
To be honest, I'm thinking of buying that 48 this Thursday when I go back to work my next shift... if it's still there. This is, after all, a S&W 48!
Thanks,
mj

I haven't been shooting s&w revolvers for long, maybe 5 years or so. I bought a 327pc that I wanted to send in for warranty work and they said the warranty isn't transferable. I can deal with quality concerns here and there if a company stands by their product and makes it right like.

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My 442 is in for service now 3 weeks and counting.

I have had a number of modern lock-equipped S&W guns pass through my hands over the last decade-plus. The double action trigger stroke CHANGED along with the introduction of the lock. The double action pull hits a dead-stop wall that you have to bust through to fire the revolver. I’ve felt this in every single S&W revolver that has the lock, including new ones shipped in the last month.

It isn’t the lock itself. My Model 646 is evidence of exactly this. The 646 frame has no hole and no lock, but it uses a lock-ready MIM hammer and the double action trigger pull hits a dead stop wall that you have to break through.

As for “quality”, I agree that it has declined, but I’m not subjected to any of that because the lock-equipped revolvers all have a DA trigger that I don’t like, so I don’t own ‘em (except for the 460XVR, which I shoot in single action.)

I recently bought a model 19 Classic, and it too has some disappointing creep in single action. Otherwise it seems well built. It's definitely not my first S&W post-2010, but the others are much better. I saw a post recently where someone had talked to an S&W manager, and he said these Classic's are not Performance Center guns; but S&W sure as heck has them under the Performance Center on their website. Overall I'm satisfied with the pistol, and don't regret the purchase.

I'm not going to send it back, but I may pay a good gunsmith to fix it - if I can pry off the Nill grips I put on it - man are they tight.

The latest I purchased, 686+, had this issue which annoyed the heck out of me. After shooting around 500 rounds through it, plus much dry firing, it seems to have cleaned almost all of it up. However, I did clean it out with Gun Scrubber and re-oiled as well...