I had several light strike misfires a few weeks ago with my new model 432UC. Last week, I reloaded 50 rounds of 32 long and took my revolver to the range to see if the problem persisted. Out of the box of 32 longs and 10 more full power 32 magnums, I got three misfires. That’s enough to take this pistol off my carry list and to consider it unreliable. It’s a brand new stock revolver. I’ve removed the side plate and didn’t see any obvious problem but lightly lubed it to be sure.

So what should I do now?
Send it back to S&W for warranty repair?
Install an extended firing pin?
Flush with solvent and lubricate?
Try a box of factory ammunition & see if it’s a reload problem?

Any suggestions or comments are welcome! I really like this revolver and want to get it back in my carry rotation.

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SWCA #3526

I would try factory ammo first, just to rule out a problem with the reloads.
My bet is there's something wrong with the revolver.

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Because of the metric system?

Did those light strikes fire when tried a second time? It's possible that those primers weren't seated all the way which tends to look like a light strike. The first attempt to fire usually seats them and they'll fire the second time. When you say "new" do you mean new to you or actually NIB?

You need to make sure to seat EVERY primer firmly. Any high primers will likely misfire, at least on the first strike because that hit is partly seating them and partly denting them. Use Federal primers if you can get them. They are the easiest to set off. Winchester is the next easiest. Remington and CCI primers are a good bit harder.

You definitely want to test fire whatever factory SD ammo you intend to use. Let us know if you find out what works in your gun.

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protocalldesign.com

Using reloads? That is why the Police Department requires factory ammunition.

What is your Self Defense round? I knew cops who put spring kits in their revolvers and made them undependable. So that is the first thing I look at.

The pistol was purchased new in box last May. Other than being fired a few times, it is as shipped from S&W. I’m in the process of loading another batch of ammunition and will take extra care to insure that the primers are properly seated. Found some Federal small pistol primers this morning and will use them in place of the CCI-500’s I’ve been using as suggested. Also will sacrifice a box of Federal factory ammunition as a comparison to reloads.

The light strike rounds did fire on the second attempt except one that took three hits to fire.

The models 432UC and 632UC “Ultimate Carrys” are 6 shot J frame Lipsey’s exclusives chambered in 32 H&R Magnum that were just released this year. I will really like this pistol once and will use it once the problems are worked out. I’ll worry about my carry ammunition after I’m confident that this one is reliable for use first.

I’ll post an update after the next chance I have to get to the range with it.

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SWCA #3526

I have a 432 UC that I purchased new in box. Have never had a light primer strike in mine. My reloads are all Winchester primers. My carry/defensive ammo is all factory ammo, which is difficult to find locally.

Yesterday I finally found a box of 32 Longs to use to test my 432UC for light strike misfires that had occurred with some reloads (post #1). This morning despite all the high heat warnings, I got to the range early before it broke 79 degrees and climbing (101 now and still rising).

After 30 rounds of the Magtech wadcutters, I had two misfires. One fired on the second strike but the other survived three hits. In the photo you can see that many of the ones that worked show to me many have light hits even though they did fire. The cartridge that didn’t work after three tries is the one at the bottom right corner.

I think my next move will be a call to W&W Sevice

Attached Images

IMG_0332.jpg (86.0 KB, 82 views)

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SWCA #3526

Send it back for repair is my suggestion.

Make sure your primers are seated all the way down into the primer pocket ... you want them to bottom out in the pocket .

"Light Strikes" are a classic sign of primers not fully seated ...
the first blow drives the primer deeper but does not fire it ... usually the second try will fire the primer .

Also do try factory ammo as a test to your primer seating methods ...
if you don't get light strikes with factory ... seat them primers to the bottom of the pocket.

Also make sure the strain screw is tight .

If everything checks out ... send it back to Momma and get it repaired ... something is wrong !

Gary

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Certified Cajun
NRA Member

Check head space at each cylinder. Use a new or fired case. The space should be between .056 and .07. In your case you want a reading less than .07. Push the cylinder forward ( towards the barrel ) when checking. You can get an automotive gauge cheap at a car parts store. If the reading is under .07 you likely have a firing pin problem or spring problem. If the reading is over .07 you have a cylinder problem. My guess.
If you send it back to S&W expect a two month wait??

