Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns S&W revolvers - 2 piece barrels

Things sure have changed over the years.

What was wrong with Pre-lock non-MIM one piece barreled wheelguns?

What was wrong with rotary dial phones? Oh, that's right - I still don't own a cell phone.

Don

My 431PD works just fine and has for several years, about 7,000 rounds down range so far.

Isn't the two-piece barrel the big claim to Dan Wesson's accuracy fame?





Travis

No doubt, and I never heard of problems with the old DWs, not seen much on the S&W's version, but never seen the 1-pc bbl as an issue on the old models. Believe a member hear talked about some of the newer models having some gas check contraption on the rear of the barrels and failing.

Sure seems that lawyers - liability (lock) and penny counters are what changed, perhaps when S&W went public. IDK.

Never could open my wallet for the newbies.

If Elmer Keith and whoever else old fart that was influential, innovative , and looking for the next thing that could change the status quo, was just a stubborn old "pre lock pre mim , screwed in barrel " hardass .......


The world would be a boring place .

I could stand a boring world loaded with pre-lock N frames, even if they do have that unnecessary trigger-cocking feature

...nope...nothing wrong with them...





...keep moving folks...nothing to see here....just keep moving...




...hummmmmm....seems to be missing a piece....




Was having dinner with a friend during my 2014 trip out west. We were having dinner at his house when the after dinner talk turned to guns. My friend said he had a matched pair of 642s, one he kept by his bed and the other he carried all the time... When he pulled it out to show me I said "Jerry aren't you missing something...".

The barrel apparently had unscrewed and dropped out the bottom of the holster earlier in the day as it was there that morning when he had dressed..the outer shroud was in the bottom of the holster. My friend never did find it... Called S&W the next day and they emailed him a return label... About two weeks later he had his gun back...no explanation as to what might have caused it.

There was about a box of standard .38 Special LSWCs through the pair.

One reason why my DA revolver money for new guns has gone to Ruger for most of the last decade. And the two new Smiths that I did buy, a 357 PD and NG, are now gone...

They need to return to the quality they had just before the ILs...those were some decent guns...

Bob

I've got a 620 w/ the two piece barrel. I've had no problems.

My 2-piece barrels have been exceptionally accurate.
I don't see how it could unscrew because the barrel is threaded so that the bullet rotation against the barrel actually tightens it.

Too much shooting in the Southern Hemisphere...

You gotta admit......it didn't have much of a barrel to start with.😀

Yeah, my model 69 is just a piece of junk and one of the most accurate and RELIABLE six-guns I've shot. Come on out to the mountains and let's shoot another five thousand heavy loads through it.

Of all things firearm I'd prefer one-piece, the barrel is right up there.

The S&W 620 has become my favorite 357 Mag, just as the 329PD has become my favorite 44 Special.

I suppose which side of the equator makes the diff? Lol

Well, like the 2-piece 700 bolt handle, they work most of the time, but when they fail, well, look at that mess above. I'd not want that to happen when I need to count on one.... JS.

Those that have them and they are doing well, that's great.

I have to be honest, Smith IMHO is making short cuts, and that saves me from spending future $$$$. Justified or not, I guess one wants quality to remain the same or INCREASE, yet when one sees shortcuts being made.......it's just a Bitter Horse Pill, at the least.

The 620 is a fantastic package, not too big, not too small, 7 shot, accurate, SS, carries well...



I've got to admit, I've been looking at the 329PD all wrong. It is best as a 44SPC.

Eleven years ago the NC DOC was having the barrels of their "new" Model 65s blow off while using .38 Specials... I remember reading the original article and S&W had sent a team to NC to see what the problem was...

https://thefiringline.com/forums/archive/index.php?t-203021.html

The problem was probably identified and corrected but it was still unnerving....

Bob

March 18, 2006, 10:26 AM
Local & State Home / Local & State


Counties: Wake | Durham | Orange | Johnston | Chatham Topics: Crime & Safety | Health & Science | Education | Growth | Q | Corrections
Columnists: Dennis Rogers | Barry Saunders | Ruth Sheehan | Melanie Sill



Published: Mar 18, 2006 12:30 AM
Modified: Mar 18, 2006 03:33 AM


State wants faulty guns replaced
Correction officers are experiencing serious problems with several Smith & Wesson models

Model 64 is prone to misfires, prison officials say. Another model's barrel sometimes falls off.

