Hey all.

I’ve been talking myself into a J frame for a while now. I seem to be particularly fond of the “humpback” snubbies such as the 649 in .357 and 638.

I really like seeing those snubbies and J-frames that aren’t “standard” items or those that have had custom work done to them. My favorites are the ones that have longer than “normal” barrels.

I’d like to ask you all if you too enjoy seeing these revolvers? Do you have a favorite that you own, once owned or saw at some point and it stuck with you making you want one like it? Of course if you have pics of examples of what I’m talking about....even better. Please post them along with a story of it. A story is always better with a pic.

Thank you all for your time. Have a good Sunday.

Larry

My ONLY J-frame currently is dead stock except for a set of custom combat grips... but it’s a sort of non-standard factory offering from back in its day. I’m referring to a Model 60-4 which is a 3” barrel with full lug and adjustable sights from the factory while retaining its 38 Spl chambering. I added ebony smooth combats with finger groove that have much better (for me) shape, both aesthetically and ergonomically than the originals. I’ll try to post a picture later.

Froggie

PS Here is my 60-4 at home with its speed loaders and a S&W marked knife.

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I like seeing custom J-frames, or just custom guns in general, but I currently don't have any custom Js. The only things I've done to mine are painting the sights and changing the grips.

Here’s mine...a scratched up pre-Chief’s that I rescued from an LGS.

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

Not sure if you're just wanting to see SW J's but here's my 1960 Miroku 2" snubby that was used by Japan's police forces:

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My only j is a 3” model 60 Ladysmith.
Not really common, but not exactly rare either.

Here is my 'stock' Mod. 49..... no mods, and very little use.

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Then there is the 649 that took it out of cc rotation and sent it into retirement....

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And a favorite K-frame 10-5....

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I love modified guns too, and on J’s I never see anything but bobbed hammers and different grips. Maybe rarely a front sight change.

I have a few J's that are a little out of the norm.
36-6 the ideal trail gun


31-1 3"


36-1 Target


431PD & 432PD in 32 H&R Mag


Mod 40, Mod 640, and 940


Pre 30 in 32 S&W Long (Actually a Improved I Frame)


Mod 34-1 and 63-1 .22RF

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Nothing a little sanding and polishing couldn't remove. Got a Dremel?

Model 10-5, 1 5/8” barrel, bobbed hammer, great action all I need now is a set of secret service grips

http://smith-wessonforum.com/attachm...1&d=1579461398

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...and a street carry Model 10-5 I put together for my dad (like he would have ever carried it! ). When my brother inherited it he had me return the standard hammer so he could shoot it single action.

Froggie

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My 640 is a favorite in my EDC rotation




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My edc 649, it rides with me every at night work. While not custom, there have been a number of "upgrades" applied to it in order to meet my needs.

1- Hard chromed internals for corrosion resistance. It can get a little steamy in my pocket during the summer.

2- Wilson carry spring kit. A decent pull while still 100% reliable.

3- Hogue grip with talon grip tape over back strap. Helps the grip blend in with my pocket.

4- Dawson FO front sight. Given that I work nights, it should have been a dawson tritium front sight, but I really really like this FO sight. It fits perfectly in the rear grove.

If I could find someone that would refinish this gun black for a reasonable cost I would jump on it. Otherwise it shoots great, checks all of my required boxes, and rides comfortably in my pocket all night.

Pictured here with 130gr HST reloads loaded to a light 357mag.

Not strictly what the OP wanted, but as close as I can get: 3" Colt Detective Special.

I did the same on my 642-1.

My only “modified” J-frame is this Model 60 acquired from ex-Cincinnati PD LEO and armorer.....

Great carry gun!

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Abandoned my J frame air weights for this original air weight model 12

In the late 1990s, the NC Police Chiefs Association presented me with a custom 642 done by Jack Weigand for serving as their President after a number of years as a Director. Jack no longer does custom guns but makes and sells his parts to other gunsmiths. My 642 has a custom barrel that is about 2.5 inches and ejection rod by Jack. The barrel is ported and has a replaceable front sight. It is engraved from the Chief's Assoc. and shown in my avatar here. I carry it often and it is by far the best shooting J frame I have ever owned. I do own other Smith, Ruger, Colt, and Taurus small frames. Some are 357, 327, or 32. Some are custom, two by Magnaport. I have seen some nice looking work by others but Weigand and Magnaport are the only ones I have shot enough to be confident in. Magnaport has also done custom L, N frames, and autos for me. Good custom work is worth every nickel you spend and makes a lot of difference if you find yourself there when the fecal matter hits the metal osculating device.

