Question for S&W 669 owners

[FR Baseball]

Have a question for anybody that owns a 669. I took my 669 down to a gunstore, I was going to trade it in towards a M&P9. The guy behind the counter looked at it and said it was not functional. He pointed out that with the gun unloaded and an empty magazine inserted, when the trigger is pulled the hammer does not travel forward enough to strike the firing pin. I bought this gun used a few months ago. When I first got it I field stripped it, cleaned it up, and took it to the range. It ran fine for 200 rounds. I cleaned it after that range session and haven't shot it since. I have attached a few pictures to show what I'm talking about. The first pictures shows the gun gun while it is decocked, notice that the hammer if flat with the back of the slide. The second pictures shows what the hammer looks like after the trigger is pulled. The hammer goes all the way back, but it doesn't go forward enough to contact the firing pin. So, do your 669's do the same thing, or do I need to contact S&W for repair work?

 

[rodregier]

I used to have a S&W469 years ago. That looks like the hammer position with it at half-cock. Perhaps it is a dry-fire artifact? The hammer would normally hit the firing pin, which would only extend so far before encountering the primer of a cartridge. Without a primed case, the hammer would hit the rear of the safety tumbler instead. It might bounce back a little ways to the half-cock notch.

With the pistol unloaded but with an empty magazine seated, try dropping a new pencil down the barrel so that the eraser rests on the firing pin hole. Try dry firing and see it drives out the pencil. The pencil will be launched outwards by a hit of the firing pin if it is being successfully engaged.

Let us know.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

I think (hopefully) that my 3913 is similar enough to your older gun that we can draw some conclusions from it.

Magazine out, pull trigger: No action, trigger linkage completely disconnected.
Empty magazine in place, pull trigger: hammer falls fully forward, firing pin strikes pen (all I had handy) and launches it out of the barrel, indicating fully functional firing mechanism.
Safety off: hammer (which like your gun is bobbed to sit flush with the rear of the slide, but smooth on top, not serrated) sits flush with slide.
Safety on: hammer about 1/16" protrusion from slide, not nearly as much as yours.
(The mag disconnect safety does not affect the manual safety/decock operation.)

From that I would say something is not right with your gun, but I admit it is puzzling to me how it has been able to shoot at all.

 

[FR Baseball]

Thanks for all the help guys. I tried the "pencil test", and it shot out of the barrel, so there is nothing wrong with it. Thanks for all the advice, I'll show the dealer tomorrow.

 

[Dot_mdb]

I did a little research over on the Smith-Wesson Forum about the problem that you described with your 669. Here is one post that talks about it.


To answer your questions: The spur hammer will fit in the 669 from either a second or third generation gun that comes with the spur. (3906, 3904, etc.) The second gen guns had a half cock notch and the third gen guns do not. The half cock notch caused some problems, and was done away with as the firing pin safety made them unnecessary. S&W told armorers that were having the problem with the second gen guns with the half cock to simply grind it off.

The problem that came up was what appeared to be the hammer dropping to half cock when fired single action, but it only did it when being dry fired. They could not figure out what was going on, and they set up high speed cameras to figure it out. What the guns were doing, was the hammer was dropping, hitting the firing pin, and bouncing back and catching the half cock notch. The half cock was there to catch the hammer should it slip off the thumb when being cocked manually to prevent it firing. The firing pin safety took care of this, and the half cock notch was a left over from first generation guns that did not have firing pin safeties.

Louie the Lump posted this to the S&W forum