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The 642 club

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$10,180

Good Stuff, $10,180.

Membership has its privileges. Dealing with yahoos such as us.

:DA A bargain at twice the price. ;)
 
I paid $355 for my NIB 642 in May '06. The best I have seen them for locally is $365 today. I did see a sweet NIB 442 for $359 though (at a gunshow, nonetheless). Excellent price, as they are usually more expensive than their stainless steel brother.

I would say anything under $400 is pretty fair (no CT Lasergrips, of course).
 
New 442 and friends




Love the little thing, but I'll have to ding S&W on finish quality. If you look close, you can see the bluing is faded/uneven in spots near the front edge of the cylinder. My 317, 360 and 37 (not shown) were perfect out of the box.

 
joe4702 - Three things:

1. Great looking collection you have there, it would do anyone proud.

2. Do you plan on leaving any for the rest of us?

3. I can't believe that S&W let that 442 out the door with such a flawed finish. I just complained to them about my little fit & finish problem on my trigger, and now this. Perhaps it's time for an Official 642 Club Inquiry.
 
Perhaps it's time for an Official 642 Club Inquiry.
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Gets out notebook, pen, magnifying glass, Sherlock Holmes hat, loads Google with "SW X42 QC issues" ...

But then remembers, I'm going camping tomorrow... my participation will have to wait a few days...
 
Love the little thing, but I'll have to ding S&W on finish quality. If you look close, you can see the bluing is faded/uneven in spots near the front edge of the cylinder. My 317, 360 and 37 (not shown) were perfect out of the box.
Click to expand...

I assume that you haven't cleaned the cylinder face with lead away cloths or Flitz metal polish. It almost looks like a gunshop NOOB tried to "shine up" the typically dull face of the cylinder with a lead away cloth, which can damage blueing - does the finish on the front of the cylinder look damaged too?

You can always send it back to S&W, they will take care of it. That being said, S&W's blued finishes aren't what they once were ... thank the EPA for that one.
 
BTW, looks like you are getting quite a following with your SIG club!
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Thanks JT
The Sig club is sputtering along - its been kind of slow lately. I wish it had as many regulars as the 642 club. I have to come up with something to bump the thread from time to time. I think the last post was June 28th :( by me.
Speaking of regulars - has anyone heard from loplop lately. He was a member in both clubs and posted daily on each thread. It looks like his last post was made at the end of May :confused:
Hope he's OK
 
Well I am now a S&W 642 owner. My wife bought me one last week for my upcoming birthday....man I love that girl.

I am embarassed thought to tell what I did when we took it to the range last Sunday to try it out. Now FWIW I have been shooting a variety of guns over my life, but I have never had anything in .38 caliber. Soooooo when picking up some ammo for the new pistola, I saw .38 on the box and picked up a couple of boxes.

So we are at the range and I'm ready to touch off the first 5 rounds. The first 3 rounds fired ok, rounds 4 and 5 failed to fire. So I'm thinking dang, brand new pistol and I'm gonna have to send it back for repairs. But then I get to thinking ok, let's think this through. Could be the pistol, could be the ammo. I look back at the ammo box and then I see .38 Super on the box. Now I'm thinking I know the pistol is a .38 Special, just maybe the ammo is the problem. I go out and by a box of .38 Special ammo, go back to the firing line and load it up and it went bang every time I pulled the trigger.

Doesn't appear to be any damage to the pistol. Nor any damage to me. Other than my head hurts after banging it into the wall so many times while saying "how could I be so stooooopid"

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

I did not realize there was another round in .38. :fire:
 
mikeyinokc

(see post 3554)

Now its 510 boxes of 135 grain Gold Dots................$10,200.00

Welcome...

Address will follow.

Send the Speer, don't break this chain...
 
Well I've been following this thread for a loooong time and I finally decided to quit lurking. This 642 has been in my pocket for a few years and I love it. My Glock 17 only sees 1/4 of the carry and trigger time. These dang things carry so well. I'd sure like to carry something bigger but my boss is very against carrying. He actually kicked an off duty cop out of our store because he was carrying! Oh well I guess I'll be the sheep dog here, if they want it or not!!
 

