I owned a S&W 642 for quite a while. I liked it. I would buy another one (or I could wait until the firefighter that stole mine finishes his trial)
However, I picked up a 342 and really enjoyed how light it was. Those 4oz or so savings would really make a difference carrying it in basketball shorts or thunderwear under board shorts at the beach. I googled it, and it appears to have an issue with some ammo because it is so light that it can actually make the bullets fall out of the casings in the cylinder during recoil! Does anyone have any experience with this? I really want to pick one of these up, but only if this isn’t an issue with +p Gold Dots or other quality self defense ammo.
Just because I know it will come up - I don’t care about the recoil difference.
Not an issue with gold dots. I think the floor is 110 grains. It never ever happened w my old 342 but it did happen with my 340. I think the .357 model may be more susceptible just guessing.
I’ve had no issues with +P Gold Dots out of my M&P340. I mostly shoot my own reloads that are about standard pressure and just a moderate crimp, no problem with those either.
It was my understanding that the ultra light weight J Frames “could” have an issue with the bullets moving forward out of the case enough to bind the cylinder. The theory was that the movement of the J Frame under recoil acted somewhat like a kinetic bullet puller and could dislodge a non-cannelured bullet loaded in a hot round.
My own experience is that my Airweights would shoot 148g HBWC ammunition with a roll crimp without any problems.
Light weight bullets are the problem.
Most of the .38s you get off the shelf should work.
A couple of my Airlite guns had a warning printed on the barrel.
“No bullets under 110 gr.” or something like that.
I’ve not had the problem in a 642 but I did have the problem twice in my 640PD. I used rounds too light. They uncrimped slightly durring firing and bound the sylinder up. I had to use a pen as a de jammer to push the rounds bak into the sylinder. My gun was stamped just like the photo here. And says “no less than 120 GR bullets” I just forgot. It happened several years apart during annual qualification.
The problem is with the titanium .357 guns not the .38s, the .38s don’t have the warning printed on the barrel shroud. It’s flame cutting/erosion of the titanium cylinder face due to the light bullet exiting the cylinder too quickly. I can also happen if you scrub the powder off the cylinder face too harshly and remove the protective coating. I’ve never seen a titanium .38 exhibit this issue.
Crimp jump is more likely with heavy bullets rather than light bullets in these light revolvers. The S&W 296 has a “Max bullet 200 grain” printed on the shroud.
