At the Bench - News From the Smith & Wesson Academy

At the Bench - News From the Smith & Wesson Academy
By: Dean Batchelder

Recently the Smith & Wesson Academy held a week-long event celebrating their 35th anniversary. So when S&W offered many advanced training courses for law enforcement and armorer seminars for the S&W/Walther 99, J-frame revolvers and the new S&W 1911, I wanted to be there for Brownells.

You can work on these guns for years . . . even have your own shop . . . and still not learn everything they go over in the armorer course.

The three courses I attended were new additions to the armorer school curriculum and covered in detail each of the firearms listed above. The armorer course went through the complete disassembly and assembly of each firearm with special tips to make working on these guns a breeze. They also showed us how to take apart certain sub-assemblies and the refitting of those parts.

Since the S&W 99 pistol is relatively new, the aftermarket parts are still somewhat limited to night sights. But it’s only a matter of time before more aftermarket parts will be available. The pistol comes with four interchangeable white dot front sights of different heights and interchangeable back straps that allow the user to adjust the grip to their individual hand. It is also a simple pistol to disassemble and reassemble.

Almost everyone is familiar with the popular J-frame revolvers and the class focused on the model 640 specifically. One of the big things with all S&W revolvers is the on-going transition from machined parts to the MIM (Metal Injection Molded) parts. This was covered in great detail during the course.

What does this mean? I was amazed at the number of MIM parts that are directly interchangeable with the older machined parts. The course not only covered disassembly/assembly, but also covered troubleshooting, the different points of inspection, and how to remedy problems and fit the parts correctly.

Finally, there was the armorer course for the S&W 1911, which was very well attended. It seemed like everyone wanted to learn more about the new 1911. The main differences between the original 1911 and the S&W 1911 are the external extractor and that the firing pin safety plunger is activated by the grip safety rather than the trigger bar.

The firing pin safety plunger in the S&W 1911 is also located slightly ahead of where it is located in the original 1911, which means the firing pin is also specific to the S&W 1911. Most other parts are standard to both pistols although there are a few other exceptions, so if you have questions concerning parts we would be more than happy to help you. I found the S&W 1911 to be very well made and well fitted. I talked to a number of people there who owned one and everyone was impressed by the fit and its accuracy.

I also got a chance to take a great tour of the factory and see first-hand the hammer forging, various rifling machines including the electrical discharge rifling setup, the performance shop, and various other operations in the factory. All-in-all, the week was a lot of fun because I got to work on guns all day, working with great instructors, which made it very educational. If you have the opportunity, be sure to take one of the factory courses. You will learn much. This series were just a few of the many seminars or classes our Gunsmith Techs attend many each year to keep us better informed and up-to-date on the firearms and gunsmithing industry - all to enables us to serve you better.