I received my 640 today and I am very pleased with it. I would say this gun was not shot or at most only a few times. The cylinder faces are practically like new. The SS side plate surfaces had some marring but no nicks or dings or pits. The grips even look very good.
I used 1500 grit paper with buffing compound and cleaned the marring up so the gun is looking very good.
I only removed the grips then I shot the insides with brake cleaner and a degreaser. There was minimal black came out with the brake clean but none after that. I then shot Liquid Wrench into the openings.

I would probably rate this gun at 90% condition now. I got this for $375 all said and done. Yep I am pleased.

The trigger compared to my LCR is a bit heavy but it is smooth all the way.
It looks like a crack in the side plate on one pic but that is just a hair or something because it isn't on the gun.

Attached Images

	S&W640 001.JPG (156.6 KB, 175 views)
	S&W640 002.JPG (245.2 KB, 174 views)

They showed up today. I figured Eddie's would be brand new after his dilemma. But his 2 looked about like mine. Mine was real dirty but cleaned up real nice. It has the typical scratches from being carried. Just on the surface nothing deep. Took the side plate off and it was dry. Washed down with carb cleaner then sprayed it with Barricade. Runs real smooth after cleaning.
Back to Eddie, he left town yesterday for a hunting trip in Mexico. Called about 4pm today from his tower stand to see what his 2 looked like. I of course told him I cherry picked the 3 and got the best one. He believed me for a while until he remembered they were shipped by serial number.

By the way thanks to the OP. He found us a good deal.

Have Fun

__________________
Always Stay Strong!

Got mine today. It looks great, though feels dry and a bit dirty. Has the yellow paint on the front sight. After some flushing and lube, I may never get it back from the wife, though. Should have bought two.

This is a good thread with lots of follow up and reference.
For me, and I may be a bit intense when it comes to keeping my firearms clean and lubed up, how is it that these guns are so dirty. I know it takes a while for oil and grease to gum up; so where the majority of these ever cleaned and taken care of.......it appears not
Is this an indication of poor maintenance, lack of a skilled armorer or just plain neglect?
Obviously it doesn't take much to keep them pristine, it just seems like no one bothered. The wear and scuff marks really don't bother me at all but the carbon build up and gummed up oil and overall cleanliness is very non-professional. IMHO

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Patriots Forever!!

Department issued sidearms. Like company cars.
Don't cost anything to the user. No pride of ownership.

Well, you guys saw what mine looked like inside...not too bad. As a former armorer, I can tell you that you mostly don't want most officers poking around inside of their revolvers (back when that was the gun) because most of them aren't gun guys, don't have the right tools, and there is also a liability issue when there is no accountability , not to mention that people's lives are on the line if bubba screws up his firearm. These may have been stored for quite a while, and had time for lube to dry out. Most of it will. Which is something for all of us to remember, especially if you're like me and have a gazillion guns...when was the last time you took a look under the hood, especially the safe queens that still get shot sometimes?

Reminder to self: how about a maintenance chart showing when I last checked each gun???

The other thing I remember from when we were switching to semis and trading in our revolvers. We were not offered any more on trade in if the guns were clean or not clean. The gun guys were busy learning the new guns mechanics, and training the officers on their new guns, so trade ins were not cleaned. Except that we were allowed to purchase our old guns for whatever Glock was offering for trade in.... Glock didn't really want them anyway, and the department came out the same either way, so most of the gun guys took advantage of that deal. Which meant that probably the worst guns were the ones sold by the dealers to the public somewhere.

Just some random meanderings.

Best Regards, Les

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SWCA 3084, SWHF 495, PGCA 3064

Great post, Les. I can add that a lot of LEO are not gun-guys, at least that was the norm a couple decades ago. I remember at one of our certifications, one of the officers that rode with me as senior officer started shooting and his cylinder fell out! I know it was probably just a loose crane screw, but geez, he was my back-up!!! Bet that thing was dirty too! haha

Got to put at least one cylinder of magnums through it. It is one of the reasons I put the oversize Sile grips on it.

I believe these are from the Michigan State police. These were their issued backup weapons. I e-mailed a sales rep at Kieslers and she only said it was a batch of guns from a "state police contract". Her words not mine. Some quick online research seemed to confirm this.

Does anybody know when or if these were mothballed and put away in storage? Any recommendations how to polish out surface abrasions or simple holster scratches?

It would be interesting to see what a letter would say about these. If I had one of the few without dings and scratches that have been pictured I would letter it.

I found a PDF that MSP used that stated they used the 640 from 19XX until 2015. They started issuing Glock 17s and 26's as a backup in mid 2015.

Not sure if the 640 I ordered is going to work it's way into being a backup gun but I'm definitely going to carry it.

