Quote:
Originally Posted by kwheezy2000
...what the earliest ship date of an internal lock of any frame size that you have seen an example of....
|
July of 2001 was the first gun I saw with the Internal Lock System (ILS), and it was on a J-frame. By 2002 pretty much all the standard production had transitioned to the lock. Of course, there's always a few exceptions, for what ever reason. Some PC guns held out a little longer.
You may not be aware, but the first guns built on the "New Frame" with MIM parts and frame mounted firing pins did not have the lock. There was a window of time of about 5 to 7 years, depending on the frame size, where new frame guns were made and the lock was not yet introduced.
Also during this period you have new frame guns mostly with MIM parts, but some with forged parts made to work with the new frame design. I have a M640-1 with the new "J-magnum" frame, but a forged hammer & trigger. Your PC gun is also a good example of that. There was even one dash number of the M64 that had a MIM hammer and a forged trigger as standard.
Regarding how long the PC used forged parts, I haven't tracked that very well. I'm sure there's a PC guru that knows. They may still use (some) forged parts today, AFAIK.