Brand New S&W 460 Broke

[atljetmech]

OP I'm glad they took care of the issue and hopefully its good to go now.
I have only one Hilary Hole S&W (Mod 629 4" 44MAG) and so far no issues with a few hundred rounds down range. It is a beautiful handgun and got it for a great price brand new.
That X Frame you got is sexy but 44MAG is my cut off these days with old hands and arthritis !! lol

 

[basstracker89]

I have a 4" S&W .500 and a 2" S&W .460 ES and have never had any issues. Both have had at least 100 rounds through each. I have a 5" S&W .460 that hasn't been fired so I don't know much about the it.

Well that's a good report. I've had very little trouble with anything, especially Smith. And I've had a lot of Smiths of the years. I always try to pick something with a good track record to avoid problems. This new stuff does seem to be more problematic, I think due mainly from quality control

 

[basstracker89]

OP I'm glad they took care of the issue and hopefully its good to go now.
I have only one Hilary Hole S&W (Mod 629 4" 44MAG) and so far no issues with a few hundred rounds down range. It is a beautiful handgun and got it for a great price brand new.
That X Frame you got is sexy but 44MAG is my cut off these days with old hands and arthritis !! lol

It was a cost and weight thing for me. The pistol weighs almost as much a rifle. I can reload, so I can tapper it to whatever I want. I hit what I aim at with the 44. But I won't use a pistol in a hunting situation unless that's the best choice. I figure if I need an extra round or two, that's far cheaper than investing in another specialty cartridge. Besides, so far if I do my part I only need one round

 

[BHPSteel]

I think there's a QC problem, and the inevitable cutting of corners to maintain a price point.

A while back, I wanted a good, serviceable 357 in a format something like one of the 686 variants, and I called in to my gunsmith at the time and asked him whether I should get a Smith Performance Center 686 or one of the Ruger GP-100 Match models. The price to me would be similar, because I would get the 686 via S&W's (at the time) discount program for NRA Instructors.

His recommendation, knowing me, was -

• Get the 686 if you're not going to mess with it in any way (except maybe replacing the sights)
• Get the Ruger if you think you might want some work done on the trigger and other internals(which would bring the cost up to about the price of the S&W)

And then he showed me why, with some of the guns he was working on.

The 686 PC he showed me had polished internals where all the surfaces that mattered, had been stoned down nicely, but surfaces like the sides of hammers, pawls etc were still pretty rough. The general approach seemed to be - don't bother with anything that doesn't directly matter.

The Ruger he showed me was similar, but the surfaces that "didn't matter" had been cleaned up to the point where it was clear that the parts hadn't been roughed out on a clapped out old milling machine.

His comment was that the 'custom shop' Ruger of 2015 had a fit and finish similar to a 90's Performance Center gun, and from his point of view, he knew on a Ruger that there would be enough 'meat' on a part to be able to improve an action, but with a Smith, with modern versions he might have to go very carefully because of issues like stoning thru' case hardening etc, His opinion was that with time, you could turn that particular Ruger model into a far nicer firearm.

As it turned out, I bought the S&W (which I had to return to fix a clocked barrel) and apart from that, I've been satisfied with it, but it was interesting to get to do a compare & contrast on the internals of the two models.

 

[cmshoot]

Sample sizes do matter.

 

[fastfish66]

I don't doubt you, but this is the first I heard any issues. Now I'm wondering how many more member here had issues with their .500 or .460?

I have both,460 and 500 with zero problems.They are the older ones.The 500 went to Alaska with no problems.

 

[Talos]

I have both,460 and 500 with zero problems.They are the older ones.The 500 went to Alaska with no problems.

Was there a certain point in time when there was a shift in quality from the old X frames to the new X frames?

 

[cmshoot]

Was there a certain point in time when there was a shift in quality from the old X frames to the new X frames?

There were definitely teething problems with the early runs. I remember issues with cracked forcing cones, for one, that I haven’t heard of for a while.

Issues have persisted to a lesser degree.

 

[mattakinbimwalker]

OP I'm glad they took care of the issue and hopefully its good to go now.
I have only one Hilary Hole S&W (Mod 629 4" 44MAG) and so far no issues with a few hundred rounds down range. It is a beautiful handgun and got it for a great price brand new.
That X Frame you got is sexy but 44MAG is my cut off these days with old hands and arthritis !! lol

Hillary hole. I shudder and laugh at the same time.

 

[drewga11]

I had only one issue with the 460 I owned, but was easily resolved. I broke the red loctite on the screw holding the yoke on the gun. That was probably due to some very spicy reloads I made. Wish I hadn't sold that gun, but I'm not willing to pay what they want now for a new one.

Rumors of poor QC are why I just purchased a Ruger GP100 instead of a S&W 686.

As for new guns breaking right away, I have had that experience one time. My first handgun purchase when I turned 21, which was 20 years ago, was a Beretta 96 Brigadier Inox. During the first mag of shooting at the range, the slide release broke off while shooting. Royal pain in the butt trying to get a replacement back then and I didnt consider it worth the time or effort to send it back for such a simple part. Eventually sold that gun to a family member for $100 so I didn't have to deal with it. That piece of junk and the worn out, beat to hell M9s we were issued in the Army really soured me on anything Beretta 92/96.