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Have you made a recent S&W purchase and everything was good?


Religious Shooter

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I was about to go to my LGS and pay CA prices for a Model 60 Pro Series.

http://www.turners.com/smith-and-wesson/smith-wesson-pro-series-m60-357mag-3-barrel-268741

Then I saw the other thread...

Has anybody had good luck with a recently made S&W revolver? Or should I just not make this purchase?

I had bad luck with a recent SP101 purchase (the trigger locks up with live fire) and don't want to get burned again.

As the originator of the "other" thread, I have purchased quite a few recent manufactured S&W revolvers that are great, Normallt I purchased from a local gun shop where i can inspect the firearm, in the case of my 929 I purchased it from an out of state distributor and could not inspect it before purchase. If your local GS will allow you to properly inspect the gun here are a few tips.

Take six empty resized cases all the same brand with you, load them in the cylinder and check the timing by slowly pulling the trigger and look to make certian the cylinder bolt locks up before the hammer falls, I normally put a slight drag on the cyllinder by resting my thumb against it. Also take a set of feeler gauges with you and check the gap between the empty case and the firing pin recoil shield .007 inches is perfect and .012 is acceptable, check this for each cylinder, they shoild all be within .002 inches. Next check the gap between the barrel and cylinder .003 is good .04 is ideal and anything over .008 is too much, you should check both sides as some of the newer guns have as much as .005 differnce, this is definately not good. Next do a visual inspectiion are their any mars in the finish, does the barrel look line it is on straight, If everything checks out chances are you will not have any problems witht he gun, I see the GS have 10 in stock check as many as you can untill you find the one you like best,

Same problem with timing. 5 cylinders in time 3 out.

Terrible for something that came out of the custom shop.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just back from Fedex shipping my 686 pro series back to them.. Hope they dont keep my front sight I forgot to remove...
Muzzle looked like it was crowned by a beaver. My $20 barn 12gauge shooting # 4 buck shoots tighter groups, Was gonna order a pilot and recrown it, but screw that. That would be enabling S&W's crappy QC. Make em pay 2 way shipping and to fix it. Enough people do that and the bean counters will figure out decent QC is cheaper.
And that is what it boils down to. They figure a small warranty center is cheaper than QC. Only way that will change is lots of returns. Sure as snot prode in MFG wont do it.post-6917-0-46958000-1426009160_thumb.jp

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  • 2 years later...

I know this is a couple of years since the last post but I recently bought a model 57 (.41 mag) and then a model 629 (.44 mag, 3").  Both guns are in excellent shape. No bad manufacturing or tooling marks and the barrels and sights are on straight. They compare nicely to my models 19 and 64 that I purchased new in the mid 70's. The cylinder lines up with minimal gap. The timing is right. Nothing bad to say about either gun. 

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On 2/21/2015 at 2:19 AM, bountyhunter said:

I didn't open a thread, just posted the information for reference. AFAIK, you are still allowed to read the thread. If that's a problem I'll delete it.

The defect of over/under rotated barrels is very common, hence being #1 the list.

Ive encountered the over/under clocked barrel install a few times, most recently on a PC 627. Quality control has become an issue at S&W. Ive bought two NIB revos in as many years with laundry lists of problems. Been back and forth for repairs. the latter of the two I just worked over and eventually had rebarreled by Pinnacle Performance and finally its a joy to own. I will stop there as anything to negative about S&W is always banned by the forum police. (whispers)...honesty is welcomed and the basis of forums, unless the truth hurts then its subject to sensitivity censorship! 

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I  must be lucky.  The last 2 929s I bought came to me perfect other than needing a competition trigger job.  Both were accurate from the factory.  I just gave up shooting centerfires and the guy that bout my last  929 is also very happy with it.  No extra work needed.

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40 minutes ago, AzShooter said:

I  must be lucky.  The last 2 929s I bought came to me perfect other than needing a competition trigger job.  Both were accurate from the factory.  I just gave up shooting centerfires and the guy that bout my last  929 is also very happy with it.  No extra work needed.

I'm glad to hear that since I'll be looking to buy another 929 down the road.  I hope the second one is just as good as my first.

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Sometimes it all depends how picky people are. My 627 barrel is slightly over clocked. I adjusted the sight left to zero the gun and I've been shooting it that way for 5 years. Honestly it took me a year to notice.

I've been asked to send back a customer's 1911 because the inside of the slide by the locking lugs had machine marks.

Some problems are real, some are cosmetic. STI has a lot more problems with quality control than S&W, they just seem to bitch about it less over in that forum.

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Sometimes it all depends how picky people are. My 627 barrel is slightly over clocked. I adjusted the sight left to zero the gun and I've been shooting it that way for 5 years. Honestly it took me a year to notice.

I've been asked to send back a customer's 1911 because the inside of the slide by the locking lugs had machine marks.

Some problems are real, some are cosmetic. STI has a lot more problems with quality control than S&W, they just seem to bitch about it less over in that forum.