Kind of an afterthought here......my non standard "shoots around corners" model 442-1 "Pro Series" (a misnomer) is fit with a titanium cylinder. My apologies, but I needed a project. On this diet of titanium, overall weight was reduced about 2 ounces.

Remember though, the "non-standard" part of this canted barrel gun is my label. S&W still thinks it's ok. It's been back twice, and been pronounced as "meets out standard".

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Ret. LE, FA Instr, S&W Armorer

In 1995 I had Weigand take a S&W 640 and do their executive package. It has a 2 3/4" ported barrel. Then he bead blasted it and polished the cylinder flutes. Has a set of older Spegel boot grips. Carried a long time as an undercover agent. Carried the older Corbon 115 grain bullets. Pretty cool for a modified J frame. Dont have any pics but you can Google Weigand j frame and find some. Gemini Customs does one similar now. Will try and take some good pics for everyone.

Probably the rarest of the J-frames is this Etherium model, which was actually crafted to be lighter than air. Here's a picture of it when I aired it out last April 1.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

I bought a 60-4 when they first hit the market. I really wanted a 4” barrel but they only made them in 3”. However, I was nearly blown away when I discovered how well i could shoot this fine little revolver. It made a wonderful field revolver and was a perfect “side” to my over/under bird gun. Many a sitting rabbit (both cottontail and snowshoe) as well as a wounded or sitting grouse was harvested with that fine piece.



FWIW,
Dale53

649 with the new grips. I bought off Ebay for to much money. Oh well 20191106_211120.jpg

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H_Richard... as to the Blued "J" in your 5th pic from the top...; (Nice J-Frame Humpbacks by the way), what kind of grip extension/device is that nestled between the stocks? Also, do you know if that can be ran concomitantly with a Tyler-T grip as well. I think that if I could run that with the Tyler-T and the Stock OEM Magna's that could make for the perfect J-Frame grip for my beefy hands. Thanks in advance! And as to that "Pre-M30"... I'm droolin' over that .32Long!

-Hams

Apologies if I'm posting out of turn, but I believe that "extension" is the safety lever on the 40. You have to squeeze it to fire the gun.

Hands down the best 2" I have ever owned.

I don't have a picture, but a friend has a Centennial - I don't know if it is a 640 or 642 - with three inch barrel.

Nice little J frame. Shoots real good. Single action is whisper smooth.

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There are some beautiful snubbies shown in this thread. I have a more contemporary 642 Talo Performance Center that I like. It has a wood insert in the grip, is cut for moon clips, polished flutes and screws and the performance center enhanced action.

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M&PC FS BG Shield+ 642 686+

I have a 2" Model 60 with adj. sights that I bought new back in 1985 or so. I still wear it around the place or when fishing in Rattlesnake season.

I LOVE Snubbies.

That is guns with barrels under 3".

The 3" revolvers are a class of their own and would need another thread

Since I do teach basic firearms handling, I have several J-frames on hand with various grips mounted so folks can get a feel for things



But not all snubbies are J-frames. The N-frame Night Guards are fantastic snubbies



Sticking with the N-frames, there are some 2" Pug nosed revolvers that I really like. The 8 shot Model 327 as well as the 6 shot 45 Long Colt Model 625s



And we can not forget the Models 19 and 66



And of course we have the 2 5/8" barreled UDR/PDR revolvers in 357 Magnum, 41 Magnum and 44 Magnum




A personal favorite of mine is this 2 3/8" Model 25 chambered for 45ACP that was built be Austin Behlert




Following along that same concept is this 2 5/8" John Jovino Astra based TERMINATOR chambered in 41 Magnum




Then there arere some 5 shot Taurus snubbies that I really like. Their total Titanium models are fantastic The top two are 41 Magnums while the next one is a 45 Long Colt in shadow grey




BTW, did I mention . . . . . I LOVE Snubbies.

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"Acta non verba"

I have a few although most are cataloged I do consider these as non-standard J frames.

Mod 36 Nickel 1976-1977. I bought this from the original owner which bought it new. It's odd in the fact although its Nickel it has a flash chromed Hammer and Trigger. Apparently a factory mix-up.


60-1 Ashland model.


60-2 NY-1


940 no dash 9mm

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I've got three of these.
Airweight 637-2 with titanium cylinders reamed for 9x19mm & moonclips.
One has Hogue laser sight (laser switch modified for easier activation), and the other two have Altamont rosewood combat grips.
Weigh 12 ounces with the combat grips.

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Model 31-1 3" fitted with a .32 Magnum cylinder. This one is reaallly fun to shoot, and makes a nice carry in anything but the warmest weather.

