Denis,
That is not true of all of the S&W multi-piece barrel designs. Certainly it applies to the 500s, 460s and snubbies and all of the other 2 piece designs. I agree that the driving force here was probably the reduction of the hand fitting time.

However, S&W also employed 3 and 4 piece designs (virtually identical to DW). My two early 327s are 3 pieces. There is a tube, shroud and an end nut for the muzzle side.


I could easily disassemble it with a spanner wrench. The factory may have been toying with the idea of selling barrel assemblies early on. I missed SHOT this year so it has been a while since I looked at a current production 327 to see if the design has changed or not.

The 4 piece design added a false muzzle cap pressed in place to hide the barrel nut. I can not recall which models had this configuration off the top of my head.