S&W safety & MIM

[Tatume]

Hello Folks,

Although I agree that the S&W safety lock looks bad and serves no purpose to the owner, it has never caused any problems on my guns. This is unlike the Colt Series 80 trigger safety, which degraded trigger pull characteristics. Among my personally-owned S&W revolvers, and on all of the revolvers owned by my friends, we have yet to see a malfunction attributable to the safety mechanism. My first question is: have any of you personally witnessed a failure or problem due to the safety?

Again, among my revolvers and those of my friends, we have never witnessed a failure of an MIM part. The second question is obvious, have any of you personally witnessed a failure due to the MIM process?

Thanks, Tom

[imashooter2]

No, and I shoot USPSA revolver and ICORE so I have a fair exposure.

[Hickory]

MIM parts are not new to manufacturing process.
Thompson Center were making parts (MIM) for their Contenders back in the 70's.
Those who oppose new technology are behind the times.

As to the holes in the side of the S&W revolvers, every time I look
at that hole I feel Bill Clinton sticking his thumb in the eye of the American people.

[PbHurler]

As to the holes in the side of the S&W revolvers, every time I look
at that hole I feel Bill Clinton sticking his thumb in the eye of the American people.

Agreed 1000%

As to the original question; I've never had any issues with the one piece that I have, with the lock "upgrade". :roll:

[FergusonTO35]

Should I ever own a gun equipped with the lock it will be removed or deactivated. In my mind these locks are completely pointless from a safety standpoint. The gun should be stored in an inaccessible place, preferably locked, well away from the ammo. The lock won't prevent the gun from getting stolen nor does it preclude the owner storing the gun with ammo or even loaded.

[KCSO]

Never heard of one breaking never saw one broke but I wouldn't have a gun with a lock safety as I feel every extra unecessary part it a POSSIBLE liability.

[Jupiter7]

The only accounts I've read of lock failure were in the airweight j frames in .357mag, shooting hottest of the hot loads. And those accounts are many years old now. I don't own any lock smiths, it's a fashion issue for me. At least Ruger got smart and hid theirs under the grips.

[historicfirearms]

The first lock gun I bought, I just had to deactivate the thing. I've since owned a few more and left the locks intact. There are more important things for me to worry about than a dumb lock that will never get used or cause a problem.

[MtGun44]

A skilled and experienced S&W gunsmith that I know tells me that the MIMed parts in S&W revolvers
are the best made and most consistent parts S&W has EVER made, require much less fitting, often/usually
are drop in parts. I personally am not too fond of the mold lines on them, but I do know that S&W
revolvers now are far more likely to have a good to excellent trigger pull out of the box than they
were 30 years ago.

Bill

[bones37]

I know this thread is referring to MIM in S&W revolvers, but I had a MIM sear crack in a Series 80 Colt Gov't model that I purchased brand new circa 2005. Instead of sending it back to Colt, I replaced it along with the other MIM parts, and kept the cracked one as proof. As for S&W MIM, I have two revolvers that have it, and neither has ever had any problems. I just ignore the locks, er I try to ignore them anyhow.

Bones.

[Clay M]

I like the dumb warning on Rugers even less.

[MtGun44]

My Kimber Custom Classic has at least 20,000 rounds thru it and probably closer to
30,000 since I bought it in the late 90s. I put a 2 lb trigger on it when I got it and it
is still perfect and 2 lbs today. The gun overall is slicked up from honest wear, but other
than that has never given a moment's trouble. Dead reliable and pretty decent on
accuracy for a "run of the mill" 1911, about 2.5" with IPSC grade (commercial H&G 68
and mixed brass) ammo at 25 yds. It will do better with my boolits and matched
brass.

So - while I have no doubt that some MIM parts are not up to snuff - I can assure you
that a lot of them are absolutely first rate parts. All Kimber internals have ALWAYS
been MIM.

Bill

[HATCH]

I removed the lock on my 686 in about 5 mins.
My thought on s&w locks is that i don't use it, will never use it and I would rather remove it then take that 1% chance that the lock will fail (lock)
In fact until recently I never owned nor did I intend to own a S&W revolver that had a lock in it.
I got tricked into owning one when a gunbroker seller edited a picture (imho). It clearly didn't show a lock and yes if I researched then I would of know a -6 meant it had a lock but never thought about it.

[km101]

Never heard of one breaking never saw one broke but I wouldn't have a gun with a lock safety as I feel every extra unecessary part it a POSSIBLE liability.

My sentiments exactly! I don't have anything against MIM parts (Ruger & Kimber have been using them for years) but I will NOT own a S&W with a keyhole! Smith took a knee to the Clinton admin. and put in the keyholes to curry favor and get a government contract. I have always felt that they sold out and told them so at the time. I did not think they were necessary or useful at the time, and nothing since has changed my mind.