Mine came today, a couple of twins, both were tight and showed likely carry a lot shot a little life so far, had the old style cylinder release, a couple of spots of minor rubbbing, little nicks in the Goodyears. One had the red nail polish on front sight mod. FFL bud took one and I the other. Late Christmas gift for the new wife. My 396 will keep its spot riding withme.

My 640-1's showed up on 11Jan17. They both had been carried and dropped.

The early one BUC29XX had ZERO cylinder movement laterally or front to back. It has the old style thumb piece. Inside it has forged parts with the exception of the trigger that is MIM. It was totally dry and had NO carbon at all in the lockwork. It has the matt Scotch-Brite 7448 finish and with just a little massaging all the dings with the exception of a line of pits on the cylinder and a divot in the trigger guard went away. It has the Uncle Mike's 59007 grips.

The later one COM94XX has a just perceptible lateral motion on the cylinder and none front to back. It has the new kidney shaped MIM thumb piece. It has MIM lockwork. It had a little carbon fouling and old grease internally. It had the dull shiny finish the late 1990 guns have. I Mothered it and now the only dings still visible are a couple pits on the top strap and one on the side plate by the trigger guard grip screw (the one at the 6 o'clock position). It has the Uncle Mike's 59007 grips.

Of the 2, COM94XX has the better trigger.

I plan to get a Wolff 30323 Rebound spring pack of 14 pound springs and set them up like my other J frames.

Eventually I will swap out the 59007 Grips with Crimson Trace LG 350's.

They will also be getting Mika Black Round Cut Pocket holsters.

Lastly I will replace the plastic mainspring swivels with steel ones because even though they are functional I loathe plastic parts in revolvers.

I am very happy with both revolvers and would sincerely like to thank Mr Rippert for giving the heads-up on the availability .

Thank you sir

Serger:

I forgot to mention that in my write up on my gun...the plastic mainspring swivel. I have at least four centennial style 357s now with those plastic parts, and would love to switch them out for just the reason that you cited. I have bought a couple of modern 1911 style guns, one a Colt and the other a Kimber, and both had plastic mainspring housings, I bought machined metal (one steel, the other aluminum) and swapped them out. I cannot see why they put these plastic parts in otherwise fine revolvers and semi-autos.

Can you share a source to obtain steel replacements?

Thanks for bringing that up, I had forgotten, even though I noted it during disassembly.

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SWCA 3084, SWHF 495, PGCA 3064

I hope Serger has a source for the steel J frame mainspring replacements swivels as well that he can share. I've been searching internet parts suppliers for the past two days and can only come up with the plastic ones for that part number.

Maybe someone knows what S&W model still uses the steel one and can share the model pistol and part number as an alternative.

Thanks for any help Serger.

Numrich has steel mainspring swivels , the down side is they are over 6 dollars each.


Mainspring Rod Swivel, Steel Gun Parts | 312150A | Numrich Gun Parts

Thanks Serger, I looked on Numrich but I guess my searching skills are weak.

You should be able to click on the second line

Thanks, Serger!!! I just ordered four of them, one for each of my modern J Magnum revolvers: my "new" 640-1, my 640-1 Pro Series, my 340 PD, and my M&P 340.

I have an account with them, and everything was already on file, so it won't be long until that little nit picking back of your mind irritant is taken care of!! Thinking about those 1911s.... What really irritated me was that for example on the Kimber, you had a gun that retails for well over a thousand dollars, and they put a plastic mainspring housing on it. Geeze...I would have been happy to pay a few more bucks to have had an all metal gun, so I have to find one for sale somewhere on the Internet, and try to match finish, correct checkering, etc., then buy it, then install it....for a few bucks they could have just tacked on the cost. Same with the Colt. By the way, check all your new Colt and Kimber 1911s... I'll bet they all have the plastic MS housing. Just a pet peeve. Rant over.

Thanks again for the lead on the replacement part!!

Best Regards, Les

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SWCA 3084, SWHF 495, PGCA 3064

serger, I had already clicked the link you provided ordered two and a couple of other small parts I've been needing.

You made it easy for myself and les.b

Thanks again.

Thanks, serger!!! One on the way. If that plastic piece would give way, (although never heard of that), the gun would be inoperative! Wonder why plastic??? Guess we'll never know.

Thanks for that link. From my phone, I can't see any details; is that swivel also correct for my current production 642-1 Pro Series?

TruckGun,

When I did my search for the swivel I used the model 60 page that Numrich has. I figured that gun was new enough to fit the bill. Then when I crossed referenced it to the model 640 the number was the same. So I ASSume it's right for your 642-1 Pro. It seems a generic part for the J frames from about 1970 on. Hope this helps.

(But when you ASSume it makes an *** out of u and me). Isn't that how the mnemonic goes?

And Ya'll are quite welcome.

