Trouble W/ S&W 500 Mag

[CLASS3NH]

Guys
I thought, since we seem to read this area the most, I wanted to send this out for your review. Mods? please feel free to move it to another area if need be.
I sold a New in box, S&W 500 Mag 4 inch on Jan 31, 2005.
The Guy came in last week, showing us some scars on his left ear from what he called "back blast" from hot powder.
TODAY........... He came in with the gun. Dropped it on the counter, and showed us, including me, damage from the cylinder to barrel fit.
This gun came from the factory, NOT SPACED CORRECTLY, making the gun shear lead to the left of the barrel. we were stunned to see the Customer was NOT hurt or killed. THE CUSTOMER HAS PLACED A TOTAL OF 12 RNDS THRU IT. Thank God he brought it in before a Catastrophic Failure ocurred..
I wrote it up, and prepared to send it back to S&W for repair/replacement.
I just wanted to let all of you know this issue, so you may be informed of the safety concern. THE PROBLEM MAY ONLY BE WITH THIS PARTICULAR WEAPON, and no others..
I shall keep all of you updated with more info as soon as possible

Note: He Is asking for a replacement weapon, as he says it's a HUGE pleasure to shoot it!

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Euclidean]

Wow. I wonder if S&W's constant Johnny Cut Corners design changes are catching up with them.

[CLASS3NH]

Wow. I wonder if S&W's constant Johnny Cut Corners design changes are catching up with them.

Euc........you should have seen this gun...........It was almost as the timing was waaay off, and I took a feeler gage between the forcing cone to the cylinder/chambers, and it measure d.0015 (one thousanth and 5 tenths) This was not consistand on all chambers, (they ranged between .0015 to .0035 on alternating chambers)..almost as if the cylinder was not machined or broached properly., or the cylinder wasn't bored properly to center alignment of the ejector rod. Thus making chamber alignment to the BBl, almost impossible..
VERY SCARY SITUATION

[Bud White]

Id say the cylinder wasn't line bored properly or the timing is way off because the hand is short bent etc .. Also there have been some reports of cylinder locks cracking but that was early 8"ers

Got any pics??


I haven't had any problems with Mine.

[Euclidean]

With every generation of everything they've made in recent years, S&W makes a less and less refined and less finished product on the average. They keep cutting out quality and gunsmithing for automation and easier assembly it seems, while keeping their prices the same.

I sincerely hope they don't put themselves out of business.

[Bud White]

Ya don't cut to many corners with something like this the lawsuit if a 500 went up would be pretty bad

[P95Carry]

That sounds bad Bob - and on the face of it inexcusable.

At very least it shows some very poor QC.

I'll be interested to know if you get a report back from Smith on that very gun.

[CLASS3NH]

That sounds bad Bob - and on the face of it inexcusable.

At very least it shows some very poor QC.

I'll be interested to know if you get a report back from Smith on that very gun.

Chris
Watch for this in the TV and News....also the gun mags too.....This Customer is VERY "ticked" off to say the least.. He thought the "powder burns" on his ear were just that, but a couple sutures proved lead shavings.. he's going to pursue something, especially if Smith doesn't address this safety issue. I'll get some pix before they send it out..
I just hope this case is isolated to this particulare revolver.

[P95Carry]

Heck - lead shaving cuts sure ain't no ''powder burns" ! Anyways to get any powder burns that far back would be all but impossible.

So - looks like Smith will have to tread real gently here to avoid a near scandal. As the saying goes, ''watch this space''!!!

Yes - take some good close-ups if feasable Bob.... including his ear if at all possible - document the whole deal.

[Bud White]

Bob Do a timing check if you can see how bad out of time

[rocky]

dang, hate to see a .500 Kb. that would be catastrophic all right.

[RSSZ]

C3, Can you rule out anything that the customer did to the weapon ?? I haven't heard of anything similar to this happening with a .500 (any bbl length) in the past. I would be very interested in knowing any and all details as I am real close to buying one of the custom shop 500's. This is especially sad because this tells me that not only was the manufacturing process flawed,but so was the assembly,AND,the QA process,which is the ultamate FUBAR. The S&W people failed it's customers in a big way with this one. Just as I was slowly"coming back around".

[Bud White]

And let me ask this are you sure its shaving lead at the forcing Cone? The comps can throw some stuff back at ya not the amount this guy is claiming but some

[CLASS3NH]

And let me ask this are you sure its shaving lead at the forcing Cone? The comps can throw some stuff back at ya not the amount this guy is claiming but some

Yes........it's all over the cone (lead shavings) It's almost as if they began to fit the Bbl to the frame, and stopped. The forcing cone is not a flat surface. It's been ground on one side and not finished on the other........thus, not a flat surface in relation to the cylinder.. (kind of like taking a file, and filing off one side so that it's not at a 90 degree relation to the other flat surface it meets.. I'm going to place the gun on a pistol rest, and run a dial indicator on the cylinder, to make sure it's not out of round on the center. Timing is off, as the action binds up, particularly on every other, or two adjoining chambers

[Tom G]

I doubt if Smith & Wesson will put in writeing as what was actualy wrong with the gun. Most companys don't due to libility concerns. Im supprised the user got to shoot it 12 times. I guess he was real lucky the gun didn't come apart.