S&W 1854 44 Magnum Quality

[pcmacd]

I'm a dealer. I just received two of the above rifles. Dealer cost was $1031 per each plus $10 shipping for both (how dey do dat so cheap?)

They are beautiful rifles. Truly works of art on the outside.

• And the barrels look like sewer pipe with my $70 Teslong USB camera?

I'm not talking about the extraordinary amount of copper in the bore from test firing?

I mean, how many shots? Five? And the barrel looks like a copper mine?

I am talking about lands that look like they were cut with a tap. On both rifles.

These suckers would benefit from some serious fire lapping?

• I don't care if I blast a few tenths off the bore diameter, as I will be shooting cast lead which will buck up to the bore size.

• The one I am keeping for me will SURELY get that treatment using the NECO kit with jacketed bullets.

Even yet, the model they shot on the latest Gun Tests issue got significantly tighter groups than did the new Marlin/Ruger in 44 mag.

I have no clue why I got three copies of the same image here. These images are one of the rifles "as received" around 14" to 16" from the muzzle - no work was done inside the barrel before the photos.

I mean, dude? These barrels are BUT UGLY INSIDE!!!! :

[Walt]

A couple of years ago I ordered a Rem/Marlin that looked worse than that. I boxed it back up without firing it and sent it back and they returned it after replacing the barrel. Good luck with yours!

[CowboyTutt]

Well, while the receiver on those rifles look OK, I find the checkering butt ugly and don't see myself ever buying one. That is certainly some horrible rifling though.
-Tutt

[GunnyMack]

Looks like a good candidate for fire lapping .
Certainly a lot of chatter when that bore was rifled.
If it were me I'd send those pictures off to S&W, though I'm sure they know all about it. Never know, they might want it back to investigate it and or replace it for ya... ya know squeaky wheel and all that.

My Henry was a fouling machine, lots of elbow grease, JB Bore paste now its slick and shoots quite well.

[Bill in Oregon]

Frankly, I am shocked.

[elmo123]

The last new S&W revolver I purchased was a Model 69 back in 2014 when they first came out. The first thing I noticed was the grooves on the top strap were off center enough to make it appear the the barrel wasn't clocked correctly. I sent S&W a picture and was told that it was just cosmetic and they wouldn't replace the revolver.

When I was a police armorer I saw new 686's that were so far out of time that they wouldn't carry up enough to correctly align with the barrel. One had a loose barrel that hadn't been torqued at all you could simply unscrew it by hand.

Lets face it S&W quality has been spotty at best over the years depending on who owned it at the time.

[.45colt]

Thanks for the post and pictures.....maybe S&W needs to send there stuff to South America for quality control. .