940 questions ! Help...

[pred]

I have been looking for a reasonable priced 940 and it seems as though they dont exist, The blue book says $340 in NIB condition. I wandered into one today, No box, but in 99% condition, and has some kind of trigger job done to it, It absolutely has the smoothest trigger pull of any of my smiths, Anyway, It appeared to be unfired, and the $ was 600. I picked up since I have wanted one for years, and the shop I got it from gave me a fantastic deal a couple of months ago.
It was a bit more than it should be in my mind, but to offset a couple of dollars, it came with 24 moons.
What is a real price for one of these?
The serial # is BSS5863,,, I cannot find the BSS in the standard catalog.
Can someone tell me it's made on date.
Anyone have any expirence with one of these?
It is a 940-1
Thank you!

 

[pred]

I have been looking for a reasonable priced 940 and it seems as though they dont exist, The blue book says $340 in NIB condition. I wandered into one today, No box, but in 99% condition, and has some kind of trigger job done to it, It absolutely has the smoothest trigger pull of any of my smiths, Anyway, It appeared to be unfired, and the $ was 600. I picked up since I have wanted one for years, and the shop I got it from gave me a fantastic deal a couple of months ago.
It was a bit more than it should be in my mind, but to offset a couple of dollars, it came with 24 moons.
What is a real price for one of these?
The serial # is BSS5863,,, I cannot find the BSS in the standard catalog.
Can someone tell me it's made on date.
Anyone have any expirence with one of these?
It is a 940-1
Thank you!

 

[Glock1911]

I think you did OK. I paid about the same for 940-1 recently. I actually traded a 432 and some ammo for it and gave some boot because I wanted the 940 that bad. Come to think of it you did a lot better than I did. Congrats on a nice and rare(IMHO) S&W revolver.

 

[SWAT Lt.]

Don't sweat it, you wanted one and you found a nice one and bought it. Just enjoy it. Life's too short. Besides, it's too late to worry about the price after the purchase. The 940 is a neat gun, congrats!

 

[pred]

Yea, I am not worried about the price, Being stainless, It will be good for general abuse and when I go off roading for the day on trials events, or the general trail rides through 3+feet of water I wont worry much..
But what is with the BSS prefix?
When was it made?
And why are these buggers so dang costly?
Peter.
Oh that was the OTD price.

 

[HEADKNOCKER]

The 940 was made between 1991-1998..
I would think yours would be from around the middle of that period but without the book I'm only guessing..940-1
There expensive because they don't make em anymore & people are willing to pay the prices that we regualarly see on GB..
$600 IMO is a decent price for one of these nowdays.. The bluebook is worthless on most gun purchases nowdays, It's more like 100% + $100 but on the 940 it's even more??
My 940 also has the smoothest lightest trigger of any J Frame I own, Much better than my 642 & 342Ti?? Slick!!
Good Luck & Give us a range report, Do you have trouble with cases sticking in the cylinder??
Gary/Hk

 

[Wakatomika]

Originally posted by HEADKNOCKER:
The 940 was made between 1991-1998..
I would think yours would be from around the middle of that period but without the book I'm only guessing..940-1
There expensive because they don't make em anymore & people are willing to pay the prices that we regualarly see on GB..
$600 IMO is a decent price for one of these nowdays.. The bluebook is worthless on most gun purchases nowdays, It's more like 100% + $100 but on the 940 it's even more??
My 940 also has the smoothest lightest trigger of any J Frame I own, Much better than my 642 & 342Ti?? Slick!!
Good Luck & Give us a range report, Do you have trouble with cases sticking in the cylinder??
Gary/Hk

Headknocker; Something in your last sentence caught my attention, I have trouble with My 940 being sticky on extraction. Mine is a 940 no dash which I purchased from a person who looked at the Blue Book before bringing it to the Gun Show, so I got it at a good price. Factory hard ball and Speer Gold Dot self defence loads are both sticky and require a pretty painful stab on the ejector rod to extract, or need a solid surface like a table or tree trunk to push the extractor against. What gives? Is this problem addressed in later models of the 940 or is this , perhaps , the reason the gun is no longer made? Thanks for any help.
Wakatomika

 

[Erich]

I had a no-dash 940, and it had sticky extraction of Blazers and other select rounds. This was a problem of this dash number.

