Once upon a time, my better half saw me looking at a gun mag that had a picture of a 696 on the cover. I mumbled something like, "That looks cool!" or whatever.

Lo and behold she really shocked me that Christmas with a brand new 696, no dash, first year of production! (too bad I wasn't looking at a CS-1)

A friend of mine and I put 600 roundnose cartridges through it, then I put it away.

My friend was a .44 geek at the time and loaded up three different loads which we both fired from a sand bag. We agreed on the best load for my gun and he loaded 500 rounds for me. (Some of them are still in the safe; 246 gr. SWC the rest of the data is on the boxes!)

That 44. L-frame is a tack-driving fool and is still "cool." I'll probably shoot it again this month because I'm thinking about it now. I maybe have 750 rounds through it, including some 165gr. Cor-bons and some 200gr. Silvertips. There is no evidence of forcing cone damage, or any other issues.

Sometimes I wish it was a 3-inch 686 though! BUT, I'll probably never sell it because, well, you know the reason!