Has anyone heard of frames cracking on the SW340PD?

I read your thread and pulled mine out of my pocket to check, saw no cracks. Where will a crack appear if it happens?
Jim

Yup, let us all know where the frame was cracked. What sorta ammo have y'all been firing in it and how many?

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Frame is cracked under the barrel by the yoke.

The crack in the frame is Identical to the pics in this thread..-
The Gun Zone -- S&W Model 340PD

I had a 325 4 inch that was cracked in the same place as the photos. I believe it was cracked when I purchased it bacause the first time I shot it, I had to crank the rear sight way over to sight it in. I was shooting a 625-10 (alloy frame 2 inch Perfrmance Center) when I noticed the front sight leaning to the left. Examination showed the frame was cracked under the barrel. I then checked the 325 and found it to be cracked also. When my youngest son was looking at them, he told me I should call my oldest and tell him to check his 340 PD. It was cracked also. I sent all three back to S&W and they replaced all three frames. They put the original serial numbers on them. I posted this in the S&W forum several years ago. At the time, it was thought that the barrels were over torqued during assembly and the 325 was already cracked when I bought it.

S&W sent me a fed ex label- sent it out and heard from them today. The Frame is cracked. Cannot be fixed.

Pick a gun...

Dogmann, how old is your revolver? Does it have the internal lock?

Wonder why it cannot be fixed? S&W should have frames for it, since they still make that model, with and without the lock......

ATF wont let them put old numbers on new frames any longer.

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Centennial Every Day

Just got the wifes 642 Lady Smith (mid 90's vintage) replaced from S&W. They told me they put the old parts on a new frame, so it needed to go FFL. I'm still waiting 30 days for them to send me a chk. for the transfer, as promised from the customer ser. rep. Great customer service up to that point. The Ladysmith was UNFIRED and bought NEW (in the padded box w/ trigger lock.) I'm suprised some law firm hasn't brought a class action suit against them. Think of the consequences of firing a defective gun, in a possible life or death situation ?????.
Long story short I'm not big on S&W quality control or manf. tech. Just doesn't measure up to the older Smith's.

This is a well known problem with the Airweight J frames. The latest thinking is, the barrels were over-torqued at the factory.

I haven't heard of any catastophic failures shooting the cracked frame guns. Most people notice it cleaning their gun after a shooting session (shooting the gun with a cracked frame).

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Centennial Every Day

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. :/

Sissy! Where's your sense of adventure?

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Centennial Every Day

So the IL is now causing the frames to crack?????...ha

Frames always seem to crack under the barrel. I still think it may be something about the crush fit barrel installation stressing the frame on a lot of guns. This didn't happen with the pinned models.

my 642 was a non lock version. The pin is the way to go, and S&W should go back to this on ALL their guns. The crush method is a complete failure, as is the eyes of their QC inspectors!!!

I had the opposite problem with my M&P340. I had to return it to S&W to tighten the barrel to the frame. It was loose and had play in it after but a few rounds of firing through it. Sounds like their technique is one extreme to the other..........

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I have to choose now a replacement gun. I have a 20year old 442 and it's not cracked or broken. I'm going to stay away from the Titanium. I'm thinking a 640 no lock and have the PC center work it's magic.

640 no lock is an excellent choice. I love my 640-1. Good luck! Regards 18DAI.

Do they even make a 640 no lock?

I found this posted a few years back with a story about how a guy took a 340PD from the gun shop into the range, and came back a short time later with this:



The undamaged cylinder and barrel seem to rule out an overpressure round or plugged barrel. Based on the relatively clean break in the usual spot (the thin part of the frame right under the forcing cone) it looks like this gun may have had the same crack that some of us have found on our Airweight and AirLite revolvers. If so, this could be the result of shooting a revolver with a cracked frame.

When I found a similar crack in a still-NIB, unfired M442, S&W told me the crack was a result of the barrel being overtorqued when it was installed at the factory. They also warned me that shooting it would be dangerous, and instructed me to send it back for immediate (free) replacement.

DC7...

I wonder if a one-piece barrel, .38 Special J would fail like that?

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Centennial Every Day

Purchased a new 340 PD back in 2006, I put in the safe where it had remained, I continued to use my 640, I read a couple of years ago of cracked frames being reported on the 340 PD, took it out of the safe, looked it over pretty good with magnification, not cracked. I looked every once in a while over the years, Last month I took it out to look it over after reading a recent thread on cracked frames, there is was cracked bigger than life, under the barrel at the yoke, safe queen never fired. S&W replaced the frame, they just transferred the parts to the new frame. In my case firing had nothing to do with the crack. Asked for a no lock frame, no such luck !!!!

Best John

Thanks for the heads up. I just inspected mine and it is cracked on the bottom where the yoke seats. I just checked my logs and I have put about 600 rounds through it. All but about 50 were .38 Spcl +P 125 gr. GDHP. I guess I'll be calling S&W next week.

You guys are making me nervous!

S&W frames have been cracking since they started making them, and the steel ones sometimes being repaired, until recently. (Not by S&W, of course.)

To say that it didn't happen with pinned models is just not true, but it does seem we see more of it than we used to, when the pinned guns were still being made.

Are we to assume then that these are stressed so much, that they are dooed to fail with age?

Stress cracks from over torqued barrels seem to show up without firing, or certainly within the first hundred rounds or so. My 340PD and 360PD are +5 years old, and each has fired over 3K rounds without a hiccup. They're tighter, in fact, than my steel guns with the same round count.

Well- what should I choose as a replacement... how about a 43C?

Seems like alot of these frames being cracked lately!

Are there really? The members list on this forum contains 78,446 names. The 340PD is pretty popular. How many are owned by forum members? Several thousand, to be sure. How many have had frame problems? A couple, maybe. The percentage is very, very low. Same goes for the IL. A few problems out of tens of thousands produced have been blown way out of proportion.

I bought a new 340PD about four to five years ago. I've never loaded or shot it with any ammunition other than .357 Magnum 125-grain Remington Golden Sabers. I've shot about 400 to 500 rounds through it over the years.

My frame is not cracked; never had one problem with it and it's still reliable and accurate. Jus' sayin...