one eye joe

I just read on the S&W Forum, an allegation that S&W brings gunsmiths in from the outside to build their new guns. They get paid a "piece-work" rate--ie--per gun that they build. The faster they throw them together, the more they make. I find this quite disturbing. Does anyone here know if this is actually true ? ?

Sarge405

While I knew several of their smiths back in the day sadly I don't now. However, I would tend not to believe Internet rumor.

In my heyday they were the best professional smithies money could buy.

dfariswheel

S&W uses S&W employees to assemble their guns.
You don't use contractors to build firearms for civilians and police use.
They also don't do piece work. That doesn't fit with advanced mechanical assembly work.

You have to learn to take these kinds of rumors with a large block of salt.
You'll hear all kinds of wild claims about gun makers, but if you just think about them for a moment you'll realize how silly they sound on their face.

one eye joe

Thanks for dispelling this false allegation, dfariswheel..........

Wild Bill Caldwell

Joe...Years back I took Summer gunsmithin' classes at Tishamingo Ok, Murray State College.....Dean of gunssmithin' was Dean Arnold , Dean was a proterjay of Bob Dunlap an a good HAND...This question came up in class , Arnolds' answer was the pistols were assembled by S&W workers with an inspector at the end of the line that said "Pass" or "Failed"....Problem was As a Hand learned what the inspectors hang up was , might be timein' for instance , They spent more time on what might get the pistol failed the quickest instead of everything bein' right as They could get it.....and They did have to do so many in a shift....I don't know ...I've never been to S&W....I've got a 29 from the early 80s that I went over...A model 19 from late 50s that was great from the day it left the factory

Wild Bill

one eye joe

Wild Bill, that sounds like a kid in school studyin' the professor instead of the subject material. NOT a good way to learn. Since Colt quit makin' the Python and Dan Wesson folded, IMHO S&W makes the finest DA revolvers available. It appears that their quality, while still the best, has diminished somewhat in recent years. I assume this is due to cost cutting, less hand fitting, etc. The older the gun, it seems the better it is. NRA Gunsmithing courses @ MSC had an excellent reputation. You must have learned a great deal..........