Best DA .357mag w/ 4" bbl.... & don't dare mention Taurus!

[cfullgraf]

It seems strange to me, but I have had a couple of Model 19's and fired a fair amount of .357 in them with no problems. The general consensus always was that they were not made for firing thousands of rounds of full-house .357. But it has only been in recent years that I have heard about the forcing cone problem and then only with some .357 ammo, not .357 ammo in general.

Now I keep reading that those forcing cones crack all the time and that pieces of demolished Model 19's are littering the landscape. One poster even asked if he should use black powder to keep his from blowing up!!

I wonder just how many folks here have actually had a Model 19 forcing cone split, break, swell, or burst, or a cylinder or barrel split or burst with any factory .357 load or any factory equivalent handload. If there are millions of blown up Model 19's around, surely at least one THR person should have personal experience.

Jim

Here is a data point of one.

My Model 19, purchased around 1980, crack the forcing cone a few years after I bought it.

At the time, i was feeding it a steady diet of 158 grain JHP ammunition. I have no idea what the round count was. Besides shooting a box or two of full power ammunition every week or so, I was shooting the revolver in a few bowling pin competitions and later handgun silhouette competition.

Most of what i have read recently about the cracked forcing cones say it happens with 125 JHP ammunition but my experience is different.

S&W replaced my barrel but it sounds like they do not do that any more.

I have no concerns about shooting heavy loads in my Model 19 but I will not do it anywhere near the level i once was. I like the revolver and do not want to damage it again. I now have other 357 Magnums more suitable to the heavy use.

Other than forcing cone failures, I have never heard of a Model 19 blowing up with "in spec" factory level 357 Magnum ammunition. Doesn't mean it has not happened but the internet hype has not reached these eyes.