Who has a S&W M&P R8 ? I DO ! :)

**Gunsnwater** · November 22nd, 2017, 03:28 AM

Wow this thing is cut for moons.
http://www.personaldefenseworld.com/...wesson-mp-r8-1
They also beveled the chamber mouth for speed reloads.
Not a lot of rim support without moons.
I'd be buying lots of full moons and tools to load and unload them.
I like my moon clip revolver. Hope it grows on you.
I'd still check the spring tensioner screw and if you really hate the idea of the moon clips put in a standard n frame spring.

**ett** · December 5th, 2017, 03:59 PM

OP here,

I sent a physical letter to S&W customer support at the beginning of last week.
They replied via email yesterday.
They said "This model does not have to use moon clips all the time.".

So I called their customer support line a third time.
This time I did not ask for any support.
I simply stated I have to send it back for repairs.
They emailed me a shipping label.
Hope to get the revolver sent out today after work; or no later than Friday (my day off).

**Steve_NEPhila** · December 7th, 2017, 12:02 PM

I owned an R8 for about five years and put many thousands of rounds through it and I never used moon clips. At around the five or seven thousand round mark the barrel bushing became loose and I sent it back to Smith and Wesson for a quick repair. The revolver was excellent and it produced fantastic tight groups at the range. I sold it a while back for some reason or another. Have faith, Smith does a good job and their repair work is excellent.

I have a Simply Rugged sour dough pancake holster made for the R8 in my closet I would sell. Pm me if interested...

**ett** · January 8th, 2018, 02:06 PM

OP here,

I just received my R8 back from S&W.

The copy of the work order states they repaired the yoke and replaced the firing pin.
Hope to get to the range and test it; by no later than this weekend.

**Qtrborecrazy** · January 8th, 2018, 03:03 PM

Originally Posted by ett

OP here,

I just received my R8 back from S&W.

The copy of the work order states they repaired the yoke and replaced the firing pin.
Hope to get to the range and test it; by no later than this weekend.

Nice to hear, hope the tune up fixed the problem.

**ett** · January 13th, 2018, 05:43 PM

OP here,

Just got back from the range.
Only shot 1 box (aka 50 rounds) of 357 mag.

I shot 4 full cylinder loads, with a mixture of single shots, double taps, and triple taps for a total of 32 rounds.
All without the use of moon clips; and without any issues.
My friend; a NRA instructor; then shot 3 rounds without any issues. She was impressed !
She said it was the smoothest trigger of any revolver she ever shot.
She said it felt like an automatic pistol.

I then shot the last 15 rounds.
And damn it ! I had 4 fail-to-fire due to lite primer strikes !

I guess I'll be calling S&W on Tues.
And sending it back to be repaired a second time.

Are there any lemon laws for guns ??

**1911woody** · January 16th, 2018, 06:19 PM

I have an R8, and have also experienced the light primer strikes. The strain screw needed turned in some, that solved it for me.

**Ronin** · January 17th, 2018, 03:14 PM

Hate to say it, but this is indicative of a lot of S&W's "Performance Center Revolvers". Lots of forum posts of people with the same issue.

Anecdotally, I have a 325 Thunder Ranch in .45 ACP with the same issue. For the first 4-500 rounds it ran great. It ate everything I fed it. I couldn't have been happier with the gun. Then out of the blue it started having light strikes. I tightened the strain screw, no dice. Installed a new, longer firing pin, that helped a bit. Tested a dozen different type of factory loads and found that it now hates Fiocchi (didn't before) and likes Blazer Brass. Everything else from Winchester White Box to Federal to Remington, etc, just runs so-so. I can get a full cylinder of six to fire, but usually if I pull the trigger eight to ten times.

Per S&W, I've checked my moon clips. Some of them are twice as old as me, so the potential for thinning or bending was there. Nope, new shiny, thicker, moonclips did not solve the problem.

The only thing I haven't tried is replacing the mainspring with a standard power one. May do that in the future. Right now, the gun sits in the safe helping to keep it from floating away.

**ett** · March 3rd, 2018, 01:41 PM

OP Here,

I received my R8 back from S&W, for it's second repair, this past Tues (ie. 4 days ago).
They did the exact same repairs they did the first time. Which is; repair the yoke and replace the firing pin.
And it had the exact same results as last time. Which is absolutely nothing.

I just got back from the range.
First 8 rounds, without moon clip: 2 fail-to-fire due to lite primer strikes.
Second 8 rounds, without moon clip: 3 fail-to-fire due to lite primer strikes.
Third 8 rounds, with moon clip: 2 fail-to-fire due to lite primer strikes.

So I've come to the conclusion that:
A) This revolver is a complete piece of crap.
B) S&W's Lifetime Service Policy is also complete crap.

Is it possible to sue S&W to get my money back ?

**Brick** · March 3rd, 2018, 06:42 PM

Why don't you consider getting in touch with Mark Hartshorne at http://pinnaclehighperformance.com/. He did an action job on my Model 67 a few months ago and the result was outstanding. I noticed one of the things he did was to replace the factory firing pin.

Call him or e-mail him.

BTW not for nothing I have 3 revolvers that use moonclips, all S&W. .45 ACP, .38/.357 and 9mm. They all work just fine!