Regardless of the problem being cosmetic or mechanical the fact remains it wasn't done right and you paid for it to be done right. Especially when you drop extra coin on a PC gun for extra's that are marketed and not done. An issue such as a misclocked barrel you consider a cosmetic issue is more than that. It changes the cylinder gap. So an overclocked barrel closes the gap and will result in cylinder drag as soon as some carbon buildup occurs or when only a little bit of wear creates minor end shake. My recent 627 PC had exactly that. Every NIB Smith I've bought in the last 4 years has been back for multiple issues, all of which were mechanical or poor accuracy related, none were just cosmetic. Bad crown jobs, horrible action fit, out of spec cylinder dimensions, etc etc. As far as STI goes, no doubt they have issues also. The reason this lack of consistency and quality happens is most people don't know what their looking at and assume all is good. They shoot and barely keep rounds in a pie plate at 15 yards and they're happy. So why should a manufacturer care to be to strict with a pass or fail spec when most people won't know one way or the other. As they say knowledge is power and it's the knowledgeable "aficionados" that find the problem that others don't know to look for! If that's picky then picky Im proud to be!


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  • 5 weeks later...

I can finally pick up my new 627 PC tomorrow.

Have to drive from the Netherlands to Germany to pick it up, and I sincerely hope there are no issues with this revolver...

Because sending it back to Smith & Wesson is simply not an option...

If the gun is a lemon, there are two options... refusing it, or taking it to a gun smith and spend even more money on it...

I guess I'll find out tomorrow... I will let you guys know how it goes...

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Morning guys,

 

So yesterday I finally got to pick up my new revolver.

Thank God, no major issues.

One of the lock-up 'notches' in the cilinder had a massive burr, but that was easy to remove with a dremel.

The timing was perfect on all chambers.

The cylinder gap was good.

The trigger is actually beautiful, really smooth and quite light.

One thing... the gun was a bit dirty. Someone has been out shooting with it, and hey, I don't really mind, but tell the truth... sjeesh... instead of denying it...

The gun didn't have a single scratch... so no big deal for me.

 

But..... one problem.... went over to a buddy of mine, he had short colts with TK moonclips, and it is a nightmare to get the cartidges to go in the chambers....

Even with the Short Colts locked up tight in the TK moonclips and a roll crimp... they still hung up on the case mouths.... I had a few moonclips with .38 specials, and they were almost impossible to get in the cylinder!!

So I need to chamfer the cylinder charge holes... well....  I will be shooting moon clips only, (IPSC revolver) which is good, because I need to chamfer the extractor as well.

I see a lot of topics about guys having done this, but no topic on how to exactly do it....

Can you guys help me out a little?  I have the tools to fix  the cylinder in place and use a Dremel bit, wich fits the charge holes exactly to make a 45 degree angled chamfer...

I also have the polishing paste to 'clean it all up'.   But can I do it like that? Must I leave the extractor in place, or remove it and chamfer it separately?

Please help me out.

 

 

 

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Yep. Got a 686 plus in early '17. Perfect. Sent to Boss Hoss for a trigger job (expected that) and it came back 5.5 lbs - perfect. Shot a match the other day and had my best finish ever. Perfect!

BTW.

Sent a 586 back to S&W in November. Over 200k through that gun. Worn out bushing inside. Also had cylinder end shake issues. New bushing, set back the barrel, replaced a couple worn out parts.They fixed and returned it in 3 weeks for $148.00. Left and came back with all the aftermarket parts intact and the original (Thanks Boss Hoss!) 6lb trigger.

Won't hear any complaints from me...

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I grew a couple and started with my dremel tool, which is going really well actually.

I'm just going as slow as possible... but it's already a major difference....

 

Attached a pick of my new beauty.

SW 627 PC.JPG

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1 hour ago, PatJones said:

Just remember, the chamfer only needs to be as deep as your brass is thick. More doesn't help, it just cuts unnecessary metal from your extractor.

I disagree Pat I have done side by side drills and a bigger chamfer is more consistent and average times were faster. I don't remove hardly any material from the extractor, but every gun is a little different.

On the .357 guns if you want to shoot without moonclips(why?) you have be careful and not make the chamfer to big as the case will not be supported by the ledge that runs around the cylinder letting them go to far in the cylinder and firing pin can't reach them. My competition action jobs are moonclip ONLY guns unless specified different by the customer.

No one has ever proven to me that a bigger chamfer hurts anything.

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10 minutes ago, Bosshoss said:

I disagree Pat I have done side by side drills and a bigger chamfer is more consistent and average times were faster. I don't remove hardly any material from the extractor, but every gun is a little different.

On the .357 guns if you want to shoot without moonclips(why?) you have be careful and not make the chamfer to big as the case will not be supported by the ledge that runs around the cylinder letting them go to far in the cylinder and firing pin can't reach them. My competition action jobs are moonclip ONLY guns unless specified different by the customer.

No one has ever proven to me that a bigger chamfer hurts anything.

I've had a similar experience with my guns from 9mm to 45 Colt.  After doing the "remove just a touch" approach I'd still get a few that hung up on me during a reload.  You never know what kind of awkward angle the rounds might have coming into your cylinder when you're on the clock, especially if your moonclips have significant wobble.  My new approach is to take a loaded moonclip with the exact crimp and bullet profile I plan to shoot and slowly remove material until I can hold the loaded clip at any angle and it slides in gently.  My 929 and 625 cylinders will now feed a moonclip from any angle that gravity allows.  If it doesn't go into the cylinder the one holding the gun is to blame.

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Thanks for the help guys.

I did a little more than minimal chamfer om cylinder and extractor and it's simply perfect! I can let them fall in!

really happy cause normally I just mess things up. ?

Polished everything as well and it looks real good too.

now it's dry firing and reloads training till my hands hurt...

first match will be coming Sunday...?

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