624 5".....

[GLL]

Is what S&W should have produced !

I love the 4" 624 but sure would like to have a 5" as well !
I may have to break out the hacksaw and cut down my 6.5" !

Jerry

[TDC]

What a beautiful gun and mind-blowin' photography. You should teach some "hackers" like me how you do it so well...

I'm looking to make a 5" 624 too.. All the early and late N frame guns in all of the calibers should have been made with 5" barrels. It has long been my favorite barrel length. I'm still trying to figure out a way to break into Doc44's stash and abscond with his 5" 29-2, 57 no-dash and his 629 no-dash 5".

This 624 pictured is yet another fine example of your great collection... and your skill at capturing them in photographs.. But your older guns are still my favorites..

[BUFF]

I bought a nice, clean used 6-1/2 inch Model 624 a few years ago. I plan on having Hamilton Bowen bob it to 5 inches when I get flush enough for such frivolousities.

I have an original 5 inch 1950 Target I bought from Jim Supica when he ran Old Town Station in 1996. It lettered to my home town (Salt Lake City, Utah) in my birth year (1952), so I took it as some sort of cosmic or karmic sign that I should keep it. It certainly looks and handles perfectly.

A stainless steel shooter that wouldn't show holster wear has always seemed like such a good idea, that I am surprised that one of the specialties distributors like Lew Horton or Ashley Shooters Supply didn't have them made up back in the day.

[bgrafsr]

I love it GLL. I'm in the process of having David Chicoine shorten a 6" Model 28 barrel to 5 inches, re-installing the ramp front sight to look original, and also installing a red ramp insert. Can't wait to get it back so I can put it on my 28.

[GLL]

For now I guess I will just dream and look at my Photoshop version !

Jerry

[Keith Brown]

A 5 inch 624 is a great idea! I "had" two 6 1/2 inch 624s but have only one now.


This was the easy part, hopefully I can make the time to finish it this fall. No turning back now.

Keith

[Muley Gil]

I have a 6 1/2" M624 barrel stashed away for a project like that. However, I may convert a M629 Mountain Gun to a 5" instead.

[GLL]

Keith:

!

Jerry

[GLL]

Muley Gil:

I you proceed with the 629 Mountain Gun project I would be interested in the 4" Mountain Gun barrel !

Jerry

[MMA10mm]

I've been admiring 5" N-frames since I first saw a picture of one in the 70s reading some Skeeter Skelton article on the Mod. 27... It's just the perfect-proportioned barrel for that frame-size. It's horribly sad that S&W only commonly makes 5" barrels with full underlugs. (Why do they never learn/listen??)

I've got a 6" 629 barrel (with ejector rod shroud ONLY - no underlug) sitting in the safe waiting to get trimmed to 5" to replace the 5" full-underlug barrel on my 629-4...


Of course, more-recently (last few years), I've found this website, and now I want a 3.5" barrelled N-frame too!!!

[TDC]

I hope those of you who are seriously planning to follow through with customizing their guns to 5" will keep us informed.

It appears, notwithstanding the few exceptions S&W has produced, that the only way we're going have this highly desirable barrel length is to cut an existing gun barrel... That for me at least is a very distasteful thing to do, especially with the older and already highly collectable guns. Waiting for S&W to miraculously begin making barrels today that could be used is obviously futile....

I've got four early shooter grade N frames in different calibers I'd consider modifying. I'd love to have 4 or 5 matching guns in different calibers and all with 5" barrels. They'd represent the guns S&W should have made in regular production. Please keep the progress of your projects posted..

[Dave T]

This isn't a 624 but it's the right length and it is a 44 Special.



A good argument for doing this modification on a stainless gun. When they took this 24-3's barrel off to shorten it to 5" they re-blued it because of soldering the ramp back on. I've been told the bluing tank must have been too hot because the barrel came out different, in this case a plumb brown, than the original. One day I should have the whole thing re-blued so it would match. It is a 5" 44 Special, even if it looks kind of funny.

And someone mentioned a 3.5" so here's what that would kind of look like.



This one was a 4", as you can tell by the shortened ramp and front sight. I have no idea why it was cut down by just over 1/2" but when I bought it I was thinking about finding a 6.5" and cutting it down to make a 3.5" anyway. This one was done and additionally had the butt rounded to K-frame dimensions.

My regular S&W gun smith does a much cleaner job than this one but it is a shooter anyway so, no real harm and it was reasonably priced. Oh, and it shoots just fine too! (smile)

Dave

[Andy Taylor]

I agree that 5" is about perfect. I recently aquired a .44 HE 2nd that had been chopped to 4.5" and it handles really nicely.

[GLL]

Dave:

Thank you for posting your 5" 24-3 ! VERY nice !

The only reason I plan on cutting my 624 rather than my 24-3 is so I do not have to reblue !

Jerry