Attention: TDR Forum Junkies Went last Friday to the S&W factory and had a 2 hour tour. It was pretty impressive, got to see how the guns are made, the forging of the frames how the cut the cylinders for the revolvers from bar stock, ect. They only have two engravers in the factory, at the time they were engraving two 1911s, the engraving took over 80 man hours each, two weeks!, the guns were going to be sold on the S&W site for over $10k each.
The second best part of the trip was getting to go into the performance center, it is a separate building were they make the performance center guns. I had always thought PC guns were regular guns that they just went over a little bit and cleaned up the action or put special finishes on, turns out the PC take the raw forgings and finishes the guns, often making the action different, for instance in the 945-1 the PC model does not drop the barrel until the slide has come back about 1/4", this make the gun more accurate, the also hand lap the slide to the frame, pretty impressive time consuming stuff. Most of the barrels on the PC guns come from Walther, S&W is the sole distributor for Walther so all the Walther guns have to come through the S&W factory.
The final assembly area is all caged off with armed guards, per the ATF, we did not get to see inside that area. S&W test fires every gun, in most cases half of the guns capacity, there are people who's job is test firing guns, all day long all they do is load and fire guns, must get to be pretty good shots.
The best part of the trip was the factory store and range, we shot a variety of 1911s, PC models, regular models and one with the Crimson trace in the stock. I got to try the Scandium 357 as well, 12 ounces and a 1 7/8" barrel make for a lot of recoil and a lot of flash, real nice gun, super compact and very light. We tested the new 500 as well, they do not shoot that at the regular range in the factory store, they took us to one of four underground 100 yard ranges, the walls are 15' solid concrete on all four sides. They use the ranges for training police and military, they had a car with dummies in it that was a little shot up. We shot bowling pins and turkeys made from 3/8" solid plate, the 500 with a 400 grain bullet knocked the turkeys down like nothing, they weighed about 40lbs each. The bowling pins flew around like they weighed nothing as well.
It was a great tour, all you need is 5 people and the tour is free, but you have to make a reservation. At the store and range you can shoot anything for $25 a gun, that includes 50 rounds of ammo. If every out that way in Springfield MA check it out, definitely a good way to spend a day.
The second best part of the trip was getting to go into the performance center, it is a separate building were they make the performance center guns. I had always thought PC guns were regular guns that they just went over a little bit and cleaned up the action or put special finishes on, turns out the PC take the raw forgings and finishes the guns, often making the action different, for instance in the 945-1 the PC model does not drop the barrel until the slide has come back about 1/4", this make the gun more accurate, the also hand lap the slide to the frame, pretty impressive time consuming stuff. Most of the barrels on the PC guns come from Walther, S&W is the sole distributor for Walther so all the Walther guns have to come through the S&W factory.
The final assembly area is all caged off with armed guards, per the ATF, we did not get to see inside that area. S&W test fires every gun, in most cases half of the guns capacity, there are people who's job is test firing guns, all day long all they do is load and fire guns, must get to be pretty good shots.
The best part of the trip was the factory store and range, we shot a variety of 1911s, PC models, regular models and one with the Crimson trace in the stock. I got to try the Scandium 357 as well, 12 ounces and a 1 7/8" barrel make for a lot of recoil and a lot of flash, real nice gun, super compact and very light. We tested the new 500 as well, they do not shoot that at the regular range in the factory store, they took us to one of four underground 100 yard ranges, the walls are 15' solid concrete on all four sides. They use the ranges for training police and military, they had a car with dummies in it that was a little shot up. We shot bowling pins and turkeys made from 3/8" solid plate, the 500 with a 400 grain bullet knocked the turkeys down like nothing, they weighed about 40lbs each. The bowling pins flew around like they weighed nothing as well.
It was a great tour, all you need is 5 people and the tour is free, but you have to make a reservation. At the store and range you can shoot anything for $25 a gun, that includes 50 rounds of ammo. If every out that way in Springfield MA check it out, definitely a good way to spend a day.
