Hello Just bought a 27-2 serial # N216xxx 8 3/8 barrel and was wondering if you could help me find website or date this Smith for me. very faint trace of wheel mark bluing is close to perfect. Appears to be fired very little.
thanks in advance.

Very nice, probably 1975. Enjoy.

Jeff
SWCA #1457

Purty. I have one just like that, same condition. Came in the usual wood box. Grips have a reddish hue to them and are very glossy.

Found it made for an excellent small game gun with .38 flush mouth (hollow base) wad cutters. The long sight radius helped with accuracy. Killed well and did not destroy meat. You could eat right up to the bullet hole.

Used to get asked a lot at the range if it was a .44 Mag. Upon replying no, it was a .357, they'd give a "meh" look and wander away, relegating it and me to mere commoner status. The Model 29 is a lot of fun to shoot, but I always enjoyed shooting the 27-2 more. More pleasant and could shoot more using cheaper .38 Specials.

Used it in an IPSC style match once. One stage had a white silhouette target overlapping a black one. This was to simulate a hostage situation. I don't recall the distance but it was at least ten yards, maybe more. Most shooters were accidentally "killing" the hostage. I thumbed the hammer back and put a .357 bullet though the eye of the "kidnapper". One of my friends remarked he had never seen anyone go single action on a revolver in IPSC before. It was a piece of cake for me, having used it for plinking, target shooting and small game.

The one criticism I have about the 27 is that the cylinder is on the short side for heavy bullets. S&W should have increased the cylinder length to that of the .44 Mag. The 27 would then have made a much better silhouette gun. Heavy bullets have to be deep seated, eating up case capacity and raising pressure.