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aluminum.  there is a problem with all aluminum in that it has a finite endurance limit.  what this means is no matter how slight the repetitive stress, all aluminum will fail.  take for example valve springs on a car, these cycle once every two engine revolutions and considering the engine must last at least 100k miles at about 2500 revolutions per mile, that means  125 million cycles.  valve spring failure is very rare because they are designed for a stress well below the infinite limit which most steels have.  but aluminum has no infinite stress limit.



this part of the pistol is not only highly stressed, it is also subject to notching from the cylinder gap.  so most have a hard steel alloy shield.  if that fails, the aluminum will become eroded and this induces a stress concentration area.

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In this case, the frame is Titanium.
 

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I have a 329PD; I would like to know what happened to that revolver.

I know that the blast shield at the barrel/cylinder gap can fall out; if he kept shooting with it missing I can see it eating through the topstrap and causing this.

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I don't think you're correct about that.

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A newer S&W sending its barrel downrange. Like that's never happened before.

Typical S&W quality nowadays.

If you want a good DA revolver, buy vintage or buy Ruger.

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From S&W's Site "Smith & Wesson combined a Scandium alloy frame with a Titanium cylinder to build the strongest and lightest weight .44 Magnum revolver made."
They don't specify what the other component of the alloy is, but it would most likely be Aluminum.

After (admittedly, very little) research, mostly on wiki...it seems the most common use for Scandium is to add it to Aluminum for strength.

My 340SC, the older model, is a handful with .38 loads and is down right unpleasant to shoot with .357 loads. I would hazard to guess that the 329PD is absolutely unruly and painful to shoot.
Having said that....I'd love to have one.

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Given that it was an airweight, I have to wonder if he was able to tell the difference between a KB and a normal discharge

44 mag out of an airweight probably feels like a KB every shot

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S&W used to make basically perfect guns, the quality level was amazing. Right up until about 1995 or so.  

People need to understand this: the gun manufacturers have completely run out of innovations to get gun buyers excited enough to buy a new gun.  So they come up with "improvements" that look good on paper but are fucking retarded.

Like ultra-light magnum guns.  or lever guns that fire incredo-recoiling cartridges.   or regular commercial guns recycled into dorky tacticool mode.  or handguns that fire 50 bmg.

this airweight 44 mag is about the stoopidest idea i ever saw.  completely absurd waste of money.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-QNAwUdHUQ





Never miss an opportunity to post this.




 

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And, to top it all off, he even missed the bottle.




http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o266/razor11056/05.jpg

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 WIN!
 

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The outdoor range I worked at had holes in the roof, holes in the benches, even holes through a chair  (A shooter was at a bench, seated, shooting a snubby .38.  The guy to his left was shooting a .45 and one of the .45 empties went down the back of this guys' shirt.  The guy immediately reached back between his shoulderblades while still holding the .38.   He squeezed a round off and it missed giving him an ultimate back-scratching by about an inch.  Bullet went through the back of the folding metal chair he was sitting on and richocheted off the concrete deck, going up through a wooden range table and out through the sheet-metal roof.

The shooter said it was the ranges' fault, we had him too close to a guy shooting a semi-automatic, he tried to sue us, saying semi-auto's shouldn't be allowed cause hot brass could hurt someone.

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Wasn't this one built so the front wouldn't fall off?

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Scandium alloy frames are basically aluminum with extremely small amounts of scandium added to the alloy.

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While there is some truth in your post, the airweight 357s caught my interested because nothing else is as light & small, yet can pack as much punch as my 340PD.  The snubbies in 38 just can't muster the same power as the 357 - or even the 9mm.

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You're missing the part about "shootability" .

Recoil and muzzle blast are serious "issues" to deal with.

You have to consider what guns you can pass the "paper plate" test with 100% of the time.

A hit with a 38 is way better than a miss with a 357.

Nowadays, another factor is ammo cost.  If the ammo costs too much to practice with often the gun's usefulness is diminished greatly.

It's all about hitting the target, safety and reliability.  Everything else is secondary to those three things.

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Considering the real-world defensive ranges for shootings in and around this part of the country (typically 1 to 3 feet) and the large amount of practice I do at that range, I am confident with my gun choice.   If my life is REALLY on the line, it will not be about measuring group size.

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I took six guns and two brothers and one sister. Went through about 800 rounds of wolf 5.56, 300 rounds of Winchester .45, two or three hundred of .38 spl, some .22 long and .22 mags.



























