Barrel wiggle in S&W 340PD?
- Thread starter Tse Gee La
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Oh I have ... I have ... 
I will admit that the scam-de-um/titanium combo's don't turn me on, and if you check some of the past threads in the search feature you'll find that they have earned a certain reputation ...
Aluminum, by what ever name, is a relatively soft material, and the threads on the barrel are mighty fine (36 tpi I believe). If the barrel tube is tightened too much the threads can strip. If not tight enough the tube can come loose.
So occasionally a barrel has been known to go downrage along with the bullet.
This is not common of course, but when it comes to weapons the Old Fuff is ultra-conservative, and his opinions are based on long experience.
Of course they have made "a few" good guns since 1945, and I own some of them ... but they also made a whole bunch of better ones before that. Cuz back then the companies weren't run by bean-counters.
Way back, during the 17th century and later, a type of single shot pistol was made called a "screw barrel," Rather then load it from the muzzle the barrel was unscrewed, a ball placed in a chamber, a powder charge poured on top of it, and the barrel screwed back into place. Some even used a wrench that grabbed onto the rifling, but it was a lot deeper cut then that seen on today's S&W revolvers. I have on occasion tried to unscrew one of those old pistol barrels without hurting the rifling ...
And I can tell you it is a bit tricky ...
So I'm not too sure S&W is using the rifling to screw in the barrels, but who knows ...? Maybe someone who knows more then I do will come along and enlighten us both ..
I will admit that the scam-de-um/titanium combo's don't turn me on, and if you check some of the past threads in the search feature you'll find that they have earned a certain reputation ...
Aluminum, by what ever name, is a relatively soft material, and the threads on the barrel are mighty fine (36 tpi I believe). If the barrel tube is tightened too much the threads can strip. If not tight enough the tube can come loose.
So occasionally a barrel has been known to go downrage along with the bullet.
This is not common of course, but when it comes to weapons the Old Fuff is ultra-conservative, and his opinions are based on long experience.
Of course they have made "a few"
good guns since 1945, and I own some of them ... but they also made a whole bunch of better ones before that. Cuz back then the companies weren't run by bean-counters.Way back, during the 17th century and later, a type of single shot pistol was made called a "screw barrel," Rather then load it from the muzzle the barrel was unscrewed, a ball placed in a chamber, a powder charge poured on top of it, and the barrel screwed back into place. Some even used a wrench that grabbed onto the rifling, but it was a lot deeper cut then that seen on today's S&W revolvers. I have on occasion tried to unscrew one of those old pistol barrels without hurting the rifling ...
And I can tell you it is a bit tricky ...
So I'm not too sure S&W is using the rifling to screw in the barrels, but who knows ...? Maybe someone who knows more then I do will come along and enlighten us both ..
BluesBear
member
¿¿Rifling wrench??
I suspect somebody's pullin' your leg.
Aren't the new style S&W barrels similar to the Dan Wesson method?
The few new S&Ws I have seen all work this way.
The barrel is screwed into the frame and then the barrel shroud is installed over it and tightened from the muzzle?
That's the whole purpose of the dual tension setup.
There's no way you can wrench a barrel from the rifling without buggering it or the crown. And doing either will ruin your accuracy.
And on a long barrel that'd be a great way to twist or warp it.
I suspect somebody's pullin' your leg.
Aren't the new style S&W barrels similar to the Dan Wesson method?
The few new S&Ws I have seen all work this way.
The barrel is screwed into the frame and then the barrel shroud is installed over it and tightened from the muzzle?
That's the whole purpose of the dual tension setup.
There's no way you can wrench a barrel from the rifling without buggering it or the crown. And doing either will ruin your accuracy.
And on a long barrel that'd be a great way to twist or warp it.
I don't know about this particular model, but S&W does use a "rifling wrench" for some of their revolvers.
Here's an article that mentions them.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQY/is_2_51/ai_n8591506
There's a REALLY bad picture of one in this document in Figure 17.
http://customersupport.smith-wesson.com/userimages/Revolver.pdf
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