likelihood of defects in a brand-new S&W?

You limit yourself to the models available to test fire. That's okay, if you like one of them well enough. Barrel length can make a deal breaking difference, so watch for what you consider a representative gun and shooting experience.

Rental gun selections that I have seen are mostly semi autos and in revolvers, the ubiquitous Dirty Harry gun and maybe a 22 or 357 Magnum..

old lady new shooter said:

No way am I buying any model I don't first try shooting. But the one I actually buy I want to be new in the box.

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really? heck i buy guns all the time i've never even seen more than a picture of lol.

Need to find a range that rents revolvers.

For purposes of looking and holding, check and see if they're any gun shows in your area. Bigger is better for your purpose, but even smaller ones will have a substantial supply of both older, used models as well as new ones. You will also find all kinds of deals on accessories, books, videos, and publications of all kind. With luck, ammunition seems to be coming back.

Knowledge is your friend, and you can learn a lot.

PS: You will probably find some out-of-sight prices too, but nowhere is it written that you have to pay them.

Latest issue of Gun Tests saw a crack form in a brand new PErformance Center revolver. Issued an "F" rating.

I sent a J-frame .38 back to S&W about a year ago because there was one chamber that had a very hard trigger pull. They paid shipping both ways, repaired the gun, and had it back to me in about 2 weeks in proper working order. I also sent an M&P9 in a few years ago for extraction issues with a similar turnaround. In another case, I sent a gun in to have sights adjusted and was told they were fine. I was irate - how dare they not adjust my sights?!
Then I blacked them with a match so I could see them better (it was a stainless revolver with fixed sights) and found that with many loads, it does indeed shoot just about to point of aim. Honestly, I kind owe S&W an apology on that one.

In the past, I sent an old M28 .357 into S&W to have the timing / lock up worked on. They sent it back with that fixed, but with a new problem that required a local gunsmith to work on.

So... S&W can be kind of hit and miss, but lately, they've been OK with me.
But I still look their new revolvers over closely when I am considering buying one and try to "hand pick" the best of the ones available at the store.

To be fair, I have had to contact Ruger and other companies for QC issues on new guns too. I think if you own enough guns, eventually you will need to do that with someone. In my experience, the chances are about the same no matter who you buy from. I try to check out any new gun before I buy - because you honestly can't just trust anyone to get it right.

It's the support behind it that makes the difference. And that's also part of why I like Ruger - They've treated me very well with customer service. So have DSA and BCM. S&W has been decent lately. OTOH, a friend of mine has a Colt Defender that has thrown brass into the shooter's face since day one. He called Colt to have the problem addressed and was told "you'll never feel that casing hitting you in the face with your adrenaline rushing if you have to use it for self-defense."
So compared to that, S&W is incredible.

But yes, it is entirely possible that you could get a defective brand new S&W revolver. It just is.
Like someone else suggested earlier, it becomes way less stressful when you accept that. Then you take the approach of looking the gun over with a fine tooth comb at the store before you buy. I never let a salesperson just flop a case with a gun down in front of me sight-unseen and expect me to buy that one. I do the best exam I can, then take it home with the idea that there's a 50-50 chance it might have to go back for something. Often it doesn't. Sometimes it does, but it will probably come back to me in working order after that.

So I'll take the free custom gunsmithing / tuning / QC option if that's how they want to play it.

And on the new versus used thing: sometime's it's better to buy used.
If you can buy from a friend or a private party who'll let you try it first (at a range maybe), you'll know exactly what you're getting. For example, J-frames often recoil more than some folks would like. They are also notoriously hard to master. Some people won't or can't master a J-frame .38, so they turn up used with half a box of ammo through them. The shooter may think the gun is innaccurate - because they are hard to shoot well without experience and practice. But the gun could be fine, almost mint, with only 25 rounds through it. The seller may be motivated to move on to another firearm, so the price might be pretty good. In a case like that, I'd absolutely take the used one over a new-in-box gun that honestly is a bit of a gamble.

Given a company with good quality control, any problem is likely to be a one-off, affecting only a particular gun. So even firing an identical gun won't be a guarantee that the new gun you buy will be trouble-free. Some folks actually advocate buying used guns, feeling that any problems will either be obvious, or will have been corrected.

For myself, I have no concern either way, but then I have a fair amount of experience. It takes me about 30 seconds to give a used revolver a thorough test (non-firing), so I don't waste a lot of time trying to fix someone else's troubles.

Jim

I just got a new production 6" barrel K Frame 617 .22LR, I inspected the gun thouroughly before I accepted it, it looks great & shoots beautifully, better than the 4" I had a few years ago. 100% satisfied customer here.

I haven't bought a "new" gun in so long I forget when the last one was, and I always inspect anything I buy beforehand. I've owned a couple of "newer" S&W's, newer being defined as "with the lock" but I've got no real idea when they were actually made.

I never had a complaint with any of them.

The odds on getting a problem-free gun are the same as hitting a straight or flush draw => 50-50

Either you get it or you don't.

John

As the old geezer ... er ... veteran revolver shooter at my shop, I check out all the new wheelguns after they arrive.

Regrettably, I must confirm having found an increasing number of S&Ws with completely unacceptable actions. It's not unusual to have an OK trigger pull on most chambers, then have one or two with absolutely awful releases. I mean "awful" as in draw the trigger to the rear, encounter a brick wall, and have to exert much more effort to trip the sear.

Odds? Hard to say. I'd venture 50% on standard models, and 10% on Performance Center pieces. Sad that even one Performance Center piece would have a defective action.

"Does S&W take back a revolver in this condition? Is it fixable? If fixable, is it really 100% after being fixed?"

Yes, S&W will accept and corect the "problem children," and they are usually much better upon their return to the shop. I'm just sad that S&W allows product out of the door that, 25 or 30 years ago, would have never passed any quality inspection. I suspect anyone trying to release such a specimen back then would have been out of a job.

I don't worry about it much. My gunsmith has done trigger/action jobs on all my S&W revolvers except my older Model 10. My Model 69 was a little rough out of the box, now it feels like it has a Glock trigger.