Do they even make a 640 no lock?
340PD cracked frame
- Thread starter Dogmann
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Do they even make a 640 no lock?
DC7
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- Mar 13, 2006
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Catastrophic failure? Nah, that'll buff right out!
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.
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.
Last edited:
photoman
Member
DC7...
I wonder if a one-piece barrel, .38 Special J would fail like that?
I wonder if a one-piece barrel, .38 Special J would fail like that?
340 PD Cracked Frame
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
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?
pinkymingeo
Member
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.
pinkymingeo
Member
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.
Nimble Jack B.
Member
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...
My frame is not cracked; never had one problem with it and it's still reliable and accurate. Jus' sayin...
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