Rare earth elements are found in a very exclusive portion of the Periodic Table of Elements. To put it simply, you don’t find huge mines containing any of these four elements. Scandium (for Scandinavia) was discovered in 1879 as a tiny component of tin and tungsten ores. Rare it is. According to Smith & Wesson’s handgun product manager, Herb Belin, “A gram of scandium costs about 10 times more than a gram of gold. It takes tons and tons of ore to get just a little scandium.”

But when it is alloyed with aluminum, the material is lighter than titanium and as much as three times stronger than the aluminum alloys used in firearms today. Not quite as strong as steel, but it is not far off. “The stuff is almost pixie dust,” said Belin. “It melts right into the aluminum alloy and dramatically increases the tensile strength. It only takes a little to do it too.”

S&W’s Proud Heritage

Smith & Wesson’s history of innovation began in 1852. Today’s shooter probably takes a lot of things for granted that might not even be here were it not for the innovative products that have always been S&W trademarks. Aglance through an ammunition catalog will reveal many handgun cartridges with S&W in their name, but the two that are most famous are the .357 Magnum and the legendary .44 Magnum.

S&W brought the word magnum into the shooting lexicon in 1935 with the introduction of the original .357 Mag. revolver. Doubtless borrowed from the French who use it to describe those big bottles of wine, Smith & Wesson sought, and obtained, a trademark on the word in the new context.

J. Edgar Hoover got the first one. The new cartridge was .125″ longer than the .38 Special, the outgrowth of handloading work done by gunwriter Phil Sharpe. Then in 1954, in response to hot .44 Special handloads from the legendary Elmer Keith, S&W and Remington teamed to make the .44 Mag. — which also just happened to be .125″ longer than the .44 Special.

Clint Eastwood immortalized the .44 Mag. in Dirty Harry. Never before or since has a single event done so much to promote a gun. For years S&W simply could not make enough Model 29s to meet the demand, and these guns sold for premium prices far above retail. But S&W had also been making little guns for years, chambered for a variety of .22, .32 and .38 cartridges. On October 24, 1950 they introduced a small, five-shot .38 Special revolver that immediately was dubbed “Chiefs Special.” It was the first use of S&W’s J-frame design.

A Wonder Of Steel And Aluminum

Originally, the Chiefs Special was made with aluminum alloys in both the frame and cylinder. It was a featherweight 11.25 ozs. The alloy cylinder was short-lived and was replaced in 1954 with a steel cylinder that increased the weight to 13 ozs. People who sent their guns with alloy cylinders in for repair got them back with steel cylinders.

Over the years the J-frame continued — as it still does today — to be a big seller, and it evolved into a number of other models. Of special note is the hammerless Centennial J-frame introduced in 1952 to mark the company’s first 100 years. Sales of the original Centennial dropped off, and it was discontinued in 1974. The J-frames —especially the Centennials — were always thought of as “pocket pistols” and for those, lighter is better.

The age of stainless steel firearms began when S&W introduced their Model 60 J-frame .38 in 1965 and really revolutionized the pocket pistol category. Today, stainless is everywhere in handguns, rifles and shotguns. The Model 60 evolved to become the first .357 Mag. pocket pistol.

But the “compact” craze still sweeps the country. Smaller and lighter are buzzwords. The Centennial came back in 1993 in both the stainless steel, Model 642, and with an aluminum alloy frame known as the Model 442.

Then the J-frames went on a diet. Weight was shed everywhere. First was a small-frame .22 with an aluminum cylinder in 1997, and then in 1999 S&W launched the Airlite Ti series. A titanium cylinder, aluminum frame and shrouded barrel brought the weight down to where it started with the original alloy-cylindered Chiefs Special. The new guns could handle +P .38 Special ammunition. “Our design goals have been to safely achieve the maximum power-to-weight ratio,” said Belin.

Elemental Logic

The power genie was out of the bottle with the magnumized Model 60. Aluminum frames simply couldn’t handle the stress. Enter scandium and — voilà! — we have a .357 Mag. pocket pistol that weighs 10.4 ounces.

Research with scandium began almost as soon as the titanium guns reached the market. Scandium revolvers are undergoing severe tests with both proof loads and fullcharge 158 gr. .357 Mag. ammunition. “Several of the test guns have fired over 2,500 rounds,” said Belin. He went on to report that only normal wear has been seen on the guns.

To be valid, the tests can’t be done from a mount, because the forces on the gun would be entirely different. Since there is a real limit on how many of these powerful rounds an individual can shoot in a day, testing takes a little longer.

The Same But Different

Even though we normally test only production guns, two things made us do this one differently. First, this is a noteworthy technical advance and, secondly, you cannot tell by looking that it’s different. The only way is to count the number of electrons in the atom on the side plate — there are 21 instead of the 22 seen on the titanium pistols. They will be identified by the serial number, which will have the prefix of SCA.

Production guns will be available in the first weeks of 2001. There are two models: the 340SC, which is a Centennial design and the 360SC, with a conventional hammer. There are two choices of finish: clear anodized, which is what we’re used to on alloy-frame revolvers, and a black anodized finish that we’ve seen on a few guns.

The black finish will have “PD” in the model designation. Although S&W originally planned to offer this gun in .32 H&R Mag., they have subsequently elected not to produce that chambering in the scandium line. The .32 Mag. will continue to be available in the Airlite Ti line, however.

It’s A Handful

This is not your basic gun test report because, other than the material, the scandium revolver is just like other products that have already been tested to death. Instead, we’ll focus on how the scandium pistols shoot.

We already know that it’s going to kick like an ill-tempered mule that is having a very bad day — and so it does, but there was a lot to learn in the process. Obviously, recoil perception is an individual, subjective judgement.

We began with the lightest 110 gr. non +P .38 Special and worked up through 125, 148 and 158 gr. weights in that category. Next up were the +Ps in weights of 110, 125, 130 and 158 grs.

We’re sure that some of the credit goes to the Hogue rubber grips but recoil wasn’t bad at all. We could feel recoil increase from one load to the next but at no point was it painful. The biggest source of discomfort with the small frame revolvers is from the trigger finger bouncing off the trigger guard with a little dig thrown in by the tip of the trigger itself.

Then came the .357s. Once more we started at the lowest level, a 125 gr. JHP medium velocity load from Remington. The difference between the hottest +Ps was obvious. Recoil was heavy.

Next was the full-charge 110 gr. JHPs. This loading generated considerably more recoil, and for the first time we became acutely aware of a very sharp rap in the web of the hand. Of course the trigger finger was bouncing around too, but recoil wasn’t brutal — yet.

That point came next with a full-charge 125 gr. JHP. Our bare hand stung smartly, and another round or two brought out the PAST glove which really didn’t help all that much.

Next came a full charge 158 gr. lead hollowpoint. While it didn’t seem quite as sharp as the 125 gr. load, it was still too much. The vaunted 125 gr. magnum load zipped out at 1,155 fps, but the “ouch” factor was high.

Ammunition Selection Is Critical

The point here is that ammunition selection is critical. Accuracy beats power every time. The optimum choice would be the medium velocity loads, but tolerance levels vary, and each shooter must find the hottest load with which you can still maintain comfort and reasonable combat accuracy. With the hottest stuff, only the best trained can manage more than a few shots before they begin to flinch. That’s the real breaking point.

The S&W Airlite Ti revolvers carry a warning that advises against the use of lead bullets or — in the case of the .44 Specials — bullets weighing more than 200 grs. The scandium revolvers may carry a similar warning. But the warnings are sometimes misunderstood.

Using lead bullets poses absolutely no risk of damage to the gun. Instead, it is a matter of recoil. Sometimes the light guns will act just like an inertia bullet puller and the bullets in an unfired round can move forward in the cylinder to the point where they interfere with cylinder rotation. It doesn’t happen all the time, and the amount and type of crimp in the ammo is critical, but S&W felt that it was best to include the warning. If you want to shoot some lead just check to be sure the bullets aren’t pulling in the process.

The S&W scandium revolvers aren’t guns you will want to take with you for a pleasant day on the range. They are, however, well designed pocket revolvers for those who can and must carry a gun for personal protection. Drawing on the best firearms technology from yesterday, today and tomorrow, the scandium revolvers set a new standard in defensive firearms.