S&W Shotgun

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aguyindallas

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I have this on the way...

Smith and Wesson Eastfield Model 916 12 Gauge 28" Plain Barrel Excellent Condition $100 - Shipped.
http://i8.tinypic.com/2rhuves.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/2gtzxxs.jpg
http://i8.tinypic.com/2qjj7v8.jpg
http://i8.tinypic.com/2zixatg.jpg


I have NEVER even held a S&W Shotgun but figured for the price, I might as well do it. It will cost me another 15.00 to transfer it...no big deal.

I was told by another THR member that S&W never made their own shotguns and that MANY of the parts are interchangeable with Mossberg parts.

Can anyone confirm any of this with their own experience?

Thanks to rbernie for that info to begin with. Curiosity is killing me before it gets here. I dont need another pump 12ga, but oh well.
 
The S&W 916 will not interchange with the Mossberg.
The 916 is a copy of the old Noble shotgun.
Exactly who made it is unclear, some saying that S&W bought the old Noble tooling and having a contractor actually do the manufacture.

The 916 was S&W's first pump shotgun, and unfortunately for them, was a disaster.
The 916 quickly got a bad reputation for breaking, and since the problems were not related to any one thing, they were unable to correct it.
So many 916's had problems, at one point S&W debated recalling all of them to protect their reputation.

After the 916 fiasco, S&W did better with Japanese Howa-made guns, specifically the Model 3000 pump which was a more or less clone of the Remington 870, and the Model 1000 auto, which was very similar to the Remington 1100.

After S&W decided to get out of the shotgun market, Mossberg picked up the Model 1000 and 3000 for about one year.

Gun Parts Corporation bought up all of S&W's 916 parts.
Not all Model 916's had problems, but they are somewhat notorious among older gunsmiths who tried to repair them.
 
Model 1000 auto loaders were in 20 and 12 gauge. There were Trap and Skeet variants. There was a a duck gun with 3 inch chamber and matte metal finish and plain oil finish stock. Deluxe models with blue finish and shiney wood were built with 2 3/4 and 3 inch chambers. Choke tubes were optioned also. Some had alloy recievers.

Model 3000 pump loaders in 20 and 12, fixed or tube chokes, plain or deluxe finishes, barrels were 18.5 to 30 inches. Folding heavy wire stocks and synthetic stocks were optioned for police versions.

1000 and 3000 models were good shotguns. It seems to me that S&W was trying to get a share of the shotgun sport market. I think that quality was close to Remington or Mossberg, the ones I have work well.

Pumps sell at 140 to 300 and autos sell at 200 to 350 on auction sites. Trap and Skeet version are uncommon and may go as high as 600$

I have heard that the 916 reputation is not as good as the 3000 models.
 
Might try calling Smith...they've always been incredibly helpful and knowledgable about older products when I called.

Greg
 
No need to call Smith, Dfarriswheel is right. The S&W 916 is the old Nobel in sheep's clothing. The one pictured looks new. With luck you can get $115 of use out of it.
 
"Does anybody here know what the known problems are/were?
Extraction, feeding, etc...?"

Yes.:what: :what:

That was the problem. The problems were systemic and EVERYTHING broke or failed.
S&W was unable to "fix" what they finally decided was simply a bad design.

The 916 was a maddening gun to work on. One would come in for a broken firing pin, and no sooner than the owner got it home something else broke.
Since the gunsmith was the last man to handle it, the customer demanded that the gun be repaired.
The gunsmith would disassemble it to fix the new problem, and something ELSE would break during disassembly or reassembly.

S&W tried to work the problems but there were just too many of them, and finally just gave it up as a lost cause.

As I said, at one point S&W seriously discussed buying all of the 916's back to protect their reputation which was taking a pretty hard knock over the thing.
 
A bit of advice from a fellow 916 owner: if you are going to take out the trigger group,you have to take off the buttstock first.
 
S&W 916

My brother and I each purchased Smith & Wesson 916-T shotguns in 1976 as they were offering a free deer slug barrel with rifle sights. Neither of us has ever used the long barrel but have been hunting deer for 30 yrs plus a lot of target sighting in. I have never had any trouble with mine and got 5 deer with six shots last year, the extra shot notched a bucks ear but he was so interested in the doe I had already shot, he just stood for a second shot. Scott did break his firing pin in late summer which was why I was looking up this sight, but it was the first problem he has had. We purchased these as inexpensive field guns and I feel we have really gotten our money's worth and more. I hope you enjoy your new gun as much as we have.
 
