Im the interests of research and because I like .32 calibre, I finally bought one 3 weeks ago. Same kind of slop that S&W has become famous for in the past several years. The double action was not right, lighter than normal but indistinct. Frame/yoke gap was better than the hideous ones I've seen (and other one in the LGS case), but by no means what is correct. Just typical of what S&W puts out these days with airweight J frames: nothing special or with even the slightest bit of concern about appearance or function.
For all the "Ultimate" marketing, it's sold in the S&W cardboard box which indicates a bottom-tier product for them. After shooting, the double action became rougher, rather than improved. Shooting also indicated that the barrel shroud was canted just enough (1-2 degrees) to cause 1-1/2" of windage deflection at 7 yards.
I compared the bluing and anodizing to my 2010 Model 431PD and the new one is not nearly as nice, and the laser etching on the new one is atrocious - nearly impossible to read the serial number on the butt, and the shroud markings nearly invisible. The older "plain jane" 431PD had stylish "lightening" cuts in the backstrap and trigger guard... the new 432 makes no attempt at attractive appearance.
I spent 4 hours working on it. Fixed the double action and was surprised by the complete lack of any fitting, or even polishing of the rebound slide. No hammer or trigger bosses on the sideplate either, and the pins weren't set correctly.
I considered merely moving the rear sight for windage since it is dovetailed into the modified frame - but no wrench was included to loosen the lockscrew in the sight, and upon attempting to do with a proper tool, found it was tighter than a duck's rear end. I used a Kroil soak, pressure and some heat - carefully as the frame is aluminium and VERY thin under the sight - to no avail. Rear sight apparently NOT designed to be user adjustable. With frame blocks and appropriate pressure, I was able to carefully move the shroud 1-2 degrees, and after shooting it confirmed POA was now dead-on out to 25 yards.
I was not sending this one back, after that the disasters of the last two brand new S&W revolvers I had to return, in 2022 and 2023. Your chances of getting it back repaired, or without a new defect, is a crapshoot. As an armorer, I figured I could attempt repair myself. Attempting to rotate the barrel shroud is not for the faint of heart and not recommended.
On a positive note, the front tritium dot was fully bright, and not off-center. The sight picture is also very fast, and accurate enough for 25 yard shooting. I was pleasantly surprised that the front sight also features luminous paint, which creates a very bright - albeit temporary - front dot. The actual accuracy was quite good.
The nice sight picture comes with the tradeoff that the sights will more readily snag in a pocket draw - the entire point of a DAO shrouded hammer design is to have a snag-FREE draw from a pocket. The tall sights also make finding a proper safe holster difficult - I had to wet-mould and modify a leather IWB favorite. The front sight drags on the normal sight channel, and the built up rear sight prevents full holstering so the trigger is partially exposed.
The grips are hideous in a tragic trifecta of function, feel and appearance, and counter-productive by any informed opinion of how small revolvers are fired, carried and used. I removed them as soon as possible, and tried both stock service wood panels and the original Uncle Mike's boot grips. Both of the latter were completely fine. Even the cheapie synthetics that S&W puts on it's other J frames would have been an improvement.
It is just typical of this model that the "features" are designed around bells and whistles to generate sales, most of which are of questionable or non-existent value, or contradictory to one another. Meanwhile, quality of manufacture, assembly and inspection are ignored as per usual at S&W.
I would not order one sight unseen, and even with amount of personal inspection you would be allowed at an LGS, you might not detect some problems only evident in shooting. After correcting the issues noted, I'm satisified with it, but it was not a seemless journey from out of the box to that point.
The same day I bought a new Colt Viper and for an extra $100 the quality is night and day. A sad statement if you prefer S&W revolvers. Your chance of getting an error-free new Colt revolver far exceeds that of a S&W.
