I think it is discontinued. would love to have one . can't say about the scandium pro or con just know that it is lighter. I think yours is a Airlight not Airweight. Believe it has a visable hammer?? compared to the internal hammer on your 442. would be a joy to carry and a pain to shoot lol. I personally would keep it forever..
The M360Js are labeled 'Airweight' and have a scandium/aluminum frame and either a carbon or stainless steel cylinder depending on when it was made. The 'Airlite' series of guns had titanium cylinders. They're not discontinued, but are not in regular production. S&W has made a run of them every couple of years since they first came out back in 2008.
The one .38 Spl only gun with the scandium frame I know of was the product code 160360. That gun was all black, and IINM it had a blackened stainless cylinder. Those guns were made in 2013.
You should post some in-focus pictures. There's at least five or six common M360 variations. Talo guns. Performance Center guns. Non cataloged guns. "J's" and "PD's". All kinds.
OP, do you have the factory box for your gun? If so, post a picture of the box's label.
There have been several .38spl only scandium framed S&Ws in addition to the 360J - 342Ti & PD, 337Ti & PD, 315, 242 - that's off the top of my head, I've probably missed one or two.
As I posted above, the first run of 360Js was mad back in 2008 and S&W has made/released a run of them every couple of years since, the most recent being last fall not long before Christmas. When they release them there is a brief flood in the market, everybody has them, then they're all bought up in a month or two. The 360Js claim to fame is that it is the least expensive scandium framed revolver S&W has offered. When I bought mine from Bud's back in 2008 I paid $409, PSA was selling them for $350 during their pre-Christmas sale last year.
They originally came with carbon steel cylinders with crummy matte bluing but were changed to black stainless a couple of runs ago. I had Robar coat my cylinder with NP3 because it was so rust prone.
Interestingly, they also made one run of .357mag 360s with no letter designation shortly after the first run. I remember Bud's having them, I've never seen or heard of another run of them.
Some one said that it's a rare model with only 4000 made....if this is true is it something to put away as a collector's piece?
I've never heard any production numbers and S&W has never had or given out a lot of info on these guns. They are not particularly rare, it's just that a lot of folks have never heard of them since they're not a regular catalog item and they just show up on the market every now and again.
Kernel Crittenden is right, a run of 4000 is a lot of guns, when I think of rare you're talking a few hundred or less.
Just picked it up this afternoon and to answer the kernels question it says 360j and 160360 on the box. Other questions I have are: is the cylinder stainless steel like on the 442 pro or is it carbon steel like on the regular 442? The barrel on my new 360j seems like it's a bit beefier than my 442. It's like a stainless barrel wrapped inside a black barrel...what's up with that? Also I noticed a little piece of thin folded metal right above the forcing cone...what is its purpose?
The barrel is stainless steel inside of a scandium sleeve. If it was made in the last few years the cylinder is probably stainless.
This is a pic of the label on my gun's box and the envelope with the fired case-