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Dan Kane, Staff Writer
State prison officials want gunmaker Smith & Wesson to replace hundreds of revolvers after dozens failed to shoot and the barrels broke off of others upon firing in training exercises.
The company has witnessed the problems firsthand. Last month, three company representatives met with state prison officials at a shooting range near Smithfield to test about three dozen revolvers.

Four of the revolvers didn't fire when a state weapons instructor pulled the trigger. The cylinder that holds the ammunition jammed on two revolvers. Then, the barrel broke off as the instructor fired a different model with a longer barrel, just as 14 others had in practice shoots dating back to 2003.

"In one sense it's funny," said Chief Deputy Correction Secretary Dan Stieneke. "In another, it's alarming."

In previous tests of revolvers purchased in 2004, roughly one in four misfired. They are .38 caliber Model 64s, which have 3-inch barrels. The .357 caliber Model 65s had the problem with barrel breaks. Test fires of a third revolver, the slightly smaller Model 60, resulted in cracked or sheared barrels in four cases.

No weapons have failed in the line of duty. Stieneke said the guns will remain in service while the department tries to resolve the problems, but annual in-service training will cease until a solution is found. New hires will receive weapons training because there are enough reliable revolvers to train them.

"On the one hand, statistically [the revolvers' performance] is not bad, but it's just the safety issue," Stieneke said. "That kind of failure gets people's attention."

The weapons are assigned to probation officers who keep track of probationers with more dangerous criminal histories, and to correction officers who patrol prison perimeters and escort inmates outside the facilities. (Those correction officers often carry rifles and shotguns as well.)

Correction officers inside prisons do not carry guns because there is a much greater risk that they could fall into inmates' hands. They carry pepper spray and batons.

Correction officials have asked the company to replace the 500 Model 64s purchased in 2004. They might extend that request to replace all of the department's 5,000 revolvers.

If Smith & Wesson does not replace the guns, the department might file a lawsuit or turn to taxpayers for help. Replacing the guns, which cost about $320 each, would come to more than $1.5 million. The department also would have to replace ammunition, holsters and other accessories, and retrain its officers to use the replacement weapons.

"We're at a point where if we have to make a quick switch, it's going to cost millions of dollars, and it's going to take a lot of training and effort to get back up to speed," Stieneke said.

Smith & Wesson officials did not return repeated phone calls for comment. Based in Springfield, Mass., Smith & Wesson is one of the nation's largest gunmakers.

The company's guns have drawn criticism from other law enforcement agencies. In 2001, New Jersey canceled a purchase of about 3,200 semi-automatic pistols from Smith & Wesson for its state police because of high malfunction rates.

North Carolina prison officials have been using Smith & Wesson revolvers for at least 20 years, even as many other law enforcement agencies have switched to higher-powered, semi-automatic handguns that carry more rounds.

Stieneke said that no one noticed a troublesome trend with the revolvers until late 2004, when trainers began seeing misfires with the new batch of Model 64s. A misfire is when the trigger is pulled and nothing happens.

In March and April 2005, the trainers tested all 500 of the new batch of handguns at shooting ranges across the state. They reported misfire rates of between 11 percent and 43 percent.

In the meantime, another problem emerged: barrels dropping or flying off the Model 65s during firing. The department surveyed trainers across the state and counted up 14 cases of barrel failure in the past three years.

Both problems led to the visit by Smith & Wesson on Feb. 21.

Stieneke said the revolvers are no longer a popular item and that might be contributing to their unreliability. For example, the department has had to special order the Model 65s in recent years.

That, along with the weapon failures, has Stieneke thinking it is time to follow the rest of the law enforcement community and switch to semi-automatics.

Staff writer Dan Kane can be reached at 829-4861 or dkanenewsobserver.com.

The 2 piece barrel hasn't fallen off my cartoon gun yet, but I don't carry it every day.
It's also the only newer S&W I've owned, so I have no idea about their other models.

I own a lot of S&W's, but the newest ones were made in 1981. MIM, no; 2 piece barrels, no; and no IL for this guy.

Don