If I could get my hands on a 6" 686 barrel, will it fit on a 627? I realize they are L vs N frame, but are these .357 barrels interchangeable?

And what is involved in changing barrels on modern revolvers?

No. your best be will be to find a m27 or m28 barrel. The 686 L-frame barrel will not work in an N-Frame. wrong size wrong thread pitch...ect.

Remember the barrel bore in the frame on the 8shot 627 is higher up than 6 shot .357 N-frames. The 8 shot N-frame is a breed like no other. S&W only made 300 barrels in a length greater than 5.5" for the 8 shot .357 N-frames to date. 200 were in the Lew Horton PC627 and 100 from Bangers 27-7 run of blued 8 shot ones. I own a few of these rare ones. An example of each I have described can be seen here.

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Bombmaster = Bombardier master

Thanks for the reply, that's the info I was looking for.

And a fine group of revolvers you have!

Wow that is a nice collection. Could you provide more details/pics of the two revolvers third/fourth from the left?

Did you do the checkering on the " butt " of the grip on the one of them? or did you get the factory to do it?