Passed by the gun shop & guess what I found?

[muddocktor]

Nope, I didn't buy a new revolver. But what I did find is just embarrassing for S&W.

I had dropped by the LGS on my way back from Texas where I was on a job for the last 2 weeks to see if they had any pistol powders I would be interested in. They didn't, so I picked up a box of Nosler 240 grain JHP bullets for my 44s and then went to the revolver cabinet to see what they had in the shop. They had a 4" and a 6" 586 each, a couple of 500 Mags and a couple of Model 29s, both with 4" barrels. While I was looking at the 4" 586, the guy behind the counter evidently saw the box of 44 cal bullets I had set on the countertop to play with the 586 and drug out both of the 29s. One was laser engraved and the other plain. He handed the plain one over to me and first thing I did after checking for an empty cylinder was to look from the front to see if the barrel was overclocked. It looked pretty close to me, but might have been overclocked by about a degree. I tried out the trigger in single and double action and both were on the heavy side (lawyer trigger). Then I opened the cylinder and everything felt a little off for some reason. I shut the cylinder back and to see what kind of lockup it had, which felt a bit sloppy for a brand new pistol. Then I tried pushing forward and backward and was totally flabbergasted. This brand new 29 had more endshake than my 40 year old Model 27, which has had at least 20k-30k rounds through it. Just giving it the eyeball, it looked to me like it had at least 10-15 thousandths movement forwards and backwards. Pushing the cylinder forwards, it looked like it had roughly a 5 thousandths air gap between cylinder and forcing cone, which grew to 3 times as much when I pushed back on the cylinder. I showed this to the salesman who was helping me and we compared it to the engraved 29, which was all right. And to his credit, once I showed him the endshake he immediately pulled it from the showcase to give to the boss to send back to S&W.

It's just a crying shame the customer has to do the QC for S&W. At least I saved someone from having to send a brand new pistol back to S&W right out of the box because of shoddy workmanship!

 

[Brasky]

I also have to agree.

The first S&W revolver I ever held was my 686-3 when I traded for it last year. This year I decided to check out S&Ws current offerings when I was on the hunt for a new CC revolver.

Needless to say I was not impressed with the S&Ws I looked at and purchased an opposing brand for my CC

 

[k20350]

I bought a 317 almost without touching it cause i wanted one so bad and had searched awhile for one. Once i got it home it was a terrible piece of trash. I went to my Uncles and shot it. It spit lead so bad that it would just pepper your face with lead.. It also shot about 6 inches low for everyone who shot it with the sight adjusted all the way. When I got home I was looking at it in disgust and realized the barrel was VERY canted. It pains me to even tell this story 'cause i bleed S&W blue. S&W ended up giving me a whole new gun. I never even shot it. I sent it down the road and am still trying to bury the bad memory.....

 

[HarrishMasher]

That has been my experience as well. The warranty is now an integral part of the purchase process. You buy a new S&W revolver then you need to send it back for them to finish putting it together properly.

 

[unclebob]

That has been my experience as well. The warranty is now an integral part of the purchase process. You buy a new S&W revolver then you need to send it back for them to finish putting it together properly.

I am glad I am a member. I want to buy a new firearm and get back into shooting since I retired , because all of my firearms are classic Smith's and after reading all of these types of posts I am very hesitant to buy anything Smith&Wesson. I am not very gun savvy to modify or tune these myself, so I count on a quality product, but from what I read here that could be a ****-shoot..
I didn't swear on last line it was the IT police.......

 

[Rick_A]

Some of ya'll have some bad luck. Mine span from 1954 to 2013 and they have all met or exceeded expectations.

It is quite rare to get a bad new one...and I see a lot of them. Every once in while one will have a terrible trigger and there's been a couple with the lockwork bound up out of the box...but the canted barrels and poor tolerances I hear of daily here is not something I've come across.

 

[muddocktor]

I will say this about the 2 29's the salesman took out of the showcase. The second 44, the one with the laser engraving that they were selling for $1100 or so, did lock up good and had a straight barrel. And the 4" 586 felt pretty good too. But there should be no excuse for S&W to let something out in as bad a shape as the first 29 I handled.

 

[Beachblaster]

This stuff drives me crazy. I read a lot about Smith & Wesson revolvers. You know, the good the bad and the ugly. Makes it hard to make a decision you feel real good about. All but one of my meager collection of Smiths is at least 30 years old. I bought all of them used and most of the time the gun store would have their gun smith at least give it a once over.
I obviously have been lucky, as all of them have been in decent condition. My point is to do your due diligence and learn about what you are looking for. The OP probably would never get caught buying a defective firearm. But I still don't know if I will ever order a new one from S&W. I'm so confused.

