I have mixed feelings on 2 piece barrels. I currently only have 1 revolver with a sleeved barrel. An S&W 327 Night Guard. It’s my favorite handgun.
I
had a S&W model 60 Pro. A J frame 5-shot .357 Magnum. I really liked that gun. When I first bought it the gun was accurate as all get out with 158 grain .357 Magnum loads (quite invigorating to fire) and with many .38 Spl SD loads.
Then one day the accuracy changed. All of a sudden it was shooting 3” to the right at 10 yards. I shifted the rear sight then it happened again. I maxed the rear sight windage adjustment out and as I was rested the barrel of the gun on the edge of the bench I saw the problem.
The barrel shroud had turned moving the front sight to the left!
I was pretty upset at this new discovery. I called S&W and sent the gun in.
Long story short it went to S&W 4 times for the same thing. The last time it went I received it back from the “Performance Center” with a note and a fake target that definitely was not shot with my gun stating that the gun is repaired and shoots within specs and not to send the gun back in again as they will no longer honor the warranty on it.
A .38 bullet would not poke through the holes in the “test target” they sent back. That target was probably shot with a .32.
I tested the gun out and sold it with full disclosure on the issues I had with it.
Will I ever buy another Smith & Wesson with a two piece barrel? Probably not.
Will I ever buy a Performance Center gun from them? No!
Note: I was told that any PC gun returned to S&W is repaired by the PC tech that built it. I am guessing the guy in the Performance Center that received my gun had his standing there impacted by my gun returning on 4 different occasions, hence the snotty note never to send it back.
I will also say that I had my heart set on and even set money aside for a 327 TRR8 until I found out it had a sleeved barrel.
I currently have a 50% failure rate with S&W sleeved barrels. I am not willing to make it a 66% percent failure rate.
I did buy another new S&W revolver after that. A 25-15 and it’s a fantastic shooter and totally reliable. I have zero complaints on that revolver.