Got mine yesterday ImageUploadedByTapatalk1484449255.927850.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1484449269.776793.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1484449289.342250.jpg


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Jbearwebb,
Once you clean it up, I'm pretty sure you will be very happy you got such a good deal for the price.

Did it have much carbon on the inside?

I can't tell for sure, I'm in my iPhone and the picture is pretty small, but it looks like you may have lucked out and got one with the forged parts versus the MIM parts. I'll have to look on something with a bigger screen!!!

Congratulations, when you get it cleaned up, you will have a very unique and cool gun.

Best Regards, Les

__________________
SWCA 3084, SWHF 495, PGCA 3064

I don't feel like the interior was very dirty. I simply took the grips off and opened the face plate and took that pic. If you can enlarge it you will see it was not bad. A little dried lube ( I think) and that's all. This revolver has signs of being carried a lot but not fired very much. I will post some more pics when I polish it


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Les,

He's got a forged one. Looks just like the inside of my BUC29XX.

Very cool. Luck of the draw. One can only wish that they still made them like they used to, but progress has its upsides as well.

Best Regards, Les

__________________
SWCA 3084, SWHF 495, PGCA 3064

Polished up pretty good I think....ImageUploadedByTapatalk1484484943.609746.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1484484956.890919.jpg


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BTW: my serial number is BUC08xx...anyone know the manufacture date?


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I completely forgot to look for MIM vs Forged on the ones I ordered. Looked over for fit and function, checked and found nice triggers on both, let my FFL buddy pick the one he wanted and walked off with the other.

Just checked the one I brought home and found a forged trigger. Do all these have a slightly widened smooth trigger.

I found mine fit perfectly in a nice small wooden box that somebody had sent me some custom smoked salmon in it. Had a Native style killer whale pictograph on it. Put a bow on it and gave it to the wife. She thanks me then says we can have it with breakfast. I told her we would break our teeth and she had better open the box before she made to many plans for the contents. I think she liked it better than smoked salmon.

I fired my 640-1 revolver today. It went bang every time. The Apex spring and firing pin kit worked well. I was able to keep all my shots in the black of a 25 yd. bull's eye. target. I shot 38 SP, 38 SP+P, and moderately loaded 357 Mag ammo with 160 gr. cast bullets. I have a pair of Altamont grips on the way. This revolver will not be polished so as not to obliterate the etched lettering and S&W logo. There are no deep scratched or gouges. The light scuffed finish give it character. I am very pleased with this one. I think we all got good deals.

Plastic J-Frame main spring swivels;
This looks like a very simple part. Has anyone tried to make a metal one for themselves? It should not be too hard. Brass material should work as well as steel and be better than plastic. The next time I have a reason to open up my 640-1 or 638 Bodyguard I will look into making two of them and post the results here..

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DRB #2276

Mine went to the chilly range with me yesterday before Gina and I went up to Santa Fe to have dinner with friends and stay the night. It shot fine - honestly, not as well as I'd hoped, given the smooth trigger - just an ordinary J-frame.

I shot it with a variety of loads (from target Specials to heavy Magnums) and decided there's nothing wrong with the Speer short barrel 135-gr .38 Special +P loading that shot to point of aim.

When I cleaned it, I did a light brushing with a Scotch Brite pad to take some of the albedo away from the "buffing wheel" polish it had obviously gotten before coming to me. I like the Ergo Delta Grips on it - they point amazingly and suck up the recoil well - so they're staying on for the time being. Wearing it right now in a Remora "reholsterable" IWB.

__________________
Now go make God proud...

What are those grips?


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Ergo J frame Delta grip.

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Now go make God proud...

Yep, last Thursday had a range day with old bear and picked my 640 u at the dealer there. No need to bore ya'll with pics - it looked pretty much like everyone else's. 640-1, 'BUC' s/n prefix.
Covered in what's probably dried/gummed WD-40. Insides just a little gummy.
We took it straight to the range and shot a variety of .38's and .357's. Old bear forced me to shoot some bear loads through it. He has masochistic tendencies.

Shot great, good groups until my right hand started to throb just a bit.
Saturday, did complete disassembly and soak in Acetone. More dried WD-40 inside. It all scrubbed off.
Reassembled and lubed, followed by normal cleaning. A bit slicker.

The Uncle Mike's rubber grips are just too worn for my taste to keep.

Conundrum - Grips..... - the only rubber grips I like are the Pach Compacs, but of course they're ugly as Rosie O'Donnell.
Don't want wood boot grips because I will be occasionally shooting magnums in it. Want something with a little more bulk, and finger grooves, but not huge.
Not a fan of the S&W 'Banana's' nor the J-round Targets.
Some S&W J-round Combats would be nice, but I'm not into spending that much.
So - guess I'll be deciding between some Altamonts or the Pach Compacs.
Any other ideas?

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Ret'd LEO
SWCA #2275

I like the hogue rubber bantams for the j frames.

