351C

[Retired W4]

At the show this past weekend a dealer buddy of mine had a new 351C 22MRF on his tables. After negotiating a reasonable price I took it home. 7 shot alloy cylinder, alloy frame and barrel shroud a white bead front sight. It weighs next to nothing and I thought it was pretty cool, but when I got it home I discovered it's horrible trigger pull. I did not measure it but it was very heavy and gritty. I took the cylinder and hammer out and the trigger rebound was heavy but smooth.

I removed two coils from the rebound spring and the rebound was a little lighter but still rebounded very well. Next I took the hammer spring off the shaft and found what was causing the grittiness. The shaft had two sharp edges along one side that were very rough, causing the spring to rub on them as the spring contracted and expanded. I took a file to the edges and finished them with 220 and finer until the shaft was smooth, like it's supposed to be. Took a couple coils off the spring and put it all back together. Hammer is snappy and smooth and the rebound is very positive. All in all the trigger pull is really good for this little DA only revolver. Great little pocket gun. It's too bad S&W didn't take the time to work out this problem at the factory before they shipped it. The face of the cylinder indicated that two rounds were test fired from adjacent chambers, which, in my opinion was not enough.

 

[haywood]

I read a few forums and Facebook. It sounds to me that Smith & Wesson pretty much doesn’t have quality control anymore. Every day it seems. I read one story where somebody bought a gun with problems.

 

[Retired W4]

I have a few of the newer Smiths and most of them have been good right out of the box. My 632 for example and a 60-3 Target from 1993. It took me two hours to get this 351C right.

 

[22hipower]

I had one of those 351-Cs once, for a couple of days. Worst trigger of any S&W I ever owned. At the range I could hit a man sized target with it at a few yards, not sure I could have hit anything smaller. It went away quickly. Might have kept it had I known there was a fix. Nice that you figured that out, maybe you should share the story with S&W.

 

[eveled]

S&W has decided it is cost effective to do a minimal safety inspection. Then send them out.

The vast majority of them are fine. The ones that aren’t? Some people fix them on their own. Some people keep them NIB. Some people give every new gun to their gunsmith for a trigger job before even shooting it anyway.

S&W is more than happy to send a shipping label out and fix any issues.

I know it sounds terrible, but if S&W had a gunsmith go through every gun before it went out, we would be paying Korth prices.

They expect us to be their Final Test dept. As a Final Test Technician, I have no problem sending one back for service. If it’s something I can’t tweak on my own.

I’m not trying to make excuses for them, but it is the new reality.

I ‘ve bought 6 new revolvers from them in the last year or so. 2 went back to Springfield and came back to me in less than a week. They came back perfect.

FWIW, one was a 351C and it was perfect out of the box.

 

[Retired W4]

I had one of those 351-Cs once, for a couple of days. Worst trigger of any S&W I ever owned. At the range I could hit a man sized target with it at a few yards, not sure I could have hit anything smaller. It went away quickly. Might have kept it had I known there was a fix. Nice that you figured that out, maybe you should share the story with S&W.

If I could talk directly with someone at Springfield and explain the problem with that nasty, rough hammer strut they might look into it. I'm surprised they did not test fire it more. That person should have noticed the problem.

 

[ddhartma]

At the show this past weekend a dealer buddy of mine had a new 351C 22MRF on his tables. After negotiating a reasonable price I took it home. 7 shot alloy cylinder, alloy frame and barrel shroud a white bead front sight. It weighs next to nothing and I thought it was pretty cool, but when I got it home I discovered it's horrible trigger pull. I did not measure it but it was very heavy and gritty. I took the cylinder and hammer out and the trigger rebound was heavy but smooth.

I removed two coils from the rebound spring and the rebound was a little lighter but still rebounded very well. Next I took the hammer spring off the shaft and found what was causing the grittiness. The shaft had two sharp edges along one side that were very rough, causing the spring to rub on them as the spring contracted and expanded. I took a file to the edges and finished them with 220 and finer until the shaft was smooth, like it's supposed to be. Took a couple coils off the spring and put it all back together. Hammer is snappy and smooth and the rebound is very positive. All in all the trigger pull is really good for this little DA only revolver. Great little pocket gun. It's too bad S&W didn't take the time to work out this problem at the factory before they shipped it. The face of the cylinder indicated that two rounds were test fired from adjacent chambers, which, in my opinion was not enough.

Wow! I am for sure more of a car guy than a gun guy (not that I don't like and appreciate guns), but when I saw a reference to a 351C, I wondered what a Ford 351 Cleveland had to do with S&Ws.

 

[Retired W4]

Wow! I am for sure more of a car guy than a gun guy (not that I don't like and appreciate guns), but when I saw a reference to a 351C, I wondered what a Ford 351 Cleveland had to do with S&Ws.

fooled ya'.