340 sc help

Hi there, new to the forum so hope I am posting this in the right area. Just bought a 340sc the other day. shot 10 rounds thru her last week and again today. The rounds were 147g silvertips and 158g lilly semi jacketed bullets. Today I shot 5 of the 147g silvertips then emptied the cases and loaded the 5 lilly 158g rounds and fired them. When I opened the cylinder to eject the spent casings I could not push the ejector rod so I applied a little more force and the ejector still attached to the cylinder came out and hit the ground???? I believe this is not supposed to happen as this does not occur with my 686. When I got home I had to use a screwdriver to push the cases out of the cylinder. What's the deal? looking at the frame there seems to be no "stop" to keep the cylinder from falling out and I have some pretty big scrapes on the cylinder from it hitting the frame on the way out. Any help would be appreciated. I called S&W but they were closed at the time.
Thanks,
Dennis

Pretty sure it's not suppose to do that!

Welcome to the forum

Contact S&W next week and explain what happened. They'll send you a prepaid shipping label with return instructions and they'll repair or replace the gun at no cost to you. I suggest you be a little more careful in the future. I'll try to explain what happened.

Around 1997, S&W redesigned the frames and eliminated the cylinder stop stud (a separate piece of steel). The stud had to be fitting before finishing. They replaced it with an integral stop ledge - a raised portion of the frame that acts to prevent rearward movement of the cylinder. This ledge is alloy on an alloy frame gun. Without some sort of stop (stud or ledge), the cylinder can fall off towards the rear when the cylinder is open. IMO, they didn't make the ledge tall enough on most of the titanium cylinder guns (they did make it taller on the 317's). There's enough flex in the yoke to allow the hard titanium cylinder to hack right thru the softer aluminum and jump the stop. Shooting .38 Specials before you shoot .357 Magnums (and not thoroughly cleaning the chambers) can cause extraction problems. A fouling ring develops at the mouth of the case after firing. Specials are shorter than magnums and the magnum cases swell around the fouling ring and wedge themselves in place. A good rap on the ejector rod and off the cylinder comes (you'll shear the ledge).

Once you know this can happen, you'll handle the gun differently. Support the cylinder when you eject fired cases (see the photo below). If you must shoot magnums during a range session, shoot them first, then shoot .38 Specials. Keep your chambers clean. I'm not saying it's your fault (you didn't know), but you can prevent it from happening again.

Don't ask me how I know.


Old style stop stud made of steel on all guns (good)


Redesigned stop ledge (complete with cylinder marks on top)


Cylinder up over the stop ledge (bad)


How to support the cylinder during ejection


Taller ledge on the 317 (they know)

Removing the front sideplate screw will allow you to remove the yoke from the front of the frame, so you can properly reinstall the cylinder. Don't force it back on from the rear.

Didn't shoot .38's

That all sounds good I guess with the exception that the gun is brand new. I bought it and went thru her and cleaned and lubed then wiped her down before I went shooting. I have yet to shoot .38's. Both the 147g silvertips and the 158g target loads were both .357's. The first time I shot 5 of each then after cleaning and 1 week I went to the range with the intention of shooting a box or 2, but only got to put 5 of the silvertips and then 5 of the target loads when the issue happened. I will get a hold of S&W on Monday.

Thanks, Dennis

post op report?

Hey Dennis, what happened after you contacted S&W? can you give us an update?

S&W will take care of your problem. Let us know what happens.