S&Wesson Factory Tour Great Experience If You Are In the Area

This summer I went on a two hour tour of the S&W Springfield Ma plant with my 12 year old son. As an afterthought, while we were on vacation I called two days in advance to arrange the trip. They let us tag along with a scheduled group, if you want to have your own group tour they will do that too if you have five or more members of the tour. You must be a US citizen and they do a background check on you, they do not allow felons on the tour.

We toured the whole plant except for the actual test range and the performance center shop. It is absolutely fascinating to see the process steps from the raw stock forging to the final hand fitting with lots of complex CNC machining stations in between. The tours last two full hours and are conducted by retired employees who volunteer their time for the task. What they do there took my breath away, and left me in awe, I am a serious target shooter and beginning home machinist & hobby gunsmith. It was a real treat to say the least. Well worth the time and they are really a great group of people who work there! The plant is working 24X7 and really humming along which is a good thing.

Yep, the place is amazing. We did the tour this past Summer as well and I was very impressed. Our guide told us the S&W factory has more CNC machines than any other factory in the U.S. I don't know if that's true but they had an ass of them! It was interesting to see the display in the barrel making dept., they had several in various stages of completion and the finished barrel had the cost of manufacture on it, something like $27.

Back 20 some odd years ago I got to spend a couple of weeks at the Remington plant in Ilion New York on a proof housing course. The actual course itself and setting up the paper work to be a Canadian Proof House was actually quiet troublesome, stressful and for the most part rather boring. But every day after the meetings and paper work myself and another gun plummer from Ottawa were allowed to roam the plant freely with a representative from the plant in tow to keep us out of mischief. There wasn't a building, nook or cranny we didn't poke our nose's into and apparently at that time tours were unheard of. The workers took us with shock and amazement and more than a little curiosity and were very forthcoming. Back then almost the entire plant was still single stage machines and a lot of it was dirt floor. In all my years of gunsmithing and doing warranty for manufactures nothing stands out more in my mind as the time I spent there. The sheer enormity of it all was overwhelming as well as the equipment. Until then I had no idea that a single machine the size of a deep freeze was often manufactured to drill one little hole or stake one tiny pin. Any time a person can get a chance to go through any sort of plant or manufacturing facility is time well spent. I have also toured plastics plants and breweries and such and have always come away with a certain amount of awe and wonder.