Hogue G10 grips. Got a pair recently and I'm really liking them. Don't know about shooting magnums a lot with them, no recoil absorption, just like wood in that regard.

Hogue Bantams (minimalist), or Hogue Centennial Tamers - for excellent ergonomics...

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Regards - GCF

Old Corp, If you like the Uncle Mike's 59007 grip and just want a replacement for the used ones you have on your revolver Ebay has a set right now for fiftyfour dollars American. My grips were in "about new" shape. And they fit me.

do a search with this wording and you'll see the listing:

Factory Smith & Wesson S&W J Frame RB Uncle Mike's Rubber Combat Grips

Today I finally had the opportunity to shoot my 640-1.
Using my slightly reduced 357 hand loads (more like something between 38 special and 38 +P).
I compared it with my Model 60-14 and my Ruger SP101 spurless d/a only.

The trigger on the 640-1 is way better.

I'm sure it was shot a lot but can't imagine it being fired that much more than mine. I'm thinking it must have been enhanced by a very experienced smith.

Now I am going to have to do something about these other revolvers!



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I got mine today. Mine came with a well worn set of Hogue grips. Has minimal scratching but nothing crazy. Poorly painted front sight also. Little bit of cylinder wiggle front to back, lock up seems okay. Not really sure what's bad or whats good but I had my dad take a look at it, and he gave it a clean bill of health. This is my first foray into wheel guns and my dad is familiar with the smiths.


I ran a half a box of .38's through it, and 5 magnums. I'm going try cleaning it up a bit, pop the sideplate off and get it properly lubed up.

Got mine in yesterday. No pics yet, but I will eventually update with pics.

Mine is the quintessential " carried alot, shot a little".

Rubber grips are completely worn out. The right side grip is worn smooth, and the back, where the two halves come together, doesn't meet up - a big split in the seam.

Cylinder is very sluggish when trying to rotate - it takes a 2-finger pinch grip to grab hold of the cylinder to rotate it. Cylinder release button (older style) takes a surprising amount of force to open cylinder.

I'll take the side-plate off when I get a chance, definitely take pics of the innards. It needs a good clean and lube prior to shooting.

Finish is covered in scratches. None very heavy, but enough that the FFL commented on how bad it looked. Front sight is unpainted, with a few small "oops" nicks.

That being said, the trigger pull is very nice - long but smooth, with just a hint of stacking before release.

I really don't think it was fired much at all. Very little carbon on cylinder face, bore is good.

I think an overnight soak in Ed's Red will solve many of the problems.

Got mine.
It's dirty with red paint on the front sight.
Pretty scratched up but no dents.
Most importantly lockup is tight on all cylinders.
My 642 has about 300 rounds through it and this 640 seems just as tight.
Just dry firing it, the trigger seems really smooth.

The grips don't seem badly worn at all.

I'll clean it up and check the inside before I try to polish it.
What's best for removing light scratches?
Polishing compound and sandpaper?
Compound and Dremel polishing wheel?
00 grade steel wool?

At this point I would say it was money well spent.
Can't wait to shoot it.

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<><

STAY AWAY FROM THE STEEL WOOL.

having said that, steel wool can impart steel into the stainless and you can end up with rust spots on your gun.

I used 400 grit wet/dry sand paper and emery cloth then Mothers Metal polish on the one I really shined up.

If you want the dull brushed shine the use the Grey 3m "scotchbrite" pad number 7448

This thread sure got some attention. I for one am glad I got into it close to the beginning. I really like what I got at a great price.

Many of us would discourage the use of the ubiquitous Dremel tool as well. If you really think that metal wool is necessary, bronze wool is excellent. I keep it to use in removing light rust from blued firearms. I understand that the stainless guns are a different situation, and that they are the same color all the way through, so it is easy to get over exuberant when cleaning them up, and end up with some areas really bright, light striations running in different directions, and so forth. I ultimately decided to leave mine pretty much as it was, except for disassembling it and scrubbing out the congealed old lubricant, relubing and reassembling, and installing new stocks. But of those above who "refinished" their 640, I think the poster who "bead blasted" his ended up with one of the nicest, most glare free and uniform of all the attempts I've seen. But again, this is something that I would leave to someone with experience at bead blasting, I wouldn't want this project to be my initial venture!!

Edit: here is the post I was referring to, from way back on page three or so... I am going to edit it a little for brevity, but look how nice the gun looks after bead blasting, and is also much less reflective:

My apologies to qballwill for the liberties I took with his post. I deleted several of his photos to emphasize the contrast between before and after. Original post is I think on page three of this thread. I very much admire the rehab on his 640-1, and think that the addition of the new stocks made a really professional touch to a great refinishing effort


Just some random thoughts.

Best Regards, Les

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SWCA 3084, SWHF 495, PGCA 3064