I recently purchased a S&W 442 (no lock), my first revolver, and took it to the range yesterday for the first time. After reading a few things concerning helping the trigger pull the general consensus seems to be lots of dry firing. I pulled the trigger a few hundred times with snap caps and without hoping this would help smooth out the trigger pull.
Range day came and I was pulling the trigger on my M&P in one lane and my buddy asked me to try out the 442 on the lane next to me. He squeezed off the first 5 rounds, his first time firing a snubbie, and couldn’t hit a thing from 5 yards. After reloading he got the first 2 shots off and after that the pistol would not discharge after repeatedly pulling the trigger. I swapped the rounds in the cylinder and this did nothing to help. The cylinder still rotates and I can see & feel the hammer poking through with my finger while the cylinder is open but it’s hitting very softly.
I’ve contacted S&W and they’re sending a return slip but I was wondering if there’s anything I can check between now & then. The bitch of it is that I’m going to Louisville next week and planned on dropping it off at Superior Firearms to have them work their magic on it and now I need to send it to S&W first. :mad:
Should I bother sending it to S&W then? How much will this additional work cost? I could drop it off on the 3rd in the afternoon and I’ll be leaving on the 6th, will this provide enough time for you to do your work? I certainly wouldn’t want to rush you but being in Louisville would save a lot of hassles with shipping to you some other time.
Your S&W package looks great for me, minus the hammer bob, but I’m not sure what’s involved in the re-contour trigger, please explain.
On the list: Mainspring strength/integrity, FP protrusion. Did you open the cover plate to see if there’s anything obviously amiss? Any resistance in the trigger pull? Other than perception of smoothness, did any other quality of the trigger pull change since you started dry fire? Ammo seems to have been ruled out.
Nope, I know squat about revolvers and was looking for advice before I just dive in. I guess I could always take it apart and check things out. I’ll probably end up at Superior with a box of parts and a stupid grin
I haven’t opened anything yet. No resistance in trigger pull and cylinder rotates as it should. FP is protruding. Haven’t noticed anything different in trigger feel.
I’m comfortable with it but I don’t want to “break the seal” in case it has to go back to S&W for warranty work. Waiting on Mr. Smith to give me a price on fixing this problem in addition to their package they offer before I make up my mind. I appreciate the offer though, thanks!
I had the firing pin break on mine. It was just like you described, I was shooting and then suddenly started getting clicks instead of bangs. If you’re not familiar with revolvers then I think you would be better off living it alone. Let S&W or Superior Firearms take care of it.
I’m sure Mr. Smith will get you taken care of and I hope to get some of his work done in the near future following a move. However, to address the initial question, I’ve read reports of too short firing pins (can’t recall if it was on this forum) on the 442/642 series contributing to light strikes. Not sure why S&W did this, but apparently it was an issue. If you didn’t break the pin, this might play some role…
Here are a few links from the S&W forum on the short pins. I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for, but seems Smith made the pins short due to the California drop tests and this compromised reliability on some particular examples.
I recently purchased one of the no-lock 442’s (from Express Police Supply) for a backup weapon and this really concerns me (and I don’t live in the PRK). :mad:
Yours sounds like exactly what happened to mine with less than 10 rounds down range.