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I don't want to get this thread off on a tangent so feel free to PM me if you feel it's necessary, but how difficult is it to convert a 32 long to a 32 mag? Just a barrel, ejector, and cylinder? I know there are lots of 32s... 327 Federal, 32 Long, 32 Short, 32 H&R Magnum... I want to get my girlfriend into revolvers and I feel like a 32 magnum is the way to do it, but I would prefer to get her into a prelock vintage piece, either a snubby or a 3". I would also prefer that the gun be chambered in whichever of the above will shoot all of the above which I think is either 32 magnum or 327 Federal... or are those the same?

So many 32 questions. Maybe I should just search or start a new thread.

I love all the snubbies guys, keep em coming!

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SWCA 3563
10mm aficionado

.32 mag and .327 Federal are not the same; this was a used cylinder bought off an auction site from a 632, but the 631 & 632 cylinders were the same size as the 31-1. Brownells used to carry replacement cylinders in their factory parts listing, but don't know if they still do _- bought a second new one when they did for another project. Other cylinder parts may be needed or swapped out from the original, and an armorer or gunsmith to adjust/install.


Great starter centerfire gun for working up to recoil for new shooters, & reloaders.

I'm a bit partial to the J-frames. Here, I have two that mean a lot to me. The Model 60 was bought in the early 80's and was my duty back-up and off-duty carry most of the time. It saw a lot of use. I sold it off to a partner of mine in the late 80's - early 90's. He carried it off-duty and in retirement for many years, then contacted me and said he would like something a little lighter. I showed him my 9mm Shield, and he asked if I would be willing to trade. I took it back in a heartbeat. It was a little banged up, so I disassembled it, bead blasted and re-timed it.

The 36 was a gun another retired partner gave me. He had gotten it from a the son of a retired CHP who had carried it as a back-up for many years. It was pretty rusty in spots and I ended up replacing the cylinder and refinishing the gun. Both shoot excellent. I have the original wooden J-frame round-butt grips somewhere, but took them off to preserve them. Too bad I can't remember where they are now.

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Dave Frost

My favorite J for EDC is my 360. The unfluted cylinder makes it pretty unique amongst most Js, it's one of the things that drew me to it.

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Here's my "nonstandard" 640... when I recieved it, I replaced all of the springs (which included a Wilson Combat 8# hammer spring and 14# rebound spring) and lightly polished the rebound slide contact surfaces.

It had about .004 endshake so I installed a .003 endshake bearing and the resulting cylinder gap is now about. 007/.008.

I always liked nickel j frames so I decided to polish it...I started with 800 grit, then went to 1500, and finally finished with a lot of 2000... then polished with Flitz and buffed it out (on low speed) with my dremel and several cotton polishing wheels. I left the cylinder flutes satin to match the nickle plated trigger and also took my time and carefully sanded and polished the front edges of the cylinder.

Finally, I added a new set of Altamont Combat G10 grips.

I forgot that shortly after getting my 642ND 20+ years ago I had a trigger job done, with the factory springs retained. That's it. Nothing to see.

Not really non-standard or really customized ... but a fairly uncommon J-frame standout IMO is my 3" 60-10 .357; think micro-686 with Spegel extended Boot grips....

Good for everything from Urban concealed carry to bumming around in Penn's Woods................

LORD HAVE MERCY!!

What a gorgeous collection on snubs!! Thank you all for entertaining me with your pics and info. I never get tired of seeing and reading about beautiful pistols.

Larry

Apparently nobody sent me the memo, I do have some unusual J Frames. In fact, right up your alley with longer barrels too. I’ll post some pics, but here is what I have off the top of my head.

36-6 3” Matte
60-4 .38Special 3”
60-10 .357mag 3”
632-1 .327 Fed 3”
632-2 .327 Fed 2.5”?
640 .38 Special 3”
642 .38 Special 3”
940 9mm 3”

Not an extensive list, as I tend to prefer collection K and N Frame 3”ers but some of my 3” J Frames, specially the 60-4 3” and the .327’s are just way too cool, and perfect little carry revolvers.

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Here are some Bonus K/L Frame 3”
Pre-Lock Performance Centers






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only mods to my EDC 642 is a #13 rebound spring and a CT grip.
Bought this stainless 3" Taurus model 85 41 years ago, and it remains one of my fave handguns.

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649 with an extra cylinder from TK Custom that runs 9mm and .38 Super...

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442 with TI cyl.

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This isn’t custom but I haven’t seen a lot of them. A 3” -1 model 36

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Two Handguns every day