350 Legend

[GilaDan]

Just registered. Owner of a 350 Legend revolver, little over a year. Nice revolver, but a major issue. It misfires on about 40% of my reloads. Over 50 years of reloading for almost every caliber on this planet there are OFTEN issues. You work through them. However, I've always figured it out and adjusted as needed.

With a misfire you start with primers, do some testing and see if that is the issue. OK here.

Then you move to the case itself and do a ton of micro measuring. Amazingly, my reloads mic out to the exact measurements compared to factory loads. Case length is exactly 1.705" for both factory and reloads.

Did I over crimp? No. Factory and reloads measure exactly .377 at the mouth.

So, I called Smith and Wesson today to see if there are any reported issues on the 350 Legend revolver. I must have gotten Barney Fife: "You void the warranty if you use reloads!!" "There are NO issues on the 350 Legend revolver!!"

Really?? Mentioned there might be a few reloaders in the USA that would be interested to know the issue I'm having. "You void the warranty if you use reloads!!"

So here we are. I'll report back if I figure the issue out. However, S&W should know, you'll never see another dime of my hard earned money. I stick to my word.

 

[DS-10-SPEED]

Are you by chance using CCI primers? I have a performance center 627 VComp and it will only fire a few of them, they are harder than others. The CCI works in my other revolvers. I switched to Federal.

 

[ruggyh]

Do the rounds fire if struck a second time?
If so the primers are not fully seated.

If not try some factory ammunition to see if the problem persist.

Yes the warranty agreement says it is voided if reloads are used been that way for at least several decades.
The easiest thing is not to mention what your shooting when talking to S&W.

 

[GilaDan]

DS-10-Speed and Ruggyh, thanks for your replies. And you two gentlemen are spot on.

Primer seating and brand can be a big factor. Having a son who is a bench-rest shooter definitely keeps me on my toes. I have two firearms, a Sig P220 and a S&W 610 10mm revolver that absolutely will have misfires. Years ago a fellow reloader suggested using only Fed Match primers. Not one misfire since. I'm still amazed at that.

I use an RCBS bench primer seater and get a solid push on the primer. We tested Remington, Winchester, CCI, Federal primers. Regular and bench-rest. The misfires were random, so no consistency here.

Have always used the moon clips so far and will do a test w/o the moon clips. The case is significantly tapered, Sizer die doesn't make contact with the case until almost halfway down.

My disgust with the S&W spokesperson was the immediate dismissal and rudeness. They can share any technical feedback on the 350 Legend if they want to be helpful. And to say there are no issues with this pistol is either being unaware or purposely unhelpful. Several forums are full of issues. Probably the biggest complaint is the excessive air gap in front of the cylinder.

 

[PatriotX]

Moon clips that are not perfectly flat may cause misfires as well.

 

[collectordude]

You could get a primer pocket reamer. It might help

 

[AmStaff64]

I had a similar issue with my 500. Not a 40% failure rate but maybe 10%.
They would fire on the 2nd strike. I was using a hand primer that worked well for the 10 to 15 other cartridges I load. I switched to the RCBS Bench Priming tool and the problem went away.
As far as reloads - most firearm manufacturers state what you were told in the warranty.