S&W barrels shooting off

[TA]

The guy posted a picture that he had taken with his camera phone. There was another pic but it was so blurry that I didn't bother.

["DoubleAction"]

TA; Because this allegedly happened more than once, with the one S&W revolver, by the same person, and other S&W revolvers he owned, there are alot of ifs and unanswered questions as to how this sort occured.
Handloaded ammunition, using a powder with a much faster burn rate, heavier bullets, and more than the recommended amount of powder, could possibly contribute to such a failure and much more. I've always used nothing but factory loaded ammunition with the S&W and Colt revolvers, that is probably why I have had no serious problems with mine over the years. I'm not saying all handloaded ammo is bad for the guns; What I am saying is I would be very alert to what I was loading for these revolvers.
The failure seems to be occuring at the most weakest, and unsupported part of the barrel's bore. We have all seen more sever cases in which the top straps and top three cylinders have been blown off from using the wrong handloads.

[TA]

This guy either owns or works for a shooting range and all but one were range rentals from what I recall. I don't think this guy was actually shooting any of the guns when they failed. They participate in S&W's range program where S&W supplies them with revolvers under a special deal. The whole thing sounds a little fishy though.

[MLB]

Well, no kudos for the photography, but it was a cell phone.

It still seems odd to me that the barrel would break off there. You would need a large tension or bending force to fail in that manner. One would think that overloading would result in the more familiar blown off top strap.

[TA]

Here is what he said about the ammo being shot through them.

Yes they were but all of them mostly shot .38 spl. I'd say the ratio of 38:357 through these guns is on the order of 10:1. I'd also estimate that the guns have over 40K through them when they break, possibly up to about 100K. These guns get shot!!!

["DoubleAction"]

Sounds like these might be rental guns. Everything from cast lead, full metal jackets, hollow points, and semi jacketed bullets are probably put through these guns without seeing a cleaning rod in between. The bore must be lapped so badly with lead and copper; no wonder the barrels are breaking off.

[TA]

I found another blurb about barrels breaking off of S&W revolvers. This is with the NC State Prisons. The article states that they had S&W Reps come to them for a test firing session at which time they had numerous failures including a barrel seperation, with the Reps watching. The barrel problems are with their M65 .357 Mag revolvers.

I find this very interesting if it is true. The failure rate with the NC Prison System is quite high. Those boys need some good ol' outdated 1911's.

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.

Here is the entire article: www.newsobserver.com/141/story/419477.html

["DoubleAction"]

TA; I never cared much for the K Frame .357 magnums for shooting. Bill Jordan even made the comment how the model 19 was made to be shot little and carried alot. Smith & Wesson knew the weakness in the K frames for the .357 magnum when they introduced the L Frames.
However; These people in the news report's that the same has happen with the .38 special in the K frame Model 64.
Since S&W began using MIM parts in their newer revolvers, I have not had much use for them. Think about all the carbon steel versions, of their more popular models, which have been discontinued.
Maybe S&W was sold to the Safe T Loc Corporation for a reason; who knows.
What I do know is this; S&W has a steel foundry which supplies forgings for many, including Kimber at one time. Because S&W provided the forgings for many of the Kimber frames and slides, I thought it to be logic reasoning to begin building their own version of the 1911.
I might understand a few failures with the K-Frames, using some +P 38 specials and more with the .357 magnum ammunition; Every small town hick cop in the country knows about the K- Frame .357 magnums. But I cannot see any reasoning outside that of quality issues for the kind of failures reported on that page.
What puzzled me the most are these problems with the L-Frames. I have only one K-Frame, and that one is chambered for the .22 LR.
There was a time when news of something like metal ceasure on a duty revolver traveled very fast among the LE community. These days LE is not totally reliant upon the two manufacturers of Colt & S&W and the double action 38 Special /.357 magnum revolvers for duty.
Barrel failure or not, I will continue to stick to my guns (So to speak) in my choices of the Bangor Punta revolvers or earlier. Some excellent S&W revolvers were made after Bangor Punta sold out to Tompkins of London in '87, including the 629 DX, but I haven't been impressed with some things of recent that Safe T Loc has done with the pre- existing revolvers, and a few years prior when still owned by Tomkins. S&W was cost cutting long before the company was sold to Safe T Loc.