Hi all,

I purchased a NIB Model 25 a bit over a month ago - a gorgeous gun in the 6.5 inch format. On the first outing I noticed hard extraction, which got progressively worse, until after about half a box of ammo it was very hard to actuate the extractor so I stopped shooting.

I contacted S&W and they took it in for repairs. They returned it last week, about a month later. The notes said they replaced the cylinder and the yoke screw.

I took it to the range this morning and it has the same problem, plus a new one. Hard extractions are still there. Once the extractor travel stops, I have to pull each individual cartridge by hand. Same as last time, I noticed that some of the spent cartridges were slightly out of round (see pic below). The new problem is that it is now spitting out flames about 8-inches long on both sides of the cylinder. I don't recall that happening before so I stopped shooting it after three cylinders thinking that the flames might be a pressure related issue.

Any of you experienced guys have any idea what could be causing all of this? I want to be able to suggest something to S&W when I send it back again - sigh.

I am now an extremely disappointed S&W owner......

The cartridges are below - notice the one of the left seems to have a slight oval shape in the vertical. This happens to 3 of the 6 per cylinder.



This is the ammo - it's rated at 750 FPS: