Interesting thread. I purchased a 625PC a couple of years ago. It did need one trip back to S&W because of frequent failure-to-fire malfunctions. A new firing pin and bushing fixed that problem and it has been flawless ever since, but it definitely begged the question of how a gun could "excape" the Performance Center in the first place, incapable of shooting!!

Re the "slab sided barrel", while I've seen that on many of the PC guns like the 627s and the UDRs, and while beauty exists, or not, in the eye of the beholder, the 625PC does not get that treatment. I love the barrel shape and contour of the PC gun, prefer it to standard 625s with the full underlug, but again, that might just be me.

Also, while I don't know the 'on-the-street' cost differential between the PC and the standard, I don't think it's that great.