Smith question ?

D

dougraider55

Inactive
Hello, I just bought a smith Wesson 19-5, It's nickel and a 2 1/2 barell . I heard a story that says never use less than 158.grain in some smiths because it would crack the forcing cone. Does that mean my mine? Thanks for the help.
 
The K-Frame S&W's in .357 Magnum (Models 13, 19, 65, and 66) are known to sometimes crack their forcing cones if fed a steady diet of full-power Magnums with lightweight bullets (<140gr). If shooting Magnums from your gun, it would be best to stick with bullets of at least 140gr (158gr is standard weight for both .38 Special and .357 Magnum and thus is the most common heavyweight bullet in .357 Magnum). If you're shooting .38 Special or .38 Special +P, use whatever weight you like.
 
Yes, but it just means you should shoot the standard 158 gr bullet out of your gun ( a lot of us do that ) ... and we have model 19's that are coming up on 40 yrs old ...and many, many thousands or rounds thru them in .357 mag....with no damage...
 
To this day, it is not unusual to find K-Frame Smith & Wesson .357 magnums with badly eroded and/or cracked forcing cones. The barrels are no longer available from Smith & Wesson so should you choose to ignore this warning, you may very well turn your Model 19 into a paper weight unless you can find a used barrel or parts gun out there somewhere. Use standard 140 to 158 grain .357 ammo and you should be good to go. I personally would not use any heavy bullet such as 180 grain loads in any K-Frame Smith. This is why Smith and Wesson developed the L-Frame guns. The N-Frame Model 27's and 28's are even better for shooting that type of ammunition.

Bruce
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top