Originally Posted by Nightowl

I have been buying Smiths since I bought my Model 29-2 back in 1968. There have been good ones and bad ones in any decade I have bought guns. Back in the '70's almost all guns I checked had timing issues, brand new from the factory. Actions were gritty and any Smith bought new needed to be smoothed in order to be decent enough to shoot. Guns in the '90's almost always have hand/ratched interface tightness in the last part of the pull. Now we have barrel center issues and firing pin issues. I love Smiths, but I always check them to make sure they time properly and have no obvious issues before I buy. Well, except for on line purchases. I just have to take my chances with them. From my limited experience and information gleaned here, I think guns up until around 1970, and guns of the 1990's are probably the best. Still many need some cleaning, or smoothing to function the way I want them to. What I cannot understand is, with all the modern machinery and tools, that Smith cannot line up a barrel properly dead center, ever time, make a gun that fires ever time like the old timers would, and make the cylinder holes line up perfectly with the barrel.