Ever have a S&W you hated?

Model 645 that the "Off/On" Switch on the right side of the slide kept falling off after four to six round. Tried everything to get it to stay on, nothing worked. Traded it off.

Rule 303

hmm I think I saw that one on gun broker actually awhile back, did you sell it with a holster and two mags?
 
I had a 625 5" JM gun that only seemed to shoot marginally with most loads, and in only a couple of thousand rounds the cylinder stop notches peened up so bad that it skipped chambers. I sent it back, got the cylinder replaced under warranty and then traded it.

I never have liked stainless guns much...this one took the cake. I've had a couple of 25's now, and never had a problem since.
 
Kavinski,
No, I sold it at a gun show to a friend whom I gave a complete run down on the gun to. He ended up sending it back to S&W and having a second generation "off/on" switch mounted on it, to the tune of $48.00.......

It was design flaw to use a phillips headed screw on it, Smith said they couldn't warranty it. It was in the mid 90s that this happened.....

Rule 303
 
Kavinski,
No, I sold it at a gun show to a friend whom I gave a complete run down on the gun to. He ended up sending it back to S&W and having a second generation "off/on" switch mounted on it, to the tune of $48.00.......

It was design flaw to use a phillips headed screw on it, Smith said they couldn't warranty it. It was in the mid 90s that this happened.....

Rule 303


ah I see, its just that I saw a really beat up one on youtube and gunbroker both missing the right side safety about 2 months ago.
 
A 669. Worst ergonomics and trigger pull I ever encountered. Was so glad to sell it.
 
I had two, both "N" frames. One was a 4" M57. It was the first non-pinned S&W I ever owned. After shooting it some, I noticed that I could grasp the barrel and turn it slightly by hand. Factory fixed it, but I sold it. The other was a 3" M24. When I got it, the cylinder would rub against the top of the forcing cone when you cocked it. I got it fixed, bought a nice El Paso holster for it, and never could love it. It hid underneath a light jacket about like a Ruby Red grapefruit. I swapped it for something (can't remember what).
 
I still have it a pre-29 model 44 magnum...I hate it so much i've never shot it or taken it out of the box....come to think of it I don't think the cylinder has ever been rotated......any reasonable offers considered.....couldn't be worth very much...
 
I had one of the first Model 59 9mm L. when they first came out. I owned a Model 39-2 and thought it would be just like the Model 39 with a double stack magazine... it wasn't even close..... We called it a "Mattel made toy gun". I tried carrying it as a LEO duty gun and decided I could not trust my life on it and traded it off and went to a Model 25-2 .45 ACP revolver. A number of my other LEO friends did the same and went to other duty handguns.

Years later I ended up with a Model 659 9mm L. and it was a much better handgun and I still have it.
 
A Model 547. After a long chase for one, I found out that this gun hit
ca. 6" low and left in relation to the POA at 10 meters. At 25 meters
it was luck when I found all 6 holes on the targetpaper.

Some months later, a dealer offered me another one. After testfiring with acceptable results, I bought it. The first gun was sold to a collector who knows about the problem. He don't care, becaus he don't shoot the guns.

Swissman
 
Lew Horton 629. 5" barrel, unfluted cylinder. Beautiful gun. Mounted with a Leupold 4x in a Wiegand mount. Found it all used for $500! Thought I had won the lottery. It would not hit the side of a barn at 10 yards. Awful. Sold it and made money though. I did tell the buyer it had serious problems. He was going to send it to Smith, never did hear how that went for him.
 
Most of the S&W's that could have started to hate I got rid of one way or another before I got that far into them. Now I've pretty much broken myself of the bad habit of buyng recently made S&W anything.
 
I still have it a pre-29 model 44 magnum...I hate it so much i've never shot it or taken it out of the box....come to think of it I don't think the cylinder has ever been rotated......any reasonable offers considered.....couldn't be worth very much...

it's not, trust me, i would never steer you wrong.
 
"I briefly owned a model 34 a long time ago. It was very cranky, or should I say it made ME very cranky. Extremely hard to extract spent casings, misfired frequently."

I had one that was bad to misfire in DA mode. Finally sold it.
 
We were issued 6946's (DAO) back in '93. We had replaced our CS-1's with these boat anchors. We had to replace the triggers in all of them because they were failing. They ended up developing cracked slides and frames from a load of hot 9 MM sub gun rounds we that the Navy "donated" to us for practice ammo. We finally relaced them with Glock 17's in '98.
 
My first S&W was a Model 916 Eastfield shotgun, from about 1976. It worked alright for the first couple years, then it started doing strange things: for instance, when I would raise up to shoot at a decoying goose, instead of firing the shell it would start the pump, ejecting the infired shell! I was by no means any stranger to keeping my firearms clean and functional, but this really irritated me. It happened enough times that I sold it at a loss--just to get rid of it. You can imagine my utter frustration at NOT being able to shoot birds that were decoyed and called in to the proper ranges. I nearly threw it into the lake more than once! Good bye, and good riddence.
 
I agree with Rule3 that my Model 317 Airweight, 3" is the worst. Like Rule3, I just had to have it and paid a lot of good money for it. I do love this revolver. It is the perfect jacket pocket piece. It just shoots like hell! The trigger is awful and the accuracy (probably because of the trigger pull) is just as bad. I would like to get it fixed and be able to use it. I am not in the mood to take a bath on it until I try.

Does any member have any suggestions. I have seen many complaints on this revolver over the years. Is there anyone out there that has done something to theirs to make it a favorite piece to just carry around in a jacket pocket and expect it to shoot reasonably well?

Many thanks,


trigger job by Terry G or any good gunsmith who doesnt take 8 months to do a simple slide switch and some PSG grips or pachmayrs

and then plenty of practice with snap caps and do it daily till you build up your muscle and trigger finger memory to the point that you dont notice how heavy the trigger is.

once you do that you'll never want to fire a semi auto again.
 
First handgun I ever bought was a S&W 459, it functioned and performed flawlessly, but couldn't get used to the straight backstrap, and huge winged adjustable sights. Sold it to fund a 5906, added some Crimson Trace lasergrips, and it has been my bedside gun ever since.

Second was a 4566TSW that I really wanted to like. Tried 3 different grips to try to get it to fit my hand, but no matter what I tried I couldn't get the thing to group worth a darn. Was really hoping it would be the 45acp equivalent to my 5906, unfortunately it was not. Sold it to fund a S&W 1911 and never regretted it.
 
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