UncleEd
Member
The mindset of many auto shooters (read that 9mm) is
"I can miss a lot because I still have so many more
chances to hit."
"I can miss a lot because I still have so many more
chances to hit."
But, based on the B-27 sized “patterns” I see on far too many target boards every week, I think there would be a lot more “better” shooters if folks learned how to shoot correctly with a DA revolver first.
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(A closer peek at the lanes next over. Both are being shot at 5 yds.)
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But that’s just speculation from a diehard revolver fan.
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Stay safe.
I reckon while a small demographic of older gun owners who you find in the echo-chamber that is gun forums and social media have an issue with modern Smiths, the overwhelming majority do not. The facts are most do not own prelock or other Smiths, there are only a finite number of them in circulation, and of the handful of people who own them typically have more than just one.The age is far from over, but, I think those that understand that, are probably from another age, and have more experience and time behind a trigger with one, to understand and appreciate them. And a lot of the current offerings dont do much to encourage or enamor either. I love the older Smiths, but the new ones dont do anything much for me, and they dont seem to be too concerned about trying to remedy that either.
And as much as I like them, plastic in plastic, is all youll see me carry/use for anything serious. I might be old, but I aint stuck in the past. Gotta keep up to keep from falling behind.
What issues did you send them back for?I've bought and owned numerous late-model S&W. I've not owned older pre-lock ones, so I'm not comparing them to those. Having bought numerous Smiths and Performance Center revolvers and spent more than $10K on them, I do not have any issues with the IL, MIM parts, two-piece barrels, frame-mounted firing pins, modern CNC, or the aesthetics. If I did, I wouldn't have bought them.
That said, their quality sucks. It just flat sucks and bad. They have a very serious quality problem that is evidenced by the numerous revolvers they produce with flaws. It's not a bad design, it's bad execution. It's not that they don't build them the way they used to, they just don't build them the way they're supposed to. They screw up unbelievably. It's just astonishing the ways they find to screw them up.
To their credit, most of the time, they fix them, but sometimes it takes multiple trips back to the factory. In the last 5 years, I've sent revolvers back 13 times. In my experience, about 3 out of 10 they will fail to fix satisfactorily.
Nevertheless, I carry one everyday. When it's made right, it's right, and very good. I would pay 50% more if I could be assured that it would be right the first time.
FYI: I quoted you to ask what was wrong with your example(s) only. The two paragraphs that followed weren't directed to you or anyone in particular in this thread. I don't want you to think I challenging your experiences or opinion.I can't make any claims from personal experience about how they used to be. I suspect they had some eras where they were very inconsistent. I understand that the pre-war era had the best quality, and that the post-war Helstrom era was second. I'm sure that some outstanding guns were perfectly produced even in the Bangor Punta era, but that time was also when they made a lot of bad ones.
The issues I've sent them back for comprise a long list. I've detailed some of them here in previous threads.
If you say you haven't had any issues with yours but wonder if someone else would find them, have you even checked them? I wouldn't shop for a S&W without checking the b/c gap of every cylinder, checking the frame/crane gap, checking the firing pin length, checking for machine finish errors, checking the barrel clocking, checking the barrel isn't crushed where it threads into the frame (using a Brownells precision-ground "match"-spec revolver rod), checking the strain screw length and mainspring design that they could be expected not to misfire (not a ground-down strain screw in the slot of a ribbed mainspring), checking the crown for defects, checking the timing of each cylinder with a revolver range rod, checking the machine finish of the cylinder throats, checking the forcing cone, the lockup, the straightness of the ejector rod, the crane for bends, the crane plunger screw for cracks, all the screw heads for slot damage, and more. If I were to buy one, I would expect it to fire more than 100 rounds without a misfire. These are all things I would expect to find faultless on any $1000+ revolver. That has decidedly not been my experience with a string of S&W and PC revolvers that I've purchased in recent years.
But I'll reiterate that I am very pleased with one. It had its problems, but they were solved, though not entirely by S&W and the PC. I had the PC cut a second cylinder for moon-clips. It was their choice not to cut the original cylinder but send me a second one. They fouled it up and would not fix it. So I had the original cylinder cut by TK Custom. It's an outstanding gun that performs very well. It's just a pity that final result isn't the consistent experience I've had with S&W.