This one is going back to Smith & Wesson

[OSD]

I bought a 642-2 J frame airweight about a month ago for CCW. I have put about 100 rounds of std WWB ammo through it. I had not run any +P in it yet. I had +P loaded in it while carrying it, but thankfully I never shot any through it. While at the range today I decided to shoot a few rounds ( 20 ) through it. I shot the rest of the 100 box through a Model 15 I had with me. When I got home and started to clean it this is what I found.

Looks good so far.........

The frame cracked and the barrel is slightly turned or twisted to the right.

My question is, Is this something common with the airweight J-frame revolvers? and will Smith fix it?

 

[OSD]

I bought a 642-2 J frame airweight about a month ago for CCW. I have put about 100 rounds of std WWB ammo through it. I had not run any +P in it yet. I had +P loaded in it while carrying it, but thankfully I never shot any through it. While at the range today I decided to shoot a few rounds ( 20 ) through it. I shot the rest of the 100 box through a Model 15 I had with me. When I got home and started to clean it this is what I found.

Looks good so far.........

The frame cracked and the barrel is slightly turned or twisted to the right.

My question is, Is this something common with the airweight J-frame revolvers? and will Smith fix it?

 

[s&wchad]

My Performance Center 625-10 (N frame) broke in the same place. S&W will replace it under the lifetime warranty, phone them and they'll send you a pre-paid shipping label. There have been a few posts showing cracked alloy frames, but I wouldn't say it's common. I've heard it blamed on over torquing during installation. Sorry, I know how it feels.

 

[smith41mag]

What's bad is, that if it were a pre-lock, you would get back a lock model. I had a 442 pre-lock and the frame cracked just like the one above and Smith & Wesson said they have no more pre-lock frames so I had to take one with the lock.

I wasn't very happy since the pre-lock cost more money.

 

[R-Tex]

+1 to what smith41mag said.

Exact same thing happened to me.

IIRC, I paid about $25 more for a no-lock 442 than the new price.

 

[scott625b]

It is a shame that a thread regarding a real issue, mainly an aluminum gun that the frame cracked on gets hijacked by the "IL issue". Aluminum is not as strong as steel and in a high stress area it can and does fail - see the proof! I have yet to see real proof of an IL or MIM failure.

 

[dlstewart01]

Originally posted by scott625b:
It is a shame that a thread regarding a real issue, mainly an aluminum gun that the frame cracked on gets hijacked by the "IL issue". Aluminum is not as strong as steel and in a high stress area it can and does fail - see the proof! I have yet to see real proof of an IL or MIM failure.

Seems his point was about money. The pre-lock cost more. I couldnt find anything in his post about MIM failures???

Have a good one,

Don

 

[M29since14]

It's not uncommon. The steel guns break too. I have seen more aluminum guns cracked than steel ones, but the only one of mine that ever cracked was a M29-3. It is a weak area and sometimes bad things happen. S&W will fix that right up for you.