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Given enough time, money and desire you can do about anything with the 642. Have you seen the XS big dot for the 642?
 
Thx, JT, but its only a starter collection. There are plenty left for everyone. :)
The place I bought the 442 from had 50 of them in their central warehouse.

I assume that you haven't cleaned the cylinder face with lead away cloths or Flitz metal polish. It almost looks like a gunshop NOOB tried to "shine up" the typically dull face of the cylinder with a lead away cloth, which can damage blueing - does the finish on the front of the cylinder look damaged too?
Click to expand...

No, it was that way out of the box. Definitely a manufacturing issue. Looks like something rubbed/touched the side of the cylinder during the bluing process. The cylinder face is fine. The accompanying fired casing is dated May 31, 2007, so its a recently built gun.

I bought it sight unseen as the store didn't have one on hand and had to get it from their warehouse. I'm sure S&W will make it right, just not sure I want to deal with the hassle of sending it back.

Interestingly, the last handgun I bought was a Smith 625 that also had cosmetic problems. That one went back and while not perfect, its satisfactory. That was 5 years ago.
 
I look back at the ammo box and then I see .38 Super on the box.
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:eek: :what:

Dude, you are lucky nothing blew up ... the 38 Super is nothing to sneeze at. A 124 grain 38 Super moving at 1,350 fps is not far off from a 125 357 Mag at 1,450 fps (and the 38 Super +P 125 grain @ 1,450 matches it).

EDITED TO ADD: Actually, after thinking about it, the x42-1 and -2 are based on S&W's "Magnum J-Frame", so a few 38 Super rounds probably wouldn't have hurt it. Hey, what did the recoil feel like? :evil:

I did not realize there was another round in .38.
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38 Special and 38 Super (a highter pressure version of the 38 ACP) aren't the only 38s:

.38 Special
.38 Super
.38 ACP (again, a low pressure/pre-.38 Super)
.38 Short Colt
.38 Long Colt
.38/200
.38 S&W (aka .38 Colt New Police, .38 Super Police)
.380 ACP (not to be confused with .38 ACP and 38 Super)

:)
 
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Welcome Savage and Mikey

Quote:
I look back at the ammo box and then I see .38 Super on the box.
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I was at the range one day.....guess what? I usually bought a box of something for the ammo collection just to get a break on the range price.

I was doing ammo inventory one day at home...says to self "what the heck is this 38 Super stuff?" Then it dawned on me. The range had a bunch of newbie women working behind the counter. She probably didn't know and I didn't pay that much attention at the time. Fortunately it never got in the gun, which likely would have been the 642. Lesson learned.
 
Fortunately it never got in the gun, which likely would have been the 642. Lesson learned.
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Yeah, I have heard of that happening, but more so with 38 S&W vs 38 Special. It's always a good idea to check (see my list on the prior page, last post).

The most odd thing I have ever seen was some ammo my boss purchased for his 38 Special chambered Colt Police Positive many years ago. He tried to load the "38 Special" rounds in his gun but they wouldn't fit right :eek:. Turns out that the box was marked "38 Special" but contained "38 S&W" cartridges.


100_3253.gif
 
mikeyinokc - Welcome to the 642 club. Glad everything worked out OK with the ammo mix-up. Thanks for posting your experience here as a head's up for the rest of us. It never hurts to double check. Mr. Murphy never sleeps....

savage1 - Welcome, we are happy to have you with us. Nice looking EDC set-up. I use a speed strip configured the same way. Is that a modified Nemesis?

Lurkers - Now is the time to follow savage1 and join up! The more input we have the better the 642 Club gets and the more value it has for us all.

jad0110 - For reference, can you tell us if any of the rounds you listed can be used safely in a .38 special revolver?
 
:) happy 4th to all, thanks to all that have served, or are thinking of serving. 7 in my family have, bless them and all of you.


R58
 
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