UPDATED PICS FROM OWNER (there are more but photobucket is being weird)





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N.C. wants Smith & Wesson to replace faulty revolvers
RALEIGH, N.C.
The Associated Press Faced with problems ranging from misfires to barrels breaking off, the state has asked gun maker Smith & Wesson to replace hundreds of sidearms carried by probation and corrections officers.
None of the revolvers have failed in the line of duty, and for now, the department is keeping the guns in service. But in testing, about one in four revolvers didn't fire when the trigger was pulled. In some cases, the barrel of some models broke off when the gun was fired.
"In one sense it's funny," said Chief Deputy Correction Secretary Dan Stieneke. "In another, it's alarming."
So far, the state Correction Department has asked the Massachusetts-based gun maker to replace only 500 Model 64 revolvers bought in 2004, though there have also been problems with two other models. But officials could wind up asking Smith & Wesson to provide replacements for all 5,000 of the department's revolvers.
At a meeting last month at a shooting range in Smithfield, Smith & Wesson representative got a live demonstration of the problems. During test firing of about three dozen revolvers, four misfired, meaning nothing happened when the trigger was pulled. The barrel also broke off a different model when it was fired, something that has happened 14 times in practice firings since 2003.
"On the one hand, statistically (the revolvers' performance) is not bad, but it's just the safety issue," Stieneke said. "That kind of failure gets people's attention."
Officials at Springfield, Mass.-based Smith & Wesson, one of the world's largest gun makers, did not return repeated calls seeking comment.
For at least two decades, state prison officials have used Smith & Wesson revolvers. They are assigned to probation officers and correction officers who work outside of prison walls, patrolling perimeters and escorting inmates. The guns are not carried by officers who work inside prisons, where there is too great a risk of inmates getting a gun.
The guns cost about $320 each, meaning it would cost the state more than $1.5 million to replace them all. That doesn't include the cost of buying new ammunition, holsters and other accessories, plus retraining officers to use a new model of gun.
"We're at a point where if we have to make a quick switch, it's going to cost millions of dollars, and it's going to take a lot of training and effort to get back up to speed," Stieneke said.
Many law enforcement agencies have moved away from revolvers in recent years, switching to semiautomatic pistols, something Stieneke is considering.
___
Information from: The News & Observer,
Copyright 2006 - The Fayetteville (NC) Observer

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The front fail off.

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aluminum.  there is a problem with all aluminum in that it has a finite endurance limit.  what this means is no matter how slight the repetitive stress, all aluminum will fail.  take for example valve springs on a car, these cycle once every two engine revolutions and considering the engine must last at least 100k miles at about 2500 revolutions per mile, that means  125 million cycles.  valve spring failure is very rare because they are designed for a stress well below the infinite limit which most steels have.  but aluminum has no infinite stress limit.



this part of the pistol is not only highly stressed, it is also subject to notching from the cylinder gap.  so most have a hard steel alloy shield.  if that fails, the aluminum will become eroded and this induces a stress concentration area.

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This range is a members only range, and I feel MUCH more comfortable at this range than ANY other indoor range I have EVER been to. I've never seen any half-wits or hooligans or blatantly unsafe behavior at this range, which is extremely unusual at a public range. I don't go to public indoor ranges any more.  

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Fucking pussy.

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So, do you hate field stripping your Ruger 22 pistol as much as I do mine (22/45)?

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this airweight 44 mag is about the stoopidest idea i ever saw.  completely absurd waste of money.

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Dude, it's an almost perfect pistol for hiking in bear country. My bro lives in Seattle and just got one for just that reason. It's replacing a Ruger Super Blackhawk and he says the weight difference was immediately noticeable on his last hike.

I did advise him to NOT use the Corbon 325gn hard cast rounds I got him. It's CLEARLY marked on them "For Ruger Pistols Only"

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I am going to say Flame Cutting killed that revolver..

this airweight 44 mag is about the stoopidest idea i ever saw. completely absurd waste of money.

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aluminum.  there is a problem with all aluminum in that it has a finite endurance limit.  what this means is no matter how slight the repetitive stress, all aluminum will fail.  take for example valve springs on a car, these cycle once every two engine revolutions and considering the engine must last at least 100k miles at about 2500 revolutions per mile, that means  125 million cycles.  valve spring failure is very rare because they are designed for a stress well below the infinite limit which most steels have.  but aluminum has no infinite stress limit.

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Any idea as to what caused the .44 to KB?