357 fits in a j frame 38 Spl +P

I know being on hold sucks, but I'd give them another call just to find out what exactly is going on with your Airweight. Let us know what they tell you when you eventually get a hold of someone.

Wise choice not shooting .357s in it by the way... A hand is a terrible thing to waste.
 
arentol - Here is probably one way to fake the shot. I've got a few 38 S&W loaded rounds laying around that I probably could have used for the 38 Special in that shot to fake it! (The 38 S&W won't fit)

I'll be on hold early morning on Monday with S&W. More than likely I'll have to send it in as replacing the cylinder is not a DIY project. Luckily not the end of the world as I've got to go out of the US for the next two weeks. Maybe they'll do a trigger job for my troubles. Can't hurt to ask :D
 
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If he calls today, he'll be on hold a looonnnggg time...

They won't start answering the phones at all till Monday Morning...

By Telephone:
1-800-331-0852 (USA)
Mon-Fri 8:00AM-8:00PM Eastern Time

1-413-781-8300 (International)
Mon-Fri 8:00AM-5:00PM Eastern Time

ADDING:

You beat me to it MW surveyor!

Should have refreshed after I read the thread...
 
"Could it be some over crimped 357 ammo?"

Nope. Tried some of my re-sized and de-primed 357 cases. They fit perfectly into the cylinders. Also, used three different manufactures 357s. All fit perfectly.
 
So, someone may have run the wrong reamer into the cylinder. It was a common practice in the day to do to 38/44's to make them into 357 Magnums.

If the gun is new to you, I would probably contact S&W about it but if it is used, i would just live with it and shoot it.

Remember the safety is between the ears, not built into the gun. Don't stick 357magnum ammo into a gun marked 38 special.
 
bossman, what jhenry said.

A photo that let you see the rim from the side, with no bullet sticking out the end of the cylinder, would not let you see the headstamp.

At which point, the Show-Me would say "How do I know that isn't a .38 in the cylinder?"

Edit: The later photo, from the front, showing the .357 next to the .38 was actually a pretty good idea... what I get for not noticing that whole "page 2" thing...

The photos the OP has provided seem pretty conclusive.
 
If the gun is new to you, I would probably contact S&W about it but if it is used, i would just live with it and shoot it.
Click to expand...

Even if the gun in question was bought used, I have no doubt that, given the potential safety issue involved should .357 Magnum ammo actually be fired, that S&W will still rectify the issue if it is as the OP describes. The gun in question appears to be a relatively new model since the MIM trigger and internal lock are visible in the OP's photos so I don't see any reason that they could not simply fit a new cylinder.
 
Regardless of all the blather, or arguments to the contrary.....what you have is a cylinder with chambers machined for .357 Mag cartridges.....period. Whether this is a .357 Mag cylinder, proofed for such....or whether it is a 38 Spl cylinder, mistakenly drilled for 357 and installed in your gun....only S&W can answer. But one way or another, the fact that 357 loads (or even brass) do chamber proves that the chambers were cut for .357 Mag. Obviously.

Hopefully, it will turn out that you have an actual Mag. cylinder. No problem, really, either way, except for one thing. If the cylinder is NOT to be replaced, then you should use .357 cases for your loads for this gun (even if loading ordinary 38 Spl loads). The reason, if you are not already aware of this, is that shorter 38 Spl cases will cause the bullets to have a much longer "jump" before being guided by the necked-down areas in the front of the chambers. Thus, accuracy may suffer. As well, more gas-cutting and wear to the chambers will result from using short brass.

Note: I am NOT saying that the gun will give problems, or not work....with shorter 38 Spl brass....ONLY that wear will be accelerated and you MIGHT have reduced accuracy. Best practice is brass that fits the chambers, in all circumstances. Thus, 357 Mag brass for this gun (with this particular cylinder).

I agree that, notwithstanding the technical points, this COULD present a safety issue with confusing magnum loads for non-magnum. That is solvable, however, by careful practices.
 
Hopefully, it will turn out that you have an actual Mag. cylinder. No problem, really, either way, except for one thing. If the cylinder is NOT to be replaced, then you should use .357 cases for your loads for this gun (even if loading ordinary 38 Spl loads). The reason, if you are not already aware of this, is that shorter 38 Spl cases will cause the bullets to have a much longer "jump" before being guided by the necked-down areas in the front of the chambers. Thus, accuracy may suffer. As well, more gas-cutting and wear to the chambers will result from using short brass.
Click to expand...

Even if the cylinder is heat treated for .357 Magnum ammunition, only .38 Special or .38 Special +P should be fired in this particular gun due to its aluminum alloy frame. Neither S&W nor any other revolver manufacturer that I am aware of has ever produced a .357 Magnum revolver with an aluminum frame because frame stretching and excessive flame cutting of the topstrap would occur in short order. The only way to make aluminum strong enough for the frame of a .357 Magnum revolver is to alloy it with exotic metal such as scandium as S&W does with their lightweight magnum models. The bottom line is that even though the gun may chamber and cycle .357 Magnum cartridges, it is only safe to fire with .38 Special cartridges and, even if the OP knows this, it should still be sent back to S&W for repair so that they can be aware of the issue and prevent it from happening again and so that any future owner of the gun who may not be as well informed as the OP does not attempt to fire .357 Magnum ammunition in it.

