438 misfire

[davidmcw]

I've been looking for 438 for several months. I was lucky to locate one near me. Purchased it this Saturday, brought it home and test fired it. 5 trigger pulls and 4 BANGS! Reloaded and fired with the same result. This forum refers to using a longer firing pin. Should I send back to S&W or get a new longer pin installed locally? What brand pin is recommended?

 

[shawn mccarver]

Send it back to the S&W Performance Center and have them install the Performance Center firing pin and to go through it for any other issues. It could be too much headspace or some other issue that is not just the amount of movement in the firing pin.

 

[qballwill]

I would shoot it some more and see if it is the same charge hole that is misfiring before I would assume it is the firing pin. It is quite possible that it is the firing pin if it is not the same one, but if it is, I would probably rule out the FP and start looking elsewhere.

 

[davidmcw]

Thanks

Thanks for the advise. I returned it to S&W today. If you e-mail S&W and they will reply with instructions to return the firearm at no cost via FedEx.

 

[Loofa]

Post up and lets us know what the diagnosis was. I have a 438 that I got in April (happy b-day to me) and have had no issues with it. I've only run ~100-150 rounds through it, but they've all gone BANG.