S&W 442 broke. Warranty work?

[YJake]

After about 3 months of ownership and 350 rounds of +P through it my S&W 442 bought the farm two days ago during a range session. I didn't realize something was wrong until I had gotten home and finished cleaning it that night.

I began to cycle the action and realized my buttery smooth trigger felt a little bit "crunchy" and the timing was slightly off. The cylinder didn't lock in place until the hammer released.

Odd.

So I removed the side plate in order to investigate but saw nothing wrong

I then proceeded to cycle the action and the trigger wouldn't move. I removed the hammer and tried again but the trigger would just bind up.

I gave it one last pull resulting in the trigger falling out of the gun and the rebound slide and spring flying through the air!

The pin that holds the trigger in place within the frame had sheared off at the base from the frame. That's why the trigger felt "crunchy" and the timing was off, the trigger was just loosely resting within the frame.


My main question here is whether or not this can be warrantied after I took the side plate off and began to disassemble the gun?

I found the rebound slide after it flew but am still missing the spring... It is around "somewhere"


Any suggestions would be great folks!

-Jake

 

[Guillermo]

assuming that the 3 months of ownership began with a new revolver, give S&W a call.

They will send you a mailing label to FedEx your gun to them and fix it in relatively short order.

If you want any custom work, it is a good time to have them do it since your gun is out of service anyway and they are picking up the shipping.

They are good at warranty work.
Practice makes perfect.

 

[Remllez]

You should be good to go on warranty as there's no "penalty" for removing the side plate. As far as the flying/missing parts go Smith should replace them as well, a defect in materials caused the launch.

 

[Old Fuff]

It needs to go back anyway because the pin (called a "stud") is pressed into the frame, and only the factory can fix it. Also they can only fix it once, and after that the frame has to be replaced. Once upon a time in the far distant past the studs were threaded and could be replaced in the field, but that was then, and this is now.

I think you have a 99% chance they will fix it on their dime, and it's not impossible that you'll get a new frame.

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

Twenty years ago my son (then 12) broke the hammer stud while cocking the hammer on my model 60. I told him to shoot it double action, but he was heck bent on single action. Due to his smallish hands he was exerting a lot of downward pressure on the hammer which broke the stud. S & W fixed it on their dime.

As a matter of fact they have fixed a few revolvers and one pistol over they years and I only had to pay for 1. It was a 63 and I sent it back due to excessive end shake. Who would have ever thought that a .22 would develop endshake? I think all S & W revolvers develop endshake sooner or later.

They are good folks.

 

[YJake]

Well this is all good news to me folks!

I plan to give them a call tomorrow (Monday) to see what the full details will be regarding this matter. I hope it all goes smoothly, if not I hear calling back and getting a friendlier service representative is commonplace.

The revolver was bought new in November 2011.

-Jake

 

[Jim K]

I don't think the studs (hammer and trigger) were ever threaded in, they were just a press fit. The studs rarely break but they do so once in a while. One cause of failure is operating the mechanism with the sideplate off, since the studs are supported on one side by the sideplate. So always release hammer spring tension and remove the hammer spring before removing the sideplate.

Jim

 

[Old Fuff]

I don't think the studs (hammer and trigger) were ever threaded in...

Ah… Ya’ know… You young guys just don’t got no experience that goes back before the end of World War Two.

Now me, I know that starting back in the 1860’s and going forward to the end of the war, and for some short time after, Smith & Wesson hammer and trigger studs were threaded and screwed in and out. If you look at the boss on the studs you may notice two square notches cut in them. S&W had spanner wrenches that dropped down over the pin part of the stud, and fit into those notches, which were located 180 degrees apart. As a rule of thumb you will find this to be true in all of the barrel tip-ups, top-breaks, and hand ejectors that have the old long action lockwork.

If you have an old .38 Military & Police or model 1917 (whatever) lying around, pop the sideplate, remove the mainspring and hammer, and look. Those notches in the stud’s boss are a dead give away. If ya' still don't believe me pull out the rest of the parts and look at all of the studs.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

YJake, please keep us updated on what happens.

Just explain to S&W why the spring is gone, they will understand. Like said above, there's no penalty for taking off the side plate. I'm sure they would rather you look and see if something small is out of place before you send your gun back to them.

 

[YJake]

Sorry for taking so long to update this folks.

I received the gun back yesterday, so from broke gun to working gun it took me almost three months to the day.

I received no issues from S&W what so ever during the whole process. I shipped the gun with a letter explaining what was wrong. I even sent the gun to them in pieces in a plastic baggy and it was missing the rebound slide spring

I received a call from them probably a month and a half ago telling me to send them my FFL information to transfer the gun back (They replaced the frame) but my phone never made the voice mail visible

So... about a month later and 3 missed voicemails I returned their call and the gun was at my FFL in less than 5 working days.

They replaced the frame and reused everything else from the other gun.

Overall I am very satisfied with the whole situation except for my phone not letting me know that I could have had my gun in half the time :banghead: I still love S&W and have even more respect for them now for standing behind their product even after receiving it in the shape I sent it.

-Jake

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I'm surprised you needed to supply a FFL for the return trip.... I'm guessing the replaced frame had a different serial number. That would be a reason why they needed to send it to an FFL.