What happened when you tried the factory .32 Longs. Did they still misfire? Also, before sending it in to wait for a couple of months I would replace the hammer spring myself to see if it cured the problem.

Since the fired ones look like light strikes, I suspect a short firing pin. You want the firing pin to be a minimum of .495. Many factory ones are shorter.

The mainspring may be lighter than normal. That is to give the UC guns a better trigger pull out of the box. The one on my 632 UC is painted yellow. It fires all my reloads, but haven't tested it on factory yet. You may want to get a stock mainspring. J frames don't have a strain screw, for those who don't know.

These are the 2 main causes of J frame misfires. Without the gun on the bench, we are just guessing.

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protocalldesign.com

The springs are pretty easy to change, and they aren't terribly expensive. Also, you never mentioned what happened when you tried the factory .32 long ammo. If the factory ammo fires without any issues that could answer a lot of questions. And if they don't fire, I guess that answers some questions too.

Some of you need to re-read the second paragraph of post #8

Bastogne71 says he shot 30 rounds of MagTech wadcutters and had two failures to fire. He even includes a picture that clearly shows light strikes on a LOT of them and some show VERY light strikes.

Clearly NOT an ammo problem.

As others have said it is either a light spring, short hammer nose, or excess headspace issue.

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

I have not seen a box of Federal primers for sale for 5 years

Federal factory ammo presumably has Federal primers in it. That might be a place to start. Winchester ammo probably has Winchester primers. Graf & Sons has Federal primers for sale. There are probably others that do, too.

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protocalldesign.com

Well, it looks like I misread the op's post regarding the Magtech ammo. Since he is obviously having the same issues with factory ammo then it does stand to reason that the issue is likely gun related. However, I would still recommend changing out the spring before sending it back to Smith. If only to avoid the long wait. I admit I have very little knowledge regarding the various 32's. However, I thought that the H&R magnum had kind of vanished into the woodwork. Replaced by the 327 Federal Magnum. Just wondering why they would opt for the H&R.

There have been several very informative recent threads about this.
Search the forum for "Lipseys ultimate carry" to get the latest info on the recently re-introduced 32 H&R magnum S&W revolvers.

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

FWIW, multiple people have reported failures to fire/light primer strikes with Magtech .32 Long in particular.

The one 632UC I shot was 100% with the owner's handloads of Starline brass with Remington primers. He hasn't found any factory ammo at a reasonable price to try out so far.

The reason for the 32 H&R mag. is that the 327 mag. runs at a lot higher pressure. That means a lot higher recoil and noise as well. A lightweight gun can handle the lower everything of the 32 a lot better. The shooter can handle the lower everything of the 32 a lot better.

I think they made a very good choice, so I bought a 632. So far mine is shooting well, and I really like it. I'm waiting on a Crimson Trace laser grip before I start using the expensive SD ammo.

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protocalldesign.com

I’ve read several complaints about the new Smith & Wesson Lipsey revolvers. It seems their quality control was lacking. This is probably at least 15 complaints that I’ve read personally on Facebook and on this forum. If it’s not a reload problem, you’ll probably have to send it back to Smith & Wesson.

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Two Handguns every day

A wee point here: if the product was a special order to the purchasers specs, the problem may be with the order itself rather than QC.

It was long an article of faith that one did not screw with the factory mainspring on J frames. The very light hammer needed all the help it could get for reliable ignition.

A lot of them came with a dead night sight. Mine did. A call to S&W got me a good one that was installed in a few minutes. Everything else on the gun was good. The sight problem seems more like QC to me than purchaser specs.

