jcoers

Can 38 Short Colt be fired from a 929 without using a moon clip?

Turnaround time, for me, was 3 weeks. That was about two months ago.

Good call on checking the end cap. It's a bad feeling when they go boom........

Excellent firing pin info!!!!!! I will try Apex hammer with stock Performance Center pin first and see where it goes.

Glad to hear from others who are having a good run with theirs!

Yep, I'll be working up some loads down the road. For now, I'm shooting Winchester white box to build up my brass supply. I have about 3000 JHP bullets that were my fathers (He was loading, quite a bit, for his Sig). They are all .355, so that was a concern for me - but she seems to shoot straight on with the .355 commercial stuff.

My new 929 arrived Friday. The label on the box states it was manufactured on 2/15/16. From what I'm seeing, S&W has managed to get their act together. First impressions: 1. The barrel is NOT canted. It appears to be on straight, not clocked and bullet impact is dead-on with the sights set right in the middle. 2. The trigger pull was smooth as glass right out of the box. Yes, it's too heavy, but VERY smooth. 3. The forcing cone looks to be cut straight. I've not run feeler gauges into it yet, but it looks fine. I didn't get any kind of weird blow-back when firing. 4. The cylinder spins freely. No rough spots or a grinding. 5. Hammer and trigger are not rubbing the frame. There is a little wear on the hammer where it contacts the lock mechanism, but that's normal. 6. Cylinder lock-up is good and tight. No complaints. Timing is fine. 7. The rebound slide and the surrounding frame were nicely polished. Trigger surface to sear, and all other surfaces, had been polished. Someone in the Performance Center did some nice fine tuning! 8. Completely reliable ignition. (Until I started playing with the strain screw....) 9. I haven't slugged the barrel or sandbagged, but accuracy with white box Winchester was just fine shooting off-hand. My steel targets trembled in fear as I reloaded. :-) There were a couple of oddities: 1. Someone at the Performance Center lubed the crap out of this thing. It almost looked like graphite mixed with heavy Wilson Combat oil. Very thick and plenty of it. 2. Someones bore brush must have exploded at the factory. I found some bristles in the box and found one bristle inside the side plate. (That's a bit of a mystery to me). 3. Just like my 627, the compensator bolt was loose and had no lock-tite. Glad I checked that before I went to the range....... ;-) For anyone who, like me, has been reading bad reviews and felt nervous about committing to purchasing this revolver, it would seem that S&W's quality control woes have been addressed. This appears to be a fine pistol and I'm very happy with it. John

I'm not sure of repair shop vs. performance center. Whichever route it went, I'm a happy camper. Nice cylinder lock up before the hammer falls. And, I managed to talk myself into a free S&W t-shirt :-) I did go ahead and drill out the front of the comp. I really never felt a difference with or without the comp anyway. But, it does make a good muzzle protector. So, I drilled it out with a 1/2" bit. Now it looks like a .50 cal 627..... ha ha ha Here's a pic of the 627-5 .50........

Pistol arrived back to me today. Turnaround time was 2 weeks and 3 days. Very good. New lockwasher holding compensator on looks more aggressive and they locktited it this time. I'm still considering opening the end of the compensator up some. Timing issue was resolved as well with a new hand and cylinder stop. I'm very pleased with their customer service!

Hmmmm. I was hoping to keep the stock barrel on my 627. It's dead on - for my meager abilities....

Yes, need picture and mounting info...... Please!!!!

Update: Got an e-mail from S&W stating that my pistol has been received and informing me about my RMA number and which phone number to call with questions. That was good to see. I had read where some people sent their pistol in for repair and didn't hear a word until it arrived back at their door. Also, I guess I caused some confusion for them when I sent a message about the pistol over their website then placed a call to them the following morning. To make a long story short, I jokingly asked for a t-shirt, and sure enough, one is on the way. :-)

I'd be very interested in finding an alternative comp for my 627 V-Comp. I've been searching all over. I'm considering fabricating one myself.