 

[one eye joe]

Nope, I didn't buy a new revolver. But what I did find is just embarrassing for S&W.

I had dropped by the LGS on my way back from Texas where I was on a job for the last 2 weeks to see if they had any pistol powders I would be interested in. They didn't, so I picked up a box of Nosler 240 grain JHP bullets for my 44s and then went to the revolver cabinet to see what they had in the shop. They had a 4" and a 6" 586 each, a couple of 500 Mags and a couple of Model 29s, both with 4" barrels. While I was looking at the 4" 586, the guy behind the counter evidently saw the box of 44 cal bullets I had set on the countertop to play with the 586 and drug out both of the 29s. One was laser engraved and the other plain. He handed the plain one over to me and first thing I did after checking for an empty cylinder was to look from the front to see if the barrel was overclocked. It looked pretty close to me, but might have been overclocked by about a degree. I tried out the trigger in single and double action and both were on the heavy side (lawyer trigger). Then I opened the cylinder and everything felt a little off for some reason. I shut the cylinder back and to see what kind of lockup it had, which felt a bit sloppy for a brand new pistol. Then I tried pushing forward and backward and was totally flabbergasted. This brand new 29 had more endshake than my 40 year old Model 27, which has had at least 20k-30k rounds through it. Just giving it the eyeball, it looked to me like it had at least 10-15 thousandths movement forwards and backwards. Pushing the cylinder forwards, it looked like it had roughly a 5 thousandths air gap between cylinder and forcing cone, which grew to 3 times as much when I pushed back on the cylinder. I showed this to the salesman who was helping me and we compared it to the engraved 29, which was all right. And to his credit, once I showed him the endshake he immediately pulled it from the showcase to give to the boss to send back to S&W.

It's just a crying shame the customer has to do the QC for S&W. At least I saved someone from having to send a brand new pistol back to S&W right out of the box because of shoddy workmanship!

THIS IS INDEED, A SHAME. UNFORTUNATELY, IT APPEARS THAT MANY MANUFACTURERS HAVE CUT DOWN ON QC TO SAVE MONEY, LEAVING THAT FUNCTION TO THEIR CUSTOMERS. IF YOU ARE SHARP ENOUGH TO NOTICE SOMETHING WRONG, SEND IT BACK, AND THEY WILL FIX IT. WITH GUNS LIKE TAURUS, THE FACT THAT SOMETHING IS WRONG IS USUALLY APPARENT, EVEN TO A NOVICE. I'M NOT BASHING, THAT'S JUST BEEN MY EXPERIENCE………….

 

[muddocktor]

Yeah Joe, I have to agree with you. I actually have a Taurus PT-99 that needs to make a trip back to the mothership. Ever since it's been new, it's had occasional FTE's; enough that I wouldn't count on it in a life or death situation. I get 1-2 failures to extract and it jams up with the next round in the mag. I have a feeling it has something to do with the extractor itself. I've just been too lazy to send it back, since I also have a Beretta M9 that will digest anything and everything you can throw at it and never miss a lick.

 

[kframefansc]

This problem isn't limited to S&W and Taurus. I've had three brand new Rugers in the past year and all went back to the factory for warranty repairs straight out of the box. And it seems that it is that way with everything you buy nowadays.

 

[Buckey08]

I tend to like the older S&W's also but............. the last new S&W 629 I looked at was first class end to end. It very well could have been one of the best Smiths I have ever had in my hand, very, very nice.

 

[Beancounter81]

I have 6 S&W revolvers, all purchased new between 2010 & 2014. All 6 have barrels on straight, tight lockup and B/C gaps at .06" per my feeler gauges. I know they're letting some stuff slip through QC but it isn't an epidemic IMHO. Of these 6, 4 were special ordered.

 

[Izzydog]

I bought a 317 almost without touching it cause i wanted one so bad and had searched awhile for one. Once i got it home it was a terrible piece of trash. I went to my Uncles and shot it. It spit lead so bad that it would just pepper your face with lead.. It also shot about 6 inches low for everyone who shot it with the sight adjusted all the way. When I got home I was looking at it in disgust and realized the barrel was VERY canted. It pains me to even tell this story 'cause i bleed S&W blue. S&W ended up giving me a whole new gun. I never even shot it. I sent it down the road and am still trying to bury the bad memory.....

I had a similar experience with Springfield Armory. It was a Stainless 1911,that I traded a perfectly good S&W 60-1 for "Super Dumb". The customer service was so bad, I promised that I'd never own one of their handguns ever again! I have steered many friends away from SA, to other manufacturers. Word of mouth can be the best, or worst advertising. It seems to me that Smith, just doesn't care anymore.