BeauW
Member
Hello everyone. I'm a noobie to this forum (well, actually I've looked at it in the past without signing up). That said. I am a lover of S&W and have several...k frames, N frames and now, I've added an X frame...a Smith 460. One of the things that floated my boat was the expectation of scoping this puppy. Now for the problem. After purchasing the gun, I also purchased a Warne base and rings as well as a Nikon 2-8 pistol scope. When installing the base, I noticed that the front of the base would move slightly to the right when tightening the screws. I especially took note of this after putting my Laserlyte bore sight on it and it was out 2-3" left and maybe 3" low at just 12 ft! (across my living room). Even when the scope was adjusted to it's extreme it was slightly out. I tried this at the range as well but was off a few inches at 7 yds!!!... And that at extreme adjustment!!! I talked to a tech at Warne who sent me another base to try on the chance that the base was out...even though he said it would have been an exceptionally rare occurrence. Sighting was out with this base as well. It too, had the front or the base move slightly right when tightening it. BTW, this is the multi-sight base where you attach the rear sight you removed from the frame to to the base. I took note that the iron sights when mounted on the Warne base were out as well (so it isn't a rings problem). After some back and forth discussion, the Tech suggested I talk to S&W as they have, on rare occurrence, encountered an X-frame that had been hand polished a bit much on one side or the other on the the top strap and that could cause the problem I described. OK, fine. So I contacted S&W and they asked me to send the gun to them. I was surprised that they actually replaced the entire frame! Thinking the situation resolved, I was excited to receive my firearm back. However, I tried to mount the Warne base and mount to the new frame...SURPRISE!!! Same issue!! A couple weeks ago, I called Warne back once again and spoke to the same Tech I spoke to previously. After some back and forth, he asked me to send him my base. He saw nothing really wrong with it, but sent me ANOTHER new base. I just tried this once again this evening, and the same issue has occurred. Now one would think that given the issue I had to begin with, if S&W replaces the entire frame, that they would be sure the new frame isn't over hand polished on one side or the other. Furthermore, I know of 2 other people who have smith 500's and neither have had this problem. and, of course, the 500 and 460 are built on the same frames. Everything screwed right up for those guys...one with a Warne mount, the other with a Weigand Mount. They had pretty minimal sight-in to do after bore sighting even. So, does anybody have any thoughts on my problem? I did call S&W back to see what they say. I have also considered bedding the Warne base to the top strap to prevent the 'twist' to the right when I do the last 1/4 - 1/2 turn to tighten the scope base screws. The Warne Tech suggested I use bedding putty rather than a thinner compund if I do decide on using bedding compound. However, it seems to me that a new gun that is supposed to take a 'drop-in' mount should be able to do just that. Oh, one more thing, I can get the thing to shoot using just the iron sights mounted to the top strap...as it came from the factory, but I really bought it to scope it.
I'd like any input/insight anyone here may have. Looking forward to your responses!
I'd like any input/insight anyone here may have. Looking forward to your responses!
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