UPDATE; POST 62 MODEL 67 BARREL DEPARTED ON 3RD SHOT

[50 target]

A good friend and shooting buddy bought a Model 67 S&W at a local pawn shop and asked me to clean & lube it for him. He isn't the guy you want inside your Smith. I took care of it and returned it to him at our monthly shoot together with friends. On the 3rd shot I saw the recoil and the barrel fly forward. Well, that is something you don't see everyday. No injuries, no shrapnel. On examination of the gun, the remaining rounds were removed. All rounds came out of the cylinder with a normal push of the ejector rod and the 3 fired cases did not exhibit any pressure signs and the report was no different than the first two. No damage to cylinder or rest of the gun.
The barrel was recovered about 15 ft in front of the bench. It sheared off the frame where the barrel meets the frame with a clean break as smooth and even as if you used a plasma cutter. The threaded part remained in the frame. An interesting part of this is that the first 2 shots did not hit the target(silhouette) at 15 yards.
Gun has been sent to S&W for exam and repair. This issue an early model with a 3K ser.#. One of our friends present is an S&W trained armored. His thought is that it is either bad SS or barrel over torqued. It will be interesting to see what S&W has to say.
As an aside my friend fired the gun the previous day and stated it shot low and he raised the rear sight to the max and POI did not change. That may have been a symptom of what later happened.
Thoughts, speculations, experiences with S&W SS guns. Ammo has been determined not to be the cause.

 

[C3Ranger]

Have never seen or heard of s similar experience, even with guns known to have barrel replacements. What happened at the range had to be the final result of a previously existing condition, and the symptom of off target shooting may be the reason it was in the pawn shop. It does sound like the barrel had been over torqued and cracked or split in the past.

 

[murphydog]

Glad no one was injured.

That is a very unusual failure in an older, one-piece barrel S & W revolver. If the rest of the gun is undamaged, he should look for a replacement pinned model 67 barrel (the factory will almost certainly not have one).

 

[Baxter6551]

I hazard to guess that S&W will not repair it or return it. Maybe I’m wrong. Please update when you hear something.

 

[stansdds]

So with the first two rounds fired, the bullets failed to impact the target, the the third round fired produced heavy recoil and the barrel parted company with the frame? My guess is first two rounds were grossly under-powered, either insufficient or missing powder charge or the powder did not burn correctly and lodged two bullets in the barrel. The third round was a fully functional round or maybe had a bit more powder than the previous two and the barrel with bullets stuck proved to be the part that vented the excessive pressure. Now I gotta ask, factory ammo or someone's reloads?

 

[Protocall_Design]

The barrel was probably overtorqued (a lot of them are) and just finally gave up at the point of highest stress riser. The remaining part should easily unscrew to allow another barrel to be fitted.

 

[H Richard]

My choice is an over torqued barrel. I saw this happen back in the 80's with a Ruger stainless 44 Mag. Ruger replaced the barrel, and placed a more expensive barrel, with the built in cuts for scope rings and sent the scope rings. They returned it within two weeks. Evidently they found a employee installing barrels that didn't get lined up just right on first set, then gave them an extra hard pull for final alignment. I understand he got retrained. I also understand this happened with more than one Ruger.

 

[50 target]

Barrel when recovered had a clean unobstructed bore with no damage. I said nothing about heavy recoil. Report and recoil on the 3rd shot was same as first two. I watched while all 3 shots were fired.

 

[ken158]

A 3K is a pinned barrel gun. Also curious how this happened and a gun that has been around that long must have had some Bubba work done and why it ended up at a pawn shop. Seriously doubt the factory has any barrels available and would also think the barrel threads in the frame are compromised anyway. You may or may not even get it back from the factory but if you do, it will not be repaired. They may offer a deal on a similar currently manufactured gun.

 

[jeffrefrig]

I'm glad no one was physically hurt. Feelings, maybe, but if that is the limit of it all, then good. It almost sounds like someone broke it once then used clear Krazy Glue to repair it then got rid of it. (I said "sounds like", not that someone actually did it.) "No injuries, no shrapnel." <<< This is the most important fact IMO. It would be interesting to see what S&W has to say about it to many of us. I hope your friend didn't spend all of his gift-buying money on it for the upcoming gift giving holiday. If it can't, or won't be finished, perhaps remove the firing pin then sell it, with the firing pin in a separate container, as a parts gun or wall decoration.
Those are nice guns but I wouldn't shoot it again.