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protocalldesign.com

Swing the cylinder out , press thumb piece back so you can pull the trigger and once pulled keep it pulled. The tip of the firing pin should stick out of recoil shield the thickness of a dime. When It is loaded with empty brass can you stick more than 3 pieces of typing paper between case head and recoil shield at firing pin? Or if you have feeler gauges how thick of gauge goes there? Normal copier/ typing paper is about .004. Max head space is about .074 and case head is .60 .60+.012=.72

If both of those are good and the hammer is not dragging on the frame or side plate, it is the spring.

BTW, A lighter hammer doesn't usually need a heavier spring. Energy=MxV² and as a spring will accelerate a lighter hammer to a higher speed it will have more energy when it strikes. It is like bobbing hammers, the weight loss does not effect ignition at all.

My advice, call S&W tomorrow. They will give you an #RMA number and send you a freebie return label. Ship it off on their dime and get it checked. I am shipping mine tomorrow. It blew up. (Don't ask)

I've had the .32 itch since the Lipsey's was introduced. One LGS stocks both .32 Long and .32 Mag, so it is available locally for me. Magtech does use heavy primers, and I read that they are S&B's. I use a lot of Magtech .38's as my factory SWC and HBWC comparisons to my reloads, and never any problems in any .38 I own.

That Magtech box does look like light strikes. Call them, and send it back.

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Heavily armed old man.

Perhaps your 432UC needs a little longer firing pin.

I have a 432PD which works 100% with 32 long and 32 H&R, but when I try 32acp in it I get lots of light strikes.

It turn out the 32 acp cartridges have slightly tinner rims than the 32 revolver cartridges.

More recently I obtained a 331ti, and it shoots the 32 revolver cartridges and also 32 acp perfectly.

Nice deep strikes ever time.

I've concluded that a smidge longer firing pin on the 432pd would enable it to shoot 32 acp too.

But I don't plan to use 32 acp in either gun for any important reason

Well, FWIW, I bought a <gasp> Taurus M327 last year.
It is chambered for 327 Federal Magnums and shoots 327, 32 S&W shorts, 32 S&W long, and 32ACP equally well.
No muss, no fuss, just reliable function.
BUT it is an all-steel revolver, so it isn't quite as light in the pocket or holster as one of the S&W/Lipsey's Ultimate Carry revolvers.
On the other hand, it was also significantly less expensive.
So there is that.

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

Finally got my 432uc out to the range today. Only put 12 rounds through. Had one FTF, never went off even after 3 strikes. I'll try it in my SP101 and see if it works.

I had my new 632 UC out last weekend for it's first shoot. Found it at a Non-LGS on the way back from an IHMSA event. They had two, but the first passed inspection, so I made sure that's the one on the 4473. (The counter dude had started to ring up the other. "No pigs in pokes! Put it back," was my response.) Quickly swapped the original grips after one cylinder full for new style S&W rubber grips and all was good! Weirdly, the Magtech .32 S&W Long JHPs had much more felt recoil than the Federal .32 Mags. Didn't have any of my .32 Mag silhouette loads on hand. They're unpleasant in my old 432PD, though.

As usual, the tritium sight version requires POA to be directly behind the green dot to match POI at 25 yds. Same as my 340 M&P. In the dark, that makes sense, it just isn't quite natural in daylight.

Update. It did fire in the SP101. That said I've got about 80 rounds now, and no other issues. All but 6 rounds were PPU 32 long. Fired 6 champion 32 mag, fired fine, but had 3 split cases, I feel like that was a brass issue probably.

Thanks for all the suggestions from everyone. I found some Federal small pistol primers and shot fifty rounds without any problem. Thinking that the revolver was good to go, I loaded some 32 longs with several charge weights of powder & CCI-500 primers to test for velocity. Two of twenty misfired.

If this had been a used pistol, I would have tried several of your suggestions to get it to work reliably but is a new in box fresh from the factory pistol. Why should I spend my time and money to fix it? I feel that it should be reliable with any suitable ammunition without my having to work on it so it is now back at S&W for repair. There are six S&W revolvers in my safe that have been 100% reliable with my reloads for many years so i do not think this is an ammunition or hand load problem.

I’ll start a new post whenever S&W returns it and I can test it again. We’ll wait and see how it goes.

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SWCA #3526