Originally Posted by M29since14

I think you're right! I guess I lived kind of a sheltered life. When I first came to this forum, to say I was astonished at how many of the folks here are so much more expert at running S&W than the folks doing it would have been a fantastic understatement. This is not meant to take up for poor quality when it surfaces - and it does. It always has. As long as I have owned S&W revolvers there have been quality problems. People regularly get dumb ideas and do dumb things. And in my experience, the service department as ALWAYS been erratic. But really, I wonder how many of the outspoken critics have even the slightest idea what S&W is up against in trying to get product out the door that would meet their desired criteria, let alone making enough money in the process to stay in business year after year?

As a young fellow, when I had scrimped and saved enough money to buy my own, first 44 Magnum (a three-screw gun), I was thrilled to finally receive it. Imagine my surprise when the very first thing I was told by my Dad's older friends was what an awful junker it was compared to their older 4- and 5-screw guns; how every change S&W had made cheapened the gun and made it inferior. It would have been nice if just one of them had complimented me on what was (for me) a momentous purchase, or at least on my interest to make that purchase. But, no. Today, that process seems to continue... amplified by the internet.

It's not a perfect world by any means, but, as far as I am concerned, it's a better world with S&W's doors open, rather than closed. And, incidentally, in spite of what I was told, my 3-screw 44 Magnum is still around - doing its job just as well as ever.