 

[HEADKNOCKER]

My 940 No Dash had lots of trouble extracting certain 9mms, Others seemed to be fine..
I had my Cylinder Reamed to 38 Super for a Bit more power & this also solved the sticky extraction problems except for with Winchester White Box?? I'm guessing thier brass is weeker.
Also +P ammo will cause cause some sticking in the chambers..
I found the link were I had posted a while back about this but the link is now dead, That's sad to cause it had great pics of the chambers..
Look inside your chambers with an eye loupe & I'd bet you see tooling mark from a reamer that needed replacing, This is probobly the main reason the 940 was discontinued, Because of poor workmanship in the cylinder reaming..
I assume the problem was fixed in the 940-1s but can't be sure, I can always tell a 940-1 because there triggers aren't Flash Hard Chromed like the 940 No Dash..
I'll look in the harddrive of my other computer to see if I can find those pics..
Gary/Hk

 

[HEADKNOCKER]

I had the Cylinder Reamed to 38 Super by Forum Member Dave Manson, He makes Reamers for Brownells, he also Beveled the charging holes for a bit quicker moonclip reload, He did excelent work on my cylinder..
Here's The Link To His Webpage..
MansonReamers.Com
The 38 Super is more of a straight walled case were the 9mm is a bit more tapered, as you can tell from the before & after pics the cylinders bores were the trouble with poor extraction with My personal 940 anyway..
Hope this Help You Out Wakatomika
Gary/Hk

940 Cylinder Before Reaming

940 Cylinder After Reaming To 38 Super

 

[500 Magnum Nut]

You can buy a 38-357 hone from Brownells with their hone oil using a drill and fix it yourself. Remember to leave the extractor on when honing the cylinder. This won't hurt the head space as the 9mm headspaces off the base of the bullet (step at bottom of chamber).

Purchase the medium hone and in 3 minutes a bore the gun will be fixed.

 

[HEADKNOCKER]

I have both Medium & Fine Cylinder Hones & the special oil, If You'd Like to try honing give me an email & I'll send them to you.. save you Some Money..
Gary/Hk [email protected]

 

[SWAT Lt.]

I've had about 4 or 5 of them at one time or the other over the years and loved them all. They shoot well and recoil is "brisk." .I never had any extraction problems, even with +P or +P+, unless the gun was dirty. They are great little guns! Enjoy it!

 

[ladder13]

I just picked up a LNIB 940-1 for $625, and was glad to get it. I looked all over the place, and this was the best deal I found. Maybe if I waited one would have came cheaper, maybe not.
The 600 you paid was a good price.

 

[Glock1911]

No extraction problems with my 940-1.

 

[LarryC213]

When I bought mine I brought it home and "tried" loading it. Some types/brands of ammo worked fine and some didn't. I called S&W and told them about it and the guy told me that some 940's left the factory with some defective cylinders. They sent me a pre-paid shipping box, they had it back to me in less than a week and while it was there they slicked up the action for free. This gun does kick a good bit more than I thought it would. The rep. at S&W said that most people don't realize that the 9mm is like a half a step beneath a .357. Once I realized that it was gonna kick a bit, the recoil was pretty easy to deal with. Mine shoots to POA using +P ammo. I love this gun.

 

[HEADKNOCKER]

Hey the Cylinder Flex Hones have been returned & are ready to help anyone else out with a 9mm /38 Special /357 Mag who needs thier cylinder Honed..
Give me a Shout
Gary/Hk
940-342Ti-642 My Centennials

 

[LarryC213]

Those sure are some beautiful grips. May I ask who made them? I'd love a pair of boot grips for my 940.

 

[HEADKNOCKER]

The Ones on either end are Made By Craig Spegel, there both Cocobolo, the 940 has the Better than Standard set on the Left..
Those grips are boot grips made expecialy for the Centennials, Note the Higher horn that would hand over the frame on a Bodygaurd or Chiefs Special, This allows you to grasp higher on the frame than you would normaly be able to, this lessens recoil & increases shootability..
The Middle grip is the factory grip on that 342Ti, It's a Dymondwood a laminate..
I need another set of Spegels & may opt for something from Kim Ahrend or Eagle for my 342
There's a Big Gunshow in Indy Today & hopefully I'll find something Nice There!!
Gotta Go, My Buddy Awaits!!
Gary/Hk

 

[sw357nm]

In my experience with a 940 some brands of cartridges fit the moon clips better than others. I think that the cartridge groove depths are slightly different from brand to brand. In some cases the loaded clips were hard to seat. If you have this problem just try other brands. If the loaded clips are hard to seat they are even harder to extract.
I love the gun and suspect that with the best ammo it is significantly more effective than the 38 Special for one-shot stops.
John