The 4" (3 1/8" barrel plus comp) S&W 500 came FedEx yesterday afternoon. Critical dimensions (bore, throats, etc.) are exactly the same as all the longer-barrelled variants I've measured. B/C gap is .0085", similar to other 500s.
The gun comes with only one comp, the one intended for jacketed bullets. The factory is not yet tooled up for the other types. I plan on boring the comp out and sleeving it so that the gun will behave like it has no comp. As it is now, I expect this 4" 500 to set new records for loudness.
When I was at the factory, Herb told me that they had changed the hammer/trigger relationship on the 500 to reduce or eliminate the occurences of "reverse rotation" and other quirks. He said that the quality of the SA pull was somewhat degraded both in weight and creep, but that no one had complained thus far, so they were sticking with the new design.
Well.
When I cocked and snapped *this* 500, it had about the lightest, most creep-free trigger I have ever felt on a factory revolver. I currently own over 50 N- and X-frames, and another hundred or so NIB Smiths have passed through my hands on the way to others. This gun beats almost all of them.
I went to the safe and started comparing this gun to my other Smiths. I could find only two that had better SA pulls: a 686 that had been given a "duty action" job by the Performance Center, and a full-on .44 pin gun (built on a 58 frame) that Ron Power did up for me in 1977.
I tried "pushing off" the hammer of the 4" 500 with a 3-lb. weight and it didn't, so we're okay there.
Now for the bad news: During fast DA work, sometimes the hammer doesn't cock. The cylinder always indexes, but about every 20th cycle, the hammer stays forward.
[6/14 edit: My fault. I was under the weather and not releasing the trigger all the way during fast DA dryfire. Non-issue.]
Worse, when I "trigger cock" the gun until the cylinder indexes to the next chamber, then let go of the trigger, when the trigger gets about 2/3 of the way to its forwardmost position, the hammer releases and drops. I have not observed this phenomenon before with any DA revolver.
I don't know if the hammer would have enough energy in this case to ignite the primer; I could go test with some primed cases in the basement but at the moment I've got a cold & sore throat and I'm just too lazy.
[6/14 edit: Another non-issue. I'm NEVER going to trigger-cock a loaded gun without firing it. Hammer block doesn't let it fire anyway.]
Herb Belin and Jim Rae are both out today, so I haven't been able to contact either about this. I can't believe the gun is unsafe to fire, and when I go out to the range for my CCW class I'll get some shooting impressions before sending it back to the factory on Monday for adjustment.
[6/14 edit: It's not going back. It's perfect as-is.]
JR
The gun comes with only one comp, the one intended for jacketed bullets. The factory is not yet tooled up for the other types. I plan on boring the comp out and sleeving it so that the gun will behave like it has no comp. As it is now, I expect this 4" 500 to set new records for loudness.
When I was at the factory, Herb told me that they had changed the hammer/trigger relationship on the 500 to reduce or eliminate the occurences of "reverse rotation" and other quirks. He said that the quality of the SA pull was somewhat degraded both in weight and creep, but that no one had complained thus far, so they were sticking with the new design.
Well.
When I cocked and snapped *this* 500, it had about the lightest, most creep-free trigger I have ever felt on a factory revolver. I currently own over 50 N- and X-frames, and another hundred or so NIB Smiths have passed through my hands on the way to others. This gun beats almost all of them.
I went to the safe and started comparing this gun to my other Smiths. I could find only two that had better SA pulls: a 686 that had been given a "duty action" job by the Performance Center, and a full-on .44 pin gun (built on a 58 frame) that Ron Power did up for me in 1977.
I tried "pushing off" the hammer of the 4" 500 with a 3-lb. weight and it didn't, so we're okay there.
Now for the bad news: During fast DA work, sometimes the hammer doesn't cock. The cylinder always indexes, but about every 20th cycle, the hammer stays forward.
[6/14 edit: My fault. I was under the weather and not releasing the trigger all the way during fast DA dryfire. Non-issue.]
Worse, when I "trigger cock" the gun until the cylinder indexes to the next chamber, then let go of the trigger, when the trigger gets about 2/3 of the way to its forwardmost position, the hammer releases and drops. I have not observed this phenomenon before with any DA revolver.
I don't know if the hammer would have enough energy in this case to ignite the primer; I could go test with some primed cases in the basement but at the moment I've got a cold & sore throat and I'm just too lazy.
[6/14 edit: Another non-issue. I'm NEVER going to trigger-cock a loaded gun without firing it. Hammer block doesn't let it fire anyway.]
Herb Belin and Jim Rae are both out today, so I haven't been able to contact either about this. I can't believe the gun is unsafe to fire, and when I go out to the range for my CCW class I'll get some shooting impressions before sending it back to the factory on Monday for adjustment.
[6/14 edit: It's not going back. It's perfect as-is.]
JR
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