Model 52-2 safety lever broke off

[Pantera Mike]

I was at the range yesterday, enjoying my Model 52-2, when something fell onto my left wrist and landed on the bench:








Needless to say, this was highly unexpected. I'm shooting loads just barely powerful enough to cycle the action (3.2gr WW-231/HP-38 with Speer 148gr HBWC) and I never even use the safety.

I hopefully called S&W and they very politely informed me that they no longer support this model (I believe they have divested their entire parts inventory for all their metal semi-autos). They had zero suggestions and told me to just look on the internet.

Far from helpful.

I then reached out to Jack First who had piles of these things in both used and new formats, priced at $60 and $72 respectively.

For $12 more I happy chose the new option and the part will arrive next week. Then it's off to the gunsmith for installation.

Is this a common failure? I've never heard of it before?

 

[Sevens]

I've also never seen this failure.

I will say it has long been my suspicion that dry firing with the safety ON could weaken the part which may lead to this kind of failure, but I have no evidence of it.

Even still, if I dry fire my 52's, it is with the safety in the off/fire position.

 

[moosedog]

I've had a few model 52s and have never seen that.

 

[AJ]

I just looked a Numrich and this is what I found. https://www.gunpartscorp.com/gun-manufacturer/smith-wesson/auto-pistols-sw/52-2-sw

 

[Pantera Mike]

Wow it's half the cost from Numrich! Oh well—it's already enroute to me from Jack First. Good to know for the future.

I never dry fire but I have no idea how this gun was treated for the first 40+ years of its life….

 

[Tntcwg3]

I've also never seen this failure.

I will say it has long been my suspicion that dry firing with the safety ON could weaken the part which may lead to this kind of failure, but I have no evidence of it.

Even still, if I dry fire my 52's, it is with the safety in the off/fire position.

100 % Agree, I utilize snap caps for my dry-fire exercises as well. Most guns advertised as "dry-fire-safe" have components that will are subject to fatigue given enough cycles.

 

[Sevens]

I am open to hearing counter arguments but if you look at the design, you have a large rotating part that in normal operation is supposed to take repeated hits in one state, and that you can choose to repeatedly hit in another state, subjecting it to the full force of the hammer.

I just cringe when I think about dry firing with it rotated to "safe."

 

[Pantera Mike]

When dry-firing hammer-fired autos, I place an old foam earplug in the cavity at the back of the slide. The hammer hits it but never reaches the firing pin or anything else. It works great for most guns.

 

[Reloader Fred]

I've seen one break on a Model 59, and I believe it's the same safety. My old department had about 600 Model 59's when I was rangemaster back in the late 1970's.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Krogen]

I am open to hearing counter arguments but if you look at the design, you have a large rotating part that in normal operation is supposed to take repeated hits in one state, and that you can choose to repeatedly hit in another state, subjecting it to the full force of the hammer.

I just cringe when I think about dry firing with it rotated to "safe."

I cringe too! Dry firing any gun just seems wrong to me. But some manufacturers claim it's OK. Ruger says it's fine to dry fire a MK* 22LR. Glock requires a dry fire to dissemble. Conventional wisdom varies, but it's clear if you don't dry fire, you can't damage a gun by dry firing. (duh!) So I avoid dry-firing.

With regard to the Model 52, S&W states in the manual that the gun can be dry fired with the safety on. I'd think they knew their gun when they wrote that, but it wouldn't be the first time a manufacturer gave questionable instructions. Here's a clip from the manual. No. 3 claims it minimizes firing pin wear, but at the expense of the safety lever? We may never know for sure.

 

[Jaco1234]

The failure in the picture appears to be a torsion failure from over twisting. The failure is also close to the operating lever. I would guess a failure do to hammer hitting would be a shear failure or a fatigue failure closer to the location of the stress.

Did you ever put a pipe wrench on the safety lever?

 

[Pantera Mike]

FWIW I only ever rotated the safety 4-5 times during my short ownership tenure. It had zero indications of anything wrong. It just acted like any other S&W auto safety with no undue resistance.

 

[Kp321]

S&W might have condoned dry firing but probably didn't think about the pistols being used 50 years later.

 

[WR Moore]

One of the issues with dry firing is that without a case in the chamber to limit firing pin travel, it's possible to drive the firing pin past it's normal travel. This can result in slide damage and/or firing pin breakage. Theoretically and with a lot of use. I've only seen the broken firing pin happen once, on a Star. I have seen a couple of 1911 pins that apparently never had their firing pin spring changed that showed pin damaged, but not broken.

 

[Sevens]

One of the issues with dry firing is that without a case in the chamber to limit firing pin travel, it's possible to drive the firing pin past it's normal travel. This can result in slide damage and/or firing pin breakage. Theoretically and with a lot of use.

That's compelling, I admit that I have not ever considered this before, but I definitely see the argument.

Very interesting!