3913 question

[Timrob]

Hey guy's, i just bought a gun that i've alway's wanted but could never seem to find locally or even statewide. It's a #3913 with little to no finish wear and although i haven't had a chance to fire it yet it appears to function mechanically well.
This is my first 3rd gen smith and i'm not familiar with what i should be looking for yet in terms of bably worn parts or just normal wear and tear looking part's that are nothing to be concerned about.
In particular the rifling in the barrel seems to be unusually shallow compared to other more modern auto's i own. I'm not sure if this is just common manufacturing with the 3rd gens or if this is a badly worn barrel.
Perhap's someone on here with more experience with these guns could enlighten me on what appears normal with these barrels and is their a reasonably accurate method of measuring these without exotic gunsmith tools? Educate me please

 

[twistedracer]

Congrats on finally getting your 3913. I'm no where around mine to look at the barrel but I'm sure someone else will be able to help on that.

Throw a fresh recoil spring in her and give her a clean and lube and enjoy her.

 

[Big Cholla]

The S&W semi-auto version of the rifling intended for 9mm cartridges is slightly shallower than any revolver that could be expected to be shot with a lot of lead (with no jacket) bullet. Not to worry. Clean it up, lube it up and go shoot the heck out of it. ............

 

[BLUEDOT37]

I looked at my 3914's rifling (which was basically NIB when I got it & has been fired minimally by me) & I while it appears shallow it's not really.

Of the several S&W 3rd Gen 9mm's I've checked their bore diameters range between .3445" and .3460", using a pin gage set. Assuming a nominal .355" groove that would give you ~.010" deep lands. My .45's run about ~.008" deep lands & the 40's/10mm's run ~.010" deep too. So comparatively speaking they're not shallow.

But I agree, looking at it from the muzzle it doesn't look as deep as these 40's do.

.

4013 vs 4013TSW barrel

(-02a)

.

 

[MichiganScott]

The way the barrel is crowned can make the rifling appear shallower or deeper. I just compared a 3914 LS with a regular 3913 and the LS appears to have deeper rifling when it actually has burrs that were not removed during the manufacturing process.

It's funny that the burrs don't seem to affect accuracy, but they don't. Maybe I need to shoot it more and hope they wear off.

I'm also in favor of replacing the recoil spring just in case. Other than that, if it appears virtually unshot, there is no reason at all to expect any abnormal or excessive wear. I do like to use a minute amount of grease on the camming surfaces of the barrel. The surfaces on the frame that cam the barrel out of battery appear to wear much faster than they would on a steel framed gun, but I'm sure it is just appearance. The grease just makes me feel better about something I really shouldn't be worrying about.

 

[growr]

Clean it, lube it, shoot it, repeat for many thousands of rounds!!

Randy

PS. I don't change recoil springs until they become a problem.

 

[GaryS]

As others have said, cleaning, lubrication, and replacing the recoil spring are the keys to long life with the 3913 guns.

I routinely replace the recoil spring on any used gun I buy, just because.

Like MichiganScott, I lube not only the rails, but the camming surfaces as well. Maybe it's just me being overly worried, but I feel better doing that.

FWIW, I used Lubriplate 105 assembly grease. It's cheap and works well. A 10oz tube will outlast you.

 

[RV4driver]

Choot it. Unless you "slug" the barrel, and shoot it for competition, it doesn't matter, as you're not matching bullet diameter to groove dimension. I doubt that anyone shoots a 3913 enough to wear a barrel enough to matter. Long range rifles, Bullseye competition handguns, maybe, but not a 3913.

 

[Timrob]

Thank's for the practical information on my recently acquired 3919 - and i do agree that the rifling is deeper than it initially appeared to me at first.
I took the gun apart and cleaned,inspected and lubricated all the mechanicals, it all work's smooth as glass so i took it to the range yesterday and fired 250 generic costcutter rounds through it. It performed flawlessly with no malfunction's at all.
Accuracy obviously wasn't on par with a wilson combat 1911 but for a 3.5 inch barrel i thought it was more than adequate, much more so than my shield 9.
Much appreciated!

 

[rickyc]

Lubeing

Anything special about labeling this series of Smiths? I just bought one and know nothing about breaking it down, cleaning and lubeing it.

Thanks!!

 

[jsbethel]

Anything special about labeling this series of Smiths? I just bought one and know nothing about breaking it down, cleaning and lubeing it.

Thanks!!

http://www.stevespages.com/pdf/s&w_centerfire_pistol.pdf

 

[EPGuy80]

Anything special about labeling this series of Smiths? I just bought one and know nothing about breaking it down, cleaning and lubeing it.

Thanks!!

If you're more of a visual learner, there is a great series of videos on YouTube about the basic disassembling and reassembling of 3rd gen autos if you have the tools and a mechanical aptitude.

Disclaimer: if you need something beyond a basic part replacement, send it in to a gunsmith.