Also, the only problem caused by shooting .38 Special ammunition in a .357 Magnum chamber is that accuracy and velocity may be reduced slightly due to the jump from the case mouth to the chamber throats and that carbon deposits will be left further back in the chambers which, if not cleaned out, could eventually make chambering and extraction of .357 Magnum cases difficult. Firing even copious amounts of .38 Special ammunition in a .357 Magnum chamber will not permanently damage the gun in any way.
 
Gentlemen,

As I've said before, the gun was bought new last week and I have emailed S&W with regard to my 638 being able to chamber and rotate the 357 magnum rounds. I have not heard back from them on this at the present time.

I will be calling them first thing tomorrow morning and ask them to fix the gun on their nickle. I do not want to have a pistol that clearly is made for a 38 Special with a cylinder that will chamber and shoot a 357.
 
One good thing:

MW Surveyor,

One good thing that came out of all this confusion and disbelief is that you are now are able to vett all your narrative descriptions that you will read off to S&W customer service.

The folks at CS who first answer your call will probably require the same amount of explanation and convincing we here on TFL required.

Now that you have practiced on us (and perhaps even written a script to read on the phone), your experience with S&W CS will go much smoother.

Good luck,

Lost Sheep

p.s. Thanks for the kind words. I sometimes wonder if my comments are worth their bandwidth.
 
Lost Sheep

Indeed, the amount of convincing here that it took, plus my editing of my first and second posts made me realize that I was not getting my point across to everyone. I'm very used to writing reports that have to go into great detail and also realize that in the majority of the questions that are asked, the answers are within the report.

If I ever have a problem like this again......short and sweet with photos illustrating the problem right off the bat. :) Sort of like an executive summary (only shorter)

p.s. your posts on using a Lee turret press convinced me to buy one when I was looking to up my pistol round output from the single stage press that I was using. Had I known at the time that I bought the single stage about the advantages of the turret, I would have gone with the turret first! However, still use the single stage mainly for the loading of the 357 rounds as I measure each charge and don't like to use the auto powder drop with the loads that I use.
 
Sounds like S&W fitted a .357 cylinder on a .38 Special...hard to imagine how, but I have no knowledge of S&W's production line procedures. Aside from the length of the individual cylinder chamber holes, I doubt there is a difference in frame openings between S&W's various J frames. Rod
 
Even if the cylinder is heat treated for .357 Magnum ammunition, only .38 Special or .38 Special +P should be fired in this particular gun due to its aluminum alloy frame. Neither S&W nor any other revolver manufacturer that I am aware of has ever produced a .357 Magnum revolver with an aluminum frame because frame stretching and excessive flame cutting of the topstrap would occur in short order
Click to expand...

Hey Webely,
He meant that the OP should handload (reload) his 38 special loads in 357 cases. NOT shoot actual 357 magnum loads in the revolver. You can reload 357 cases with 38spl charges, lots of folks do it.
 
Sounds like S&W fitted a .357 cylinder on a .38 Special...
Click to expand...

Or,,,
and this is where I would place my bet,,,
They simply mis-stamped a .357 as a .38 Special,,,
Or,,,
Mounted a .38 Special barrel on a .357 cylinder/frame.

Who knows though,,,
S&W will figure it out.

Aarond
 
Update

Contacted S&W at 0805 and they said to send it in and they will take a look at it. Guess if you call early, you can get right through with minimal holding time. :) No other comments from S&W over the telephone.

I'll be out of the U.S. for the next three weeks so I'm going to have my LGS where I bought the gun send it back. Don't want the gun being returned with no one to receive it. SHMBO has plans to go to visit the grand kids.

Who knows (the Shadow do*) what they did. My bet is that they put a 357 cylinder on the 38 +P. This gun is way too light to fire a 357 out of without some serious recoil.

Will of course update this forum when the gun gets back.

*this for all you old enough to remember the radio programs :eek:
 
There is a guy on some of the boards who got a six shot S&W with seven flutes in the cylinder, leading to some very thin chamber walls. They are of course replacing his cylinder, although he complained that they did not want to leave him the oddball for a paperweight.

Seems they are not as careful about such stuff as they should be.
 
My bet is that they put a 357 cylinder on the 38 +P.
Click to expand...

I think this is the case. One other poster seemed to think that the external dimensions of the cylinders are different for .38spl and .357, but that is not the case on S&W revolvers. AFAIK, the main differences are the heat treatment of the cylinder and the reaming. Either yours is a .357 cylinder that got tossed in the wrong bin or it's a .38spl cylinder somebody reamed out improperly.

It would likely not be an issue so long as you only shot .38spl, but as it's a new gun, I think it's right to send it back to S&W and let them do it right. It's obviously something that made it past quality control, and they probably need to know if they're letting .38s go out chambered in .357. Some idiot out there would likely try it with a full house .357 load and blow the thing up.
 
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