Revolvers and random thoughts

[burley]

4" model 19. Sweet shooter, comes right on target so easily it's unreal.
Smith and Wesson has been making revolvers like this for over 100 years and this, IMHO, is the
pinnacle of that evolution.
 Wonder 9s may have taken these off LEO's hip, but 4" model 19 .357 magnums rock the Casbah
with ease of use and stopping power.
 Any questions?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ9r8LMU9bQ

[burley]

Same gun, a snub nose pocket Cadillac.

[bang bang]

nothing wrong with a good wheel gun.

i have my share of them.   

[SI VIS PACEM PARRABELLUM]

Sweet guns. I have quite a few of those old K-frames in my stable as well. Wouldn't trade them for anything,ever!

[Firemanjones]

I had one and it was a sweet shooter. The only downside is one can not fire a steady diet of .357s. I enjoy shooting .357 more than the .38S.

[Tanners Owner]

I have my fair share of wheelguns from S&W and Ruger. I primarily shoot wheelguns at my IDPA matches (though last season I shot my CZ P09). I love wheelguns and attribute that to my enjoyment of DA/SA guns like CZ & SIG

[mszvetecz]

I had one and it was a sweet shooter. The only downside is one can not fire a steady diet of .357s. I enjoy shooting .357 more than the .38S.

I heard a rumor (here?) that the newer S&W 66 K's were quietly beefed up to stand up to .357 diets--??  Was thinking of getting one of those because I have an awfully nice extra set of grips sitting around being sad, and not at all because I'm jealous of by brother's 19 

[Firemanjones]

Great song by the way.

[M1A4ME]

The K frames and L frames are nice.  But the M27 and M29 (N-frames) are just so smooth nothing else comes close.

I need to take pictures of my over 30 year old S&W and Ruger revolvers.  I only keep one loaded and in the house these days.  My Ruger Speed Six stainless with the 2&3/4" barrel and bobbed hammer.  The rest are unloaded/in the safe.

I need to get the kids together for a revolver day at the range one nice day this winter.  Just leave the semi-autos home and take the magnums to the range.  Oh, forgot about that big stainless Dan Wesson .44, but then it's just not as smooth as the S&W's.  Accurate, but not refined/elegant.

Not much out there as mean as a .357 magnum with the right ammo.  The talk about "adequate penetration" and spend all kinds of money trying to make bullets do that today.  Forty years ago the .357 magnum was doing it.  I remember reading an after action report of a State Trooper involved shooting up in New England.  He shot an armed man waiting to ambush him from inside the car he'd just stopped.  The bullet went through the passenger side window, entered the right arm, traversed through the chest cavity, the left arm, through the interior door panel and steel of the drivers side door and raised up a big pimple on the outside of the driver's side door.  The guy rolled out of the car and was found lying by the rear tire.  One shot and the bad guy was down and done.  A few years later when the "wonder 9's" were replacing the .357's an FBI officer shot a bad guy in Miami twice and both hollow points stopped short of the heart after passing through the left arm (without having passed through a car window first).

I'll admit, during that time I preferred carrying my 1911 until the Chief forced us all to go to 686's. 

That's why I keep getting the urge to get a "good" .357 SIG.  Sixteen shots instead of six.  I've got two .357 SIGs now, but I wouldn't call either of them "good", in the sense of CZ good anyway.

[steerclr]

Like my wheel guns too. 

One of my projects was taking a Charter Arms Under-Coverette 6 shot 32 S&W long and modifying it to shoot 32 H&R magnums.  Now hits like a 38spl but holds six instead of five.  Not as dangerous as it sounds as there is plenty of metal on the cylinder walls and the modern metals used are not like the old 32's of years past.  I did my research before I started to make sure I wasn't going overboard.  Pressures on the H&R are similar to that of loading 32 S&W long case's hot and using them in the newer guns.  This way there is no confusion which load is in the case I am shooting.   Now I can shoot either round from the gun, similar to a 357/38spl revolver.  I would never endorse trying modify it to use the hotter 32 Federal Magnum with double the case pressures those generate.  I find it a pleasant plinker and trainer with the 32 S&W long round and a great BUG with the 32 H&R magnum loaded.

[cntrydawwwg]

Love my revolvers. Learned on my dads Single six. In fact first handgun I ever bought was an even older Single six at a garage sale. [emoji2]
   Moved up to my S&W Highway Patrolman .357, Ruger SRH, and Ruger Alaskan,( both .44) back down to the Taurus Tracker .22.
  Still have a couple others on my list to get someday.

[mszvetecz]

So this thread seems like a good place to mention that I got a couple internal safety plugs for S&W's from Ed Jennings at Jennings Machine and Tool (just google that and you'll get there)--took some digging through other forums to find where I could get them--just in case anyone else has a hankering to dig into theirs (I've got a 686) and pull that thing out and leave it a little more aesthetically pleasing (don't know if I can get rid of the "L" and swirly arrow etch, though).  Anyway--he also makes some cool sight pushing tools--I got one, but haven't tried it yet.  If you go to his site you might see his note that he had some medical troubles--I just checked in with him though and happily he's well on the road to recovery.

Also, as an aside, I put the Wilson custom tune spring kit S&W KLN into the 686, made a big difference in DA--I like it, wasn't hard; got it at Midway but you can find it or similar other places, including Brownells.

[Firemanjones]

When I purchased my two GP100s last year, I put in lighter springs and changed the front sights. I put FO on the 5" and a night sight on the 3".

[steerclr]

Firemanjones;
I have an old Ruger Security Six and was wondering what you meant by lighter springs?  Main springs?  If so what was the factory weight and what weight did you replace it with.  I'm pretty sure the guns are similar in their construction, with the older ones having a full frame under the grip panels.  Thanks for posting.

[Firemanjones]

I have a Security Six too.

I didn't change the springs on it since it was already broken in. I purchased it used.
I installed 10# hammer spring and 8# trigger springs in the GP100s. Plus I installed shims for the hammer. I purchased them from: http://triggershims.com/ I also did a light polishing on the action. Both shoot like a dream.