Posted on 03/19/2006 8:10:48 AM PST by Copernicus
I am a believer in head shots.
Even a .45 head shot might not stop someone. There are at least two documented cases where the slug was deflected by a forehead or cheekbone.
I'll take my chances. Cases of bone deflecting a .45 slug are very rare. If it deflects a .45, what chance does a 9mm have?
More, if the 9mm has more rounds - certainly a lot more than just 6 rounds of .38.
My point is that you cannot rely on one-shot-stops with a handgun.
Possibly.
Looks to me like a weak design.
Is that barrel made of 2 pieces, with an inner and outer sleeve? That looks inadequate for something that must contain pressures on the order of 20,000 to 30,000 psi.
Smiths have always looked flimsy to me. Probably a result of them trying to make them as light as possible.
This is pre 2-piece barrel design.
Perhaps the officers are on a campaign of S&W destruction to convince management to replace the slow, antiquated wheel guns with modern Glocks?Ha ha, could be. I used to hear the "they don't jam" argument in favor of revolvers, but when you read things like this it sort of makes that a moot point.
I have had S&W revolvers for years, but now my model 66 cylinder locked. It appears that the ejector rod unscrewed itself enough to do it. I will have to get a gunsmith to look at it.
That's not a new problem; I don't think it applies to either older or new S&W but I remember a period (late 70's/early 80's?) when it was common, along with really rancid cylinder to forcing cone gap and alignment.
My mdl 66 is over 30 years old.
They've gone through a couple (!) of policy/quality changes in the past few years.
At least Colt stayed relatively consistent in the arrogance challenge.
(NOTE: 'arrogance' does not imply justification.)
I dropped the mdl 66 off at the gunsmith. Apparently the bolt plunger spring and plunger got loose and when I removed the grips to take a look at the frame the parts must have dropped somewhere. Anyway the smithy said the parts are 30 bucks plus labor, about 70 bucks total. So it is not the extractor rod but the thumpiece that would not slide forward to release the cylinder.
But cheap is nice.
Get a copy of Kuhnhausen's S&W Shop Manual from Brownells, plus some gunsmithing screwdrivers and you'll be able to do most work under the sideplate yourself.
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