 

[50 target]

S&W customer service advised him he would get a letter from the Service Dept. (Custom Shop that is still located in Ma.) detailing their findings. My initial concern was availability of a barrel on a 52 year old gun. He is quite capable of suffering the financial/gun loss if it comes to that. I am envious of his enthusiasm because at 75 yes old he acts like a 10 yr old at Christman when he gets another gun. I seem to remember that S&W had a recall on the 624 as they had a questionable batch of SS. We shall see.

 

[Yendor357]

You didn’t take any pictures?

 

[2152hq]

I've seen a lot of K frame bbls over the yrs that have a ring in the bore, or at least damage that appears to be a slight ring just ahead of the forcing cone.
This on take-off bbls from all sorts of K-frame models and yrs of mfg'r.
I've got probably 5 or 6 take-offs right here now that show this.
There's been articles written about it. Something about the threads tightening and doing the damage inside.
Lapping to remove damage that isn't too bad is the common repair,,or was.
There was even some sort of long throating process to get beyond that section for better accuracy.

The damage is usually explained that it's from the over torque applied during factory fitting. The very thin wall right at the junctur betw the bbl threads and the shoulder twists as the bbl is torqued into place with some excessive force to bring it to 12o'clock.
The bbl shoulder comes around to clock OK, but only by twisting that thin section of bbl wall behind it in extreme circumstances.

If the twisting done to the steel is dramatic enough to damage it structurally, why wouldn't it eventually fail right there and shear off.

Also if the point was damaged and weak and the bbl took a hit and bent (perhaps this one did 'neither of the first 2 shots hit the target").
Then that may have cracked the thin section that was already compromised.
The next shot just did the severing.

I would have just cleared the threaded stub out of the frame and found another bbl. Install it and go on.
S&W will trash-can it I imagine never to see the daylight again and offer a new model of some sort.

 

[StrawHat]

But, but, but…how can this be!!!!

This only happens to new stuff with storage locks and multi piece barrels! You are obviously mistaken in your identification of the Model!

(And if anybody does not recognize the sarcastic tone, this is to tell you it is indeed, sarcasm directed at all the anti-new-stuff folk.)

Kevin

 

[OKFC05]

Last batch of S&W revolvers tested by Oklahoma, 3 spit the barrels and no more official purchases were made. S&W said all were over torqued and offered to submit another batch: no thanks. This was long time ago, still 20th century.

 

[JackM]

A good friend and shooting buddy bought a Model 67 S&W at a local pawn shop and asked me to clean & lube it for him..

And his first words to you weren’t, “What did you do to my gun?”

 

[just plain joe]

I purchased a Model 67, 4 inch revolver from a private owner in December 2014, S/N: 5K180##. It did not appear to have been shot much. About two months later I was shooting 158 grain lead service loads. While cleaning I noticed a partial circular crack in the barrel where it contacted the face of the frame. I figured it was an indication that a new barrel would need to be fitted. I searched and found a replacement barrel on-line. I then contacted Smith & Wesson. They agreed to remove the old barrel (which I still have) and install the new barrel.

I didn't know what caused this problem, but it sounds a lot like that previously mentioned. As an aside, my revolver shoots very well now. It is interesting the hear that this may have occurred due to overtightening of the barrel.

 

[Grayfox]

This has happened before and it was an overtorqued barrel. Over tightening stressed the barrel shank right where it goes into the frame creating a weak spot.
I don't remember the details, but back in the 90s (?) I think it was, the Dept of Corrections of some state (GA?) bought a batch of stainless revolvers and had several of them fail just as you described. S&W replaced the whole batch.
Rare, but it does happen.

 

[Photog]

I hazard to guess that S&W will not repair it or return it. Maybe I’m wrong. Please update when you hear something.

I have to agree. My guess is that they will offer him a "similar" pistol that is in current production and will more than likely keep his old one. I also bet they will charge him, not full retail for the new pistol if he decides to go that route, but more than he could find one on his own. Even if he doesn't agree to the replacement, I think he will have a hard time getting his old one back.

 

[Jim Watson]

You may get it back. And can then find a barrel and have a real gunsmith put it on.

There was a poster on THR who blew up a 632UC and sent it to S&W. They sent the wreckage back with comment that it had not failed due to defect in material or workmanship.