its something to do with the length of the round as the 158's are longer than the 124 grain rounds.
and when the shorter lighter rounds are used it exposes a weakened area of the forcing cone on the bottom of the barrel that was cut to fit the longer cylinder of the .357 magnum to the .38 special K frame to higher PSI or plasma with the magnum loads than the heavier 150's as talked about here
Use of Magnum Loads in S&W Model 19 and Other K-Frame Magnums
hell if it wasnt for the fact that they were worried about people using .357s in .38's and hadnt lengthened the case that issue probably would have never happened with the K frame in the first place
and the gunblast guy has had a model 19 - 3 for the past 20 some years and put any and all normal pressure magnums through it with no trouble when I asked him about it awhile back in an email I sent him, its just the possibility of getting one that has a forcing cone that isnt really up to spec that bugs me otherwise I would have gotten rid of my old $300 dan wesson and replaced it with it awhile ago.
hell the whole issue seems to be 70% a quality control issue and 30% a design issue and if smith and wesson would just reissue the gun with that particular area appropriately machined to give it a little extra metal in that area it would probably turn into a non issue and the K frame would thrive again with no real problems hopefully and I'd buy one as long as they'd see sense and get rid of that keylock and got it the overal QC and customer service of the company back up to 99% like the old days
still if I was the head of smith and wesson I'd have a few prototype guns rigged up and tested with a 50,000 of both 120 gr loads and 150 grain loads at even intervals and then afterwards sell the finished product that has no issues whatsoever as a custom shop only gun without that stupid keylock to make up the cost of development for a few years and then turned into normal production guns once they were a 100% street proven
hell the old N frame .357 was just that back in the day and sold like hotcakes despite the price and basically being custom shop only guns, after all if you make a good product that will last forever they will come and buy your product, athough 1000 is probably about the most you could reasonabily sell the thing for in its custom shop form, but the key is not to nickel and dime something like that as otherwise you cut key corners and a bulletproof vintage mercedes turns into a troublesome modern chrysler.
anyways try and find one with recessed clyinders, firing pin mounted on the hammer and a pinned barrel as that would make it a pre 1980's gun before the QC problems hit as the gunblast guys gun is a pre 1980 like my model 29
The Smith & Wesson Model 19
and is about the same vintage as hickok45's model 29 that has lasted 70,000 some rounds
.44 Magnum Model 29 8-inch (Close-up) - YouTube
although it did go in for repair only about 6 months ago, but basically for about damn near 30 years and a ton of wear it had zero problems and it was only really a minor repair, after all nothing in life is really a 100% infallible no matter how good it is.
and make sure the forcing cone looks good and stong and you'll probably have a K frame on your hands that will last as long as any of the pre 1980s N frames as long as you dont use hotrodded ammo in it like some people did with the Model 29 and then frankly bitched about it not being able to take the strain of their overpowered loads despite it being their fault that they overloaded the gun and expected it to hold up to their unreasonabile expectations.
So they dropped them.
This is a great read and you'll really enjoy it.