TheS&W 916 A has a Factory Flaw. The Shell Stop from the tube, was not built properly. When it is set in common position, the angle of the stop is tilted back towards the back end of the gun, It needs to be straight up and down to slightly tilted foreword to stop the shell properly, or the stop won't stop the shell and cause the gun to hang or get a second shell jamed in between the Ramp and the bolt/ejector

I have made this part by welding more material to the stop and cutting it to where it works best, then the shotgun performs flawlessly after that.
 
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I have made this part by welding more material to the stop and cutting it to where it works best, then the shotgun performs flawlessly after that.
Click to expand...

Interesting............how about some photos.
 
Last pawn shop I was in in Alabama before 9/11... A BARREL full of the things, take your pick, for, what, $79?. There was a reason. No, I didn't buy one.
Al
 
I Rebuilt 2 of them, and they are still working Flawlessly. When you weld the part with a Wire welder, you have to remember you are Hardening the metal in a way, so you won't have to do anything else except reshape it. Both of the ones I remade, I added as much a 4 mm to the shell hook part of the shell stop. the distance is dictated by how much room the back of the shell needs to clear the loading ramp when it is pushed up behind a shell in the tube. The loading ramp should always have clearance, and move freely, and the shell should stop further in the tube so the ramp never touches it when you manually push the ramp up inside the gun. Those parts are stamped out parts, and are most likely not all that hard to start with. But if you have trouble with double feed or feed jaming, add some metal to the stop, and I promise you, you will be happy you did. If you don't have the way to do it, I can do it if you send me the loose part. Loading ramp is the elevator.
 

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Al LaVodka - I sure wish I could get a few of those for that price. I could Remake that part and have a stack of FINE Shotguns
 
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My 916 was the first new shotgun I ever had. I gave my Dad the money and he bought for me. Mine is a 12ga Magnum with a 30 or so inch barrel. Never had any problems with it but have better guns now. I've kept it just in case, its nothing fancy but it works.
 
Funny, I just dug my 916 out of the safe to take a look at it. I was considering adding a modern pump shotgun to the collection but the 916 has worked okay for the few times I have used it. I think I have had the jam RtWngGunut mentioned though. I was thinking I might sell this if I bought something else but I don't think I'll bother trying to sell it. At least I only paid $100 for it a long time ago. It's a piece of history, right? :D
 
Heres my S&W 3000, I also have a slug barrel. Great shooter, was a Washington Police shotty
MVC-002S.jpg
 
We sold quite a few in 20 ga out of our shop in the late seventies. Mostly to guys who were holding out a last ditch effort against steel shot...required only on 12 ga. Several came back...feeding problems, firing pin breakage. Not a robust design. The 1000 semiauto was a little better but bluebook prices don't give it a lot of credit.
 
inheritated troubles

I have a 916 my mother bought my father in 1970 3yrs before i was born i killed alot of small and big game with it my father gave it to me when i was 12 the firing pin broke when i was about 24 my uncle fixed it but it broke again a couple yers later i need someone to point me in the right direction to buy a new firing pin and spring for it.
 
I owned a 916 for many years. They are OK at best. Sold mine 2 years ago for $135 and was happy to get rid of it. Never had any complaints with mine but you can't find parts for them. Used mine for duck hunting and it was a decent shooter.

I know the barrel does not come off as I was very surprised to learn that the first time I disassembled mine.
 
Thanks for the help.

Any other info out there?

The S&W 3000 is a much more robust design than the 916- the 3000 is similar to the Remington 870. S&W had had a good bit more experience in the shotgun business by the time the 3000 came along. That 'experience' came at the hands of the 916, unfortunately.

S&W was diversifying as a company and wanted a piece of the shotgun market during the late 1960s (remember, this was the time of the war buildup in SE Asia, military contracts etc, not to mention civil disorder/riots at home leading to more police/security shotgun contracts). At about that time the old Nobel Manufacturing Co. went out of business, and S&W bought their patents and tooling, and poof- they were in the shotgun business.

Sad to say, it was a rocky start. S&W had a lot of name recognition and a reputation, and a lot of purchases were made on that basis. The guns "were plagued by poor quality control and had cascading minor issues in the field" to quote one source.

As with most manufactured products, there are a range of experiences among owners. Some report a lifetime of complete satisfaction. Others complain. The marketplace often supplies the best answer, and S&W hasn't produced the 916 for several decades now, and they sifted to the 3000 as a pumpgun fairly soon after introducing the 916. The 916 design is pretty much an also-ran among an older transitional generation of pumpgun designs that share many of the same sorts of flaws in design and manufacture. You won't find the S&W 916 on any lists I know of of the most robust pump shotgun designs in history.

Best advice I can give- ASK FIRST. BUY LATER...

fwiw,

lpl
 
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