Bangor-Punta was an English plumbing outfit who bought S&W. In my view at the time they pushed production and quality controll suffered for a time. I used to be a S&W of the week buyer at the time and had to send a lot of them back to S&W for repair right out of the box. (lost most all of em in the divorce!) Back to your original question, the older S&W's are more satisfieing as to fit and finish but I really feel that MIM and locks aside, that in general the new Smith's are the best one's mechanicly, ever built.

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Stay safe people!