S&W 929 Performance Center

[tek4260]

A friend of mine was pretty excited to get his new 929 in from Buds the other day. He was pretty disheartened when he got home and started going over it. He had asked me if I thought my Brownells 11deg crowning tool could be used to fix the crown, but has decided to contact Smith about getting a return label since he noticed several rough places and that the cylinder binds pretty bad on one chamber. And of course, since his luck seems to run about like mine, the barrel is canted.

Why in the world would Smith even let this get out of the factory, much less the Performance Center?

Have all the craftsmen that used to work at Smith and Ruger retired, and all that is left is the plastic pistol and rebranded Anderson AR assemblers?

[JSilva]

Sorry to see your gun ain't what it supposed to be.
That crown sure is buggered up.
I'm sure smith will fix it pronto for you

I'd be curious to know what your groove to groove looks like.
I'm at .358 and so is a buddy of mine.
Keep us updated, I sure am curious

[tek4260]

This one belongs to a friend and I'm pretty sure that he'll ship it back before I get a chance to slug the bore and throats.

Sad to say, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they just used a 38 caliber barrel, rather than a proper 9mm barrel for these revolvers.

[bradshaw]

“... pretty excited to get his new 929...” ----tek4260





*****

Please do all of us a favor and measure groove diameter of the S&W M-929 9mm revolver. Measure twist also, which should be faster for the 9mm than a .38/.357.

Normally, one barks up the wrong tree to accuse the CROWN when a revolver is inaccurate. However, the crown in the photos is pathetic. The buggering has a mysterious melted look. An abomination by any reckoning. Nevertheless, if the groove is oversize for the bullet, the bullet is in trouble. In which case the crown just adds a further curse.

Note: it would be good to sandbag the revolver at the longest distance at which it is intended to be shot. Say, 25 and 50 yards with good ammunition. Keep targets. Then, by all means send it back. Please report to the Peanut Gallery upon its return.
David Bradshaw

[JSilva]

I can't speak for all 929's out there but mine is definitely a bit large for 9mm .
.358 groove to groove and .3581 to .3583 throats.

I cast a 147 grain bullet from an Accurate mold sized right at .358 and can get laser-like results.
I tested some 65 grain frangible ammo out of my 929 yesterday and achieved a full 200 extra fps over the advertised velocity.
1726 avg velocity from a 9mm revolver. Pretty darned screaming if you ask me.
I need the get another set of N frame blocks to chuck mine into my Ransom Rest for some non subjective accuracy testing.
I'll post some pictures eventually. Photobucket is not my friend.

[seancass]

Review of my 929.
singleactions.proboards.com/thread/14380/smith-wesson-929-shot-9mm

It really was garbage out of the box, but apparently I got lucky!

A few thousand rounds and a full action job later, she runs alright!