You hit the nail on the head. Being as this was a Performance Center revolver, I didn't really go over it the way I normally do. I should have seen that the lock washer was too weak to keep the compensator attachment bolt from loosening. Every firearm I've purchased, over the past 30 years, has arrived with some sort of issue that required a fix. The simple fact is that firearms are machines. They require maintenance - sometimes right out of the gate. I, somehow, let my guard down and didn't stay ahead of the machine. The bottom line is: Was there a defect in the machine? Yep - bad lock washer. Should I have caught it before the machine damaged itself? Yep..... Lesson learned: Always stay ahead of the machine.

Tried it with and without cases. I even loaded some empty cases into a moon clip and gave it a whirl. No joy on two charge holes. Oh well, I expect they'll have it up and running soon. :-)

This might be wrong, but...... My new 627 is off to Smith for warranty work and I'm poking around the internet looking at 929s. I feel kind of disloyal.

Update: I spoke with Smith and Wesson this morning. They told me to send the pistol on in and that it is under warranty. I had hoped they would send me the parts and I would not have to send it in, but last night while going over the pistol with a fine tooth comb, I noticed that it is not locking up on two charge holes before the hammer drops. So, off to Springfield she goes. The customer support person was very nice and I think I will be good to go when the pistol returns. Their turnaround time, at this point, is estimated at three weeks. I'm really glad I checked the timing last night. Good to get all the issues fixed at one time.

Good idea.

I couldn't stand sitting around here on a beautiful day looking at a blown up comp. So..... I did some poking around on the interwebby and found that this has happened to others. Rather than send in the gun, they just called Smith & Wesson and got a new comp. I decided to go ahead and take the comp off and do a little shooting. Everything is functioning fine and accuracy was exceptional, so I don't feel I need to have them look at the pistol. It shoots great - it just looks ugly without the compensator. When I removed the comp, I noticed what I believe the problem is. The lock washer doesn't seem to have much "lock" to it. It really looks like a plain old flat washer with a cut in it. Nothing there to grab hold of the bolt head and lock it down. Also, as expected, the bolt is bent. I'll see if they can send that too.

I double checked the bolt holding the compensator onto the barrel before heading to the range. It was good and tight. The locking washer was in place. Fired 8 rounds of Remington factory .357 then went to reload and saw this. The comp was on tight and straight. Ugh!!!!!! I'm thinking I should do absolutely nothing to the pistol (it's unloaded, of course) and ship it to Smith & Wesson for evaluation.

lol - and I've just got my 2nd 929 and I'm starting to want a 627, Yep, it's a sickness There are worse things to be addicted to. I'm just lucky I have an understanding wife..... :-)

AzShooter - I wanted to thank you for a post you made some time back. You mentioned that you had thrown a double charge with your 550 - resulting in a bad day with your 929. Most people would never mention something like that in a forum post. Most people would have said, "It was cosmic rays impacting the atmosphere which resulted in a detonation". I think of your post every time I pull the handle now. It was an excellent reminder. Thank you, again! Crispin1025 - Yes, I'm super happy with my 627. I think she's going to be a great shooter, but, believe it or not, I'm still finding myself scouting around for a good deal on a 929..... It's an addiction thing...... :-)

I wound up "borrowing" a firing pin spring from another revolver. After my initial panic this morning, I had a very enjoyable time at the range. I got the sights dialed in and put about 200 rounds down range. I'm really digging this pistol! A couple of springs along with other spare parts are on their way from Brownells.

Placed an order with Brownells. I guess I can chalk this one up to paranoia. After reading so many forums full of quality control issues with Smith and Wesson, I jumped to the conclusion that they had screwed up. Oh well, lesson learned.......

Oh great spirits of Smith and Wesson. I'm sorry I blamed you for my own stupidity. I beg forgiveness.