Det-Sog
Member
- Joined
- May 22, 2017
- Messages
- 53
- Reaction score
- 86
So, I was all stoked about my new performance center .44 that I spent a lot on. Went to the range today!! Yaaaaay... NOT!
So here we go.... BACK <--- to the FACTORY!!!
Sometimes you just have to pee on the electric fence. I know there have been issues with new Smith's. I did my best to look this thing over at the gun store. Long story short. Barrel is probably 5 to 7° out of clock. Couldn't tell until I got it home. Might as well take it to the range and see how it shoots. OK. Let's just pee on the electric fence again.
First three shots did not even hit a paper plate at 10 yards. OK, no problem, just zero it in. 4 inches low, 6 inches to the left. I crank the windage over. Ended up having to move the rear sight blade almost full deflection to get the windage correct. The windage is spot on, but as you can see from the picture the sight blade is all the way to the right.
I was using factory 230 grain S&B ammo, and shooting from the bench single action to make sure it was not me.
This far off for windage, what would YOU do???
Hard to tell from this picture, but when I put a straight edge on top, the barrel is obviously tilting towards the right when looked at top down muzzle away for me.
In defense of S&W, The rest of this thing seems to be a work of art. When I called Smith, the people that answered the phone were very courteous, polite and set me right up with a return label. It's really sad, because other than it's not accurate (I know), this is one of the sweetest shooting weapons I've ever fired. For a 44 Magnum, I shot 75 rounds of full house magnum and didn't even get tired. The weight of the gun coupled with the compensator handled the recoil very well. The trigger and the total mechanical action seemed PERFECT!
I'm just really chapped that I spent this kind of money on something that supposed to be top notch, and have to send it back in. I wouldn't be writing this, if I didn't know about other problems other people were having. Strike this up is just another data point for the QC issues coming out now days. Using the line from "Get Smart", you Missed it by that much. If the factory would've looked this over for just five more minutes, they could've corrected it before it went out. WHY S&W, WHY???
I'll take partial responsibility as though even that I did look it over before the purchase, I still missed the barrel clocking. I did my best with my eyeballs. I brought magnifying glasses and really looked this over. Without running a straight edge down the top of the barrel though, had out to do all over again, I'm not sure I would've caught it again by just eyeballing it without tools.
Oh well... Was looking forward to shooting this thing again in a couple days, but now I guess I'll have to wait several weeks.
Edited for spelling and grammar. I just did this from my cell phone as I get ready to go buy a freaking shipping box. Not like I've got other things to do.
So here we go.... BACK <--- to the FACTORY!!!

Sometimes you just have to pee on the electric fence. I know there have been issues with new Smith's. I did my best to look this thing over at the gun store. Long story short. Barrel is probably 5 to 7° out of clock. Couldn't tell until I got it home. Might as well take it to the range and see how it shoots. OK. Let's just pee on the electric fence again.
First three shots did not even hit a paper plate at 10 yards. OK, no problem, just zero it in. 4 inches low, 6 inches to the left. I crank the windage over. Ended up having to move the rear sight blade almost full deflection to get the windage correct. The windage is spot on, but as you can see from the picture the sight blade is all the way to the right.
I was using factory 230 grain S&B ammo, and shooting from the bench single action to make sure it was not me.
This far off for windage, what would YOU do???

Hard to tell from this picture, but when I put a straight edge on top, the barrel is obviously tilting towards the right when looked at top down muzzle away for me.

In defense of S&W, The rest of this thing seems to be a work of art. When I called Smith, the people that answered the phone were very courteous, polite and set me right up with a return label. It's really sad, because other than it's not accurate (I know), this is one of the sweetest shooting weapons I've ever fired. For a 44 Magnum, I shot 75 rounds of full house magnum and didn't even get tired. The weight of the gun coupled with the compensator handled the recoil very well. The trigger and the total mechanical action seemed PERFECT!
I'm just really chapped that I spent this kind of money on something that supposed to be top notch, and have to send it back in. I wouldn't be writing this, if I didn't know about other problems other people were having. Strike this up is just another data point for the QC issues coming out now days. Using the line from "Get Smart", you Missed it by that much. If the factory would've looked this over for just five more minutes, they could've corrected it before it went out. WHY S&W, WHY???
I'll take partial responsibility as though even that I did look it over before the purchase, I still missed the barrel clocking. I did my best with my eyeballs. I brought magnifying glasses and really looked this over. Without running a straight edge down the top of the barrel though, had out to do all over again, I'm not sure I would've caught it again by just eyeballing it without tools.
Oh well... Was looking forward to shooting this thing again in a couple days, but now I guess I'll have to wait several weeks.
Edited for spelling and grammar. I just did this from my cell phone as I get ready to go buy a freaking shipping box. Not like I've got other things to do.
Last edited: