Wheelgun Madness
I'm suffering from a major case of brain fade this morning. Attempting to shift brainz into 1st gear and I appear to have fried the clutch. I don't even have chemical or sleep deprivation excuses. Perhaps the office cold has finally caught up with me. Anyways....
In the process of amassing a small S&W revovler collection I've done a fair amount of research. Most of this has been online in various forums. The reoccuring theme has been "They don't build them like they used to". Having heard this for decades about cars I dismissed these posts as the pontifications of miserly old men with visions of "post count king" in their heads. Afterall, while I enjoy the styling of a 57 Chevy, the bias ply tires, lack of std power brakes or steering, no air bags, no seat belts, hit or miss wipers, inefficient engines, etc etc casts rather severe doubts around the idea that modern cars are total crap in comparison.
Revolvers aren't cars, they haven't evolved much from a feature perspective in many decades. And it turns out the miserly old men are right.....
I purchased two wheelguns last week, one a late 1970's vintage light frame .357 (M19), the other a new heavy frame .357 (M627) from Smith's "Performance Center". The Performance Center is smith's custom shop, with a focus on quality as manifested in finish, fit, accuracy, smooth functioning, and a high attention to detail. So I was a bit surprised when the 26 year old regular production revolver had a noticably better trigger, less cylinder slop, and a much nicer finish. Basically the run of the mill product from the late 70's (not exactly the heyday of S&W production) beats the crap out of a brand spanking new $1000 custom tweaked gun. Color me unimpressed.
Admittedly the PC pistol is nicer than the only other recent production Smith I have. However it doesn't compare very favorably to the 1960's, 1970's or even early 1980's production era models I own. With one exception all of these are bone stock from the factory too. Smith has slowly deleted feature over the years to save costs, you see these terms a great deal in the lingo of smitch collectors. Pinned and recessed, chamfered chambers, forged parts, factory bright blueing, pre-lock, and so on. I appear to have arrived late in the game, as the older models have increased in value considerably over just the last few years and I'm paying significant premiums to find unmolested specimens. This for guns made in the 60's and 70's, earlier production models cost even more dearly and I fear my obsess... er hobby, might lead me there. I've gone from haunting the few local gun shops to trolling semi-shady pawn shops looking for elusive non-abused used revolvers.
Progress sucks. Good thing the safe is full. :>
In the process of amassing a small S&W revovler collection I've done a fair amount of research. Most of this has been online in various forums. The reoccuring theme has been "They don't build them like they used to". Having heard this for decades about cars I dismissed these posts as the pontifications of miserly old men with visions of "post count king" in their heads. Afterall, while I enjoy the styling of a 57 Chevy, the bias ply tires, lack of std power brakes or steering, no air bags, no seat belts, hit or miss wipers, inefficient engines, etc etc casts rather severe doubts around the idea that modern cars are total crap in comparison.
Revolvers aren't cars, they haven't evolved much from a feature perspective in many decades. And it turns out the miserly old men are right.....
I purchased two wheelguns last week, one a late 1970's vintage light frame .357 (M19), the other a new heavy frame .357 (M627) from Smith's "Performance Center". The Performance Center is smith's custom shop, with a focus on quality as manifested in finish, fit, accuracy, smooth functioning, and a high attention to detail. So I was a bit surprised when the 26 year old regular production revolver had a noticably better trigger, less cylinder slop, and a much nicer finish. Basically the run of the mill product from the late 70's (not exactly the heyday of S&W production) beats the crap out of a brand spanking new $1000 custom tweaked gun. Color me unimpressed.
Admittedly the PC pistol is nicer than the only other recent production Smith I have. However it doesn't compare very favorably to the 1960's, 1970's or even early 1980's production era models I own. With one exception all of these are bone stock from the factory too. Smith has slowly deleted feature over the years to save costs, you see these terms a great deal in the lingo of smitch collectors. Pinned and recessed, chamfered chambers, forged parts, factory bright blueing, pre-lock, and so on. I appear to have arrived late in the game, as the older models have increased in value considerably over just the last few years and I'm paying significant premiums to find unmolested specimens. This for guns made in the 60's and 70's, earlier production models cost even more dearly and I fear my obsess... er hobby, might lead me there. I've gone from haunting the few local gun shops to trolling semi-shady pawn shops looking for elusive non-abused used revolvers.
Progress sucks. Good thing the safe is full. :>