Scandium N-frame longevity

[jh9]

Just out of idle curiosity, does anyone have any info on how durable the 327s/325s/etc are? By reputation the frames are known for cracking. One local shooter had to have his 327 replaced because of it. Don't have any first or second hand experience beyond that, though.

I'm considering one of the TRR8/M&Ps as a backup for uspsa revo and/or steel plate matches. Also given some thought to one of the snubby 327s just because. In either case, I don't imagine I'd use a bunch of magnum or even really heavy .38 ammo, but I"d like to know going in what a reasonable expectation is in terms of service life.

edit: naturally I didn't bother to search. Looks like alecmc's posts from 2012 and 2013 more or less answer my question. Though if he could do an update with rough roundcounts and his thoughts that'd be cool too, since it's been another year and his trr8s presumably have some more miles on them.

Edited October 3, 2014 by jh9

[alecmc]

still holding up good, couldn't tell you a round count, but i've done at least two steel challenge matches per month with mine for the past few years.

No cracking, no flame cutting.

The only issue concerning the softness of the frame was due to my own neglect and dry firing for sometime without snap caps, the area below the firing pin where the hammer contacts was starting to wear away a little bit, it looked like black dust inside the gun. But again, that was due to me doing dryfire without snap caps.

Plenty of other guys use them, I'm pretty sure Jerry M uses one, as does Olhasso for steel challenge.

disclaimer : I use mine for steel challenge only, no power factor required so I use light dinky loads, that net out to about 90 PF.

[jh9]

Awesome. Thanks for the info. Exactly the sort of thing I was looking for.

[alecmc]

I love the trr8s, I have both mine paired with light weight titanium cylinders, it's a quick gun to move around.

If it's primary use was uspsa though, I'd stick with a 627

[Gregg K]

A friend of mine bought a Thunder Ranch 325 against my advice not to and used it to shoot USPSA and IDPA. After less than a year he retired the gun from competition while it would still run. That gun was beat to death shooting that much major PF ammo. The scandium frames are better suited as a light weight carry gun and not a constant shooter. Randy Lee warned me away from a scandium 8 shooter due to longevity and I figure he know a few things about working on revolvers. :-)

[bountyhunter]

The scandium frames are better suited as a light weight carry gun and not a constant shooter.

That pretty much sums up the established wisdom as I have understood it.

I even seen differences in wear rates between the SW stainless steel guns versus carbon steel (stainless wears a lot faster at critical wear points) so I don't think I want to do much shooting with anything made from scandium/aluminum....

scandium was a good idea to make a carry gun lighter.

Edited October 4, 2014 by bountyhunter