Scandium

Okay, this has been irking me, and I have got to talk about it.

S&W is getting a lot of mileage out of selling "Scandium" guns. Well, guess what? These are ALUMINUM frame guns. That's right, 99.9% Aluminum. Yes, adding a trace amount of Scandium to Aluminum makes for a very strong alloy, and it may be the perfect alloy for gun frames, but selling them as "Scandium" framed guns is playing on the ignorance of the buyer.

They are also selling guns with Titanium cylinders. In my (unasked for) opinion (I studied metallurgy at UCLA), the only advantage Ti offers over steel in this application is weight savings (which might be an important factor for some folks - I'm just saying it's not a miracle product).

Basically, what they are doing is compensating for lack of R&D by using high buzz-word materials. Ruger, on the other hand, with the LCR, has done some first class engineering to produce a better handling gun.

If you were to ask me: "Okay, Mr. Know-it-all, what, in your opinion is the real miracle metal?" I'd say "steel"! Check out my range report on the AMT 45 Backup.

S&W Airweight and Ruger LCR:

 

15 oz for the S&W vs 17 oz for the Ruger. The vastly better trigger on the Ruger is the big win, In my opinion. Both guns look like toys compared to the fine old Centennial (S&W pre Model 40).

 

For 30 years, S&W and Colt had Ruger stuck in 3rd place because Ruger fit and finish wasn't up to par. Now that S&W and Colt have both relaxed their standards, Ruger is making a big reinvestment effort, and just might be making the better product at this point. I know that recent Ruger SA's have none of the chamber size issues that they were formerly plagued with. I've got five of them, all remarkable shooters. In all cases I did need to tune the triggers and install maximum size base-pins. A 4-5/8 Blackhawk in 45 Colt is a formidable gun, and a better shooter than an S&W 629. I'm talking about blasting away at 200 yards better. Come to the range and prove me wrong.

Oops, forgot to mention that Springfield cleans Colt's clock when it comes to 1911's

 

Yes, they are famous for "making good". The first Ruger I ever bought, back around 1994, was so bad that I beat it into abstract sculpture with a sledge. It was a Singe-Six 22lr, and one dry-fire shot was enough to deform a chamber to the point that it couldn't chamber a round, two on the same chamber would raise a burr that would stop the cylinder from rotating. It spit more lead to the left than out of the barrel, and injured two people slightly. I regret that I beat the custom stag grips to pieces, but don't regret beating the crap out of the gun.

 

I was alarmed to see that the picture of the S&W Performance Center 625 on their website has the crown cut so badly you can see it in the picture! Sure enough, people who bought them reported bad crowns, and S&W refusing to fix them saying they were "within tolerance". Sigh. S&W was unquestionably the finest maker of firearms for nearly 100 years.

 

And yet, you stand little chance of being outgunned with a Bulldog in your paw. Sam told me so... Arroooowwwww!


Ahem... Sorry.