My M38 Bodyguard - RIP
- Thread starter swampjam
- Start date
This is the cracked frame of my 617. I used it for Steel Challenge competition for about two years. I sent it to S&W and had a replacement gun in under 15 days. I was quite happy with S&W.
I can understand how the frame on an Airweight .38 spl might fail after a couple thousand rounds. It is troubling that the frame on a 617, a K-frame .22 LR, failed after a couple of years. I'm glad SW fixed it.
Yes! Most everyone else thought the same thing.
Most acclaimed the problem to an "over to torqued barrel "
I have had to such problems with the replacement.
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After reading this thread I checked my M38-2...
DAM, there is a crack just like the OP had.
As with him, this was a used at a pawn shop buy.
I'm not shure what to do...
S/N is BPRxxx
DAM, there is a crack just like the OP had.
As with him, this was a used at a pawn shop buy.
I'm not shure what to do...
S/N is BPRxxx
hotrod150
Member
As I've posted before, I wonder if there isn't a fix for the all-too-typical "airweight crack" involving a heliarc welder. Grind a bevel, weld it up, grind/machine down as required to allow the yoke to close. Maybe not pretty, but better than scrapping the gun. Otherwise, I guess contact S&W and hope like heck they'll offer to replace it with a new gun.
Hillbilly77
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Welding destroys whatever heat treatment the frame had.
Rick_A
Member
Before people were upset that barrels were no longer pinned. Now it is the lock (though with the Centennial models there is the no-lock option).
Around here the biggest issue I come across with new revolvers is Charter Arms with cylinders stuck closed. The solution is always something simple.
I see the lower quality statements as an internet myth. As much as people gripe about MIM, fact is that functionally the biggest difference from now and a couple decades ago is that now everyone gripes on the internet if they get an issue.
I'm no expert, but have been buying guns for some 18 years. A few new guns have had minor problems, but none that I couldn't live with or that couldn't be easily rectified. Out of all of them so far S&W has been the best to me.
Unfortunately it is consumers that have driven prices down and thus simplified production in modern times. These days the price difference between most revolver manufacturers is not nearly as wide a margin as it used to be.
Despite this most experts believe that the production consistency and tolerances are better than ever, so despite much of the romanticism being gone from the days of old they're still putting out a good product.
It's good to see they're taking care of customers with decades old guns. I put a few hundred rounds through mine fairly quicky as that seems to be when most cracks occur. So far so good. If it gets a free replacement if it cracks in thirty years, that's ok.
On repairing fatigue cracks in aluminum alloy, that'd be an exercise in futility.
hotrod150
Member
There is a fix....
It's called a "Pinned Barrel".
Not so. There's been plenty of "airweight cracks" reported on vintage pinned barrel model 12's & model 37's.
I did a deal, came out better then the OP it seems.
Goodby M38-2.......
My next one will be a M49.
Goodby M38-2.......
My next one will be a M49.
OP
swampjam
Member
I guess this is the final act in my S&W M38 saga. I got a call from S&W CS around 8:30 AM to let me know that my new M638 replacement revolver should arrive at my FFL today. The revolver was in fact delivered and I picked it up from FFL this afternoon. So I got the new gun six weeks and one day from the day I returned the cracked one. Total cost to me was $25 that I paid to my FFL. I don't especially like the stainless finish or the internal lock but all in all I'm happy with the S&W customer service.
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Glad it worked out for you with minimal grief. Every time I read one of these posts I take out my 642 and check it. So far, so good.
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