Not trying to be snippy, just trying to understand the nature of how these blemishes are occuring.
No problem, you aren't being snippy -- perfectly legit questions.
This gun has been either in its original factory blue plastic box, or on a gun rug at the firing line. No place else. It has been fired about 150 times, with low power LRN .38 factory ammunition.
The wear is as follows (don't have a digital camera, or I would post some photos -- that is the next thing I need, after all of my gun expenses are taken care of -- snork, giggle, sorry!
)
The pin that protrudes from the middle of the extraction star is wearing a DEEP grove on the recoil sheild. While it is standard on revolvers that I have to have this wear pattern, I have never seen a groove that is so deep you could hide a gecko in there!
In addition, the recoil sheild has several small dents and dings in it, just from being fired on a normal range, nothing extreme going on here. There is also wear developing around the cylinder release. It seems to me that the alloy used on the frame of this item is very soft. And of course the spray on finish is coming off in great flakes and chunks (cleaned with CLP and Hoppes by the way.)
In short, wear that in my opinion (40 years as a gun nut) is WAY overboard for a new gun with 150 easy range rounds through it.
*shrug* I guess I have a different set of priorities than you guys do, and i don't really care if the finish on my guns wears.
Well you are certainly right -- our priorities are very different -- but this is OK, makes life interesting, yes?
I'm not sure what you expect out of your 637, though. ALuminum framed guns are harder to shoot and are less scratch resistant than steel. it seems like you bought the wrong gun for your purposes.
Yesterday 08:36 PM
My thought was "Hey great, a J-Frame Airweight. Everyone says they are great as a deep concealment/backup gun. I have a bunch of stuff from S&W and everything I have purchased from them has been top-quality goods. At this low price, it is worth it to me to have this revolver for maybe pocket carry or some other method of deep concealment when i can't hide my usual items."
In my admittedly extremely limited experience with this ONE example of the 637, it is a miserable failure for this mission which I THOUGHT was its only reason for existence.
Anyway, we have beaten this horse into submission. Lots of people obviously like the 637, some people defend it even if they don't have one, some people have had similar experiences to me. I would just tell anyone out there in a market to fill the .38 special bug gun niche, maybe you should look at something besides the S&W 637. Like maybe an all steel frame S&W J-frame (my next stop, I think!)
