I worked at a local gun shop in Michigan off on in the 1980's. S&W was one of our bigger product lines. We sold a lot of revolvers and some auto's. Guns coming from the factory with flaws was common. We used to wonder what the heck they were doing in Springfield.

The common flaws we observed were excessive gaps between the ejector shroud and the frame, out of spec BC gaps, flaws in the finish, metal burrs left over on the outer portion of the barrel by the forcing cone. Large gaps between the crane and the frame when the action was closed. Also, parts of the gun that appeared overly buffed. Plumb blued barrels and cylinders. For some reason there was a run of the first non-pinned barrel 629's we got in (4 each), you could actually spin the barrel off by hand.

Like the auto-industry, from about 1980 on, many in the manufacturing industries were re-tooling, or looking for ways to make production costs cheaper. American Cars were absolute junk. It was not that much different in the firearms industry. Take a Model 27 as an example. Compare a NIB 27-2 S Series Revolver with a 1980's NIB M27-2 or a 27-3. Everything is better on the S series, there is no comparison.

Moving onto the newest stuff, I had the opportunity to fire the Model 27 Classic. On this particular revolver, the edge of the ejector would get hung up on the side of the cylinder after you ejected the empties, tying up the gun until you fumbled with it. I bought a NIB 29-8 Mountain revolver, one empty would get hung up in the same chamber every time. I sent it into Smith for repair, and they had it for ever. The diagnosis, that chamber was bored straight, the cylinder would need replacing. Finally after 5 months, they sent the revolver back, repaired. They swapped out the cylinder with a heavily used one.

In the long run S&W has treated me great, and I have had some great revolvers.