I recently purchased this custom model 640, mistakenly believing the seller that it was a special S&W Performance Center run from the early 1990s.

Others from this board pointed me in the right direction. Thanks to TSmith49 and colt saa. Turns out this a Jack Weigand 4PJ Executive, .38 special, conversion done most likely in 1995.

Apparently a number of these conversions were made, but I haven't seen too many posted here, so I thought I'd share mine in detail.

The original gun is model 640, no dash, serial number BRM77XX. Apparently made around the middle or late 1994, I believe. Chambered in .38 special, I'm guessing +P.

Here's a great article preserved on Jack Weigand's website from around 1995 that describes the conversion in detail.

Smith and Wesson 640 Weigand 4PJ Executive package

Some of the features of the gun I have from the conversion...

Jarvis 2-1/4" match grade one piece barrel/shroud with hybraport and dovetail adjustable sight. Appears that others use a similar barrel by Jarvis today, such as Gemini Customs, I believe, but with different porting options.

Bead blast entire finish.

Full length extractor, with front extractor lock replaced with a custom yoke detent lock up.

Custom thumb cylinder release. Square but narrower.

Polished trigger, polished pins, screws and other external parts.

Internal trigger job, polished internal parts. (stock springs from what I can tell).

Craig Spegel wood grips. Signed and dated 11/1994.

Here's a bunch of detailed pics for anyone who might be interested. I'm curious if anyone has any further info about these conversions.

My biggest question is, what possible options are there for replacing the front dovetail sight to either a tritium night sight or a fiber optic sight?

The first photos are just some general photos of the gun. Sorry I'm not that great that taking pics. The W on the barrel is Weigand's logo.

Some details of the gun....

Photos 1 and 2 are of the porting and Jarvis barrel. I haven't shot the gun yet. Reports are recoil and muzzle flip will be astoundingly reduced. However, I'm not looking forward to blast back. I'm hoping to shoot and carry the hottest .38+P I can find in factory load, which appears to be 158 grain buffalo bore, semi-wad. But I also have some speer golddots as a nice conventional alternative. Not sure the unjacketed buffalo bores are a good idea with this ported barrel. Any other recommendations for a good hot defensive .38 special? Too bad it's not .357.

Photo 3 is of the Spegel grips. The grips are nice, but have a few scratches. They're slightly oversized compared to what I'm used to in a J-frame grip, plus they're too slippery for my tastes. They are going in storage in exchange for a set of rubber boot grips and I have with the S&W logo.

Photo 1: shows the internals. I cleaned and lubed the gun after I did some additional polishing. Normal areas were worked over during the conversion and trigger was very good, but I spent a few more hours on it, for a tiny bit of gain. Springs are stock and will be replaced with slightly lower power springs.

Photo 2: Shows the custom extractor, which is apparently a full length extractor found on 3" guns I believe. As shown, it will fully extract a .38 case completely out of the cylinder. All 2" J-frames should have this extractor!

Photo 3: This is what the gun looks like now, with my S&W rubber boot grip. I'm hoping to find a better front sight replacement to make the package complete for my use.

Hamilton Bowen will make a tritium front sight for you, but it will cost as much as the revolver. Maybe only a bit less, since you have the dovetail already.

You could also try XS Sight Systems. They have a model for the 640, maybe that could be used on your 640. They offer two models: "Standard Dot" and "Big Dot". Both can have the tritium installed. Give them a call to see what they have that can fit your Weigand barrel.

I have used the "Big Dot" on several defensive hanguns and am very pleased.

todd

__________________
Blessed, not lucky

From what I have seen available from XS Sights, the J-frame sights are for pinned models, not dove-tailed models. Their other revolver-sights for S&W may have a dove-tail close to your specs. I would give them a call and see what they have to say.

__________________
GA Carry member
Vietnam Vet

Man that is really sweet!
clif58

Wow! That is one sweet piece! Carry it, shoot it, enjoy it.

That is one very nice revolver Sir, hope you enjoy - I know I would.

Thanks for the kind words!

Thanks for sharing your spiffy J frame with us. That is one sweet revolver!

IF you contact Craig Spegel, he will refinish his grips. He may be able to throw some checkering on them. IMHO, he makes the finest grips available for a very reasonable price.

Thanks. I thought I would just give one more try...anyone have any thoughts on the front sight and where to source a replacement. I've given up on tritium, but maybe a fiberoptic. I'm just wondering if they used a "standard" size that I might be able to source from somewhere.

Have you tried calling XS sights-I've talked to someone there twice and they are very helpful-even if you have to send the revolver to them-he told me there turn around time is less than a week-that was on a 1911-but I'm sure they would have something that would work on the dovetail-let us know what you decide,and again that ia a sweet piece,
clif58

Finally was able to shoot the thing this weekend. I was suprised at how much the recoil was reduced compared to the many other J frames I've shot.

I shot the following bullets. Specs are from online based on shooting out of 2" J frames. I didn't have a cronograph. It appears the porting probably reduces velocity by about 50+ ft/sec, from what I'm reading.

CCI Blazer .38 special (not +P) 158gr, 750 ft/sec

Speer Gold Dot, short barrel .38 +P, 135gr, 844 ft/sec

Buffalo Bore, 38 +P+, 158gr, 1040 ft/sec

The Blazer was an absolute pleasure to shoot, other than being dirty, smokey ****** ammo. Almost no muzzle flip. Of course actual velocity was probably close to 700 ft/sec. There was noticably heavier recoil when shooting this exact same round out of my much larger and heavier S&W 65, 3".

The flame in the photo below is from this round. Although I never saw any flame when shooting. I pulled this out of a video still.

The Gold Dot is a very nice shooting round, a little snappy. Definately know it's there, but not a problem at all and it was much easier to shoot in the 640 ported, than my old model 60. I'm guessing it's moving at around 800 ft/sec. Which is a little slow for my tastes, but this bullet get such great reviews otherwise. This will probably be my city carry round.

The Buffalo Bore is putting out just below .357 mag velocities. In my old model 60 +P, this round was extremely unpleasent to shoot. In my titanium 360PD, this was so painful, I only shot one at a time and probably a grand total of 3 or 4 rounds. But in the 640 ported, the round was much nicer. It was still snappyj. You knew you were shooting a hot load, but not bad. I could still get off good controlled shots. I'm guessing velocities were somewhere around 950 ft/sec. This is awesome for a heavy .38 +P, but I'm not sure like the bullet design.

I have a hard time debating whether to carry this one or the Gold dots. I wish Speer would up charge their Gold Dots or Buffalo Bore load Gold dots instead of the soft lead semi-wad cutter.

This isn't my first choice as a concealed carry gun, but one of the reasons I like it is that it just shoots so nicely and is easy to pack away IWB, compared to my other options.

Anyway, thanks for viewing.

Howdy, some info. I have a PC 640 Carry Comp. See pic below. It was sent back to S&W for a complete going through and bead blast. 1 0f 150 made. Very nice to shoot and it is now my main CCW carry in an ankle holster. Note longer barrel so full length extractor...

I contacted XS, the dove tailed front sight on mine is a 3rd Gen dovetail, the XS big dot sits too low as a result so I had a S&W white dot put on (ordered a 3rd Gen White dot). I'm still not happy and might try the XS anyways.

I sent the Spegels back. Craig refinished/refurbished for only $10!

Hope this helps,

Nice revolver for sure!!

On the sight I would measure the width - length - height of the dovetail & start looking around or contact Weigand & ask..
Might be a standard Smith Auto sight or something similar..See Above!!

Congrats on a great revolver..

The Spegels look too good to be in storage..

Love the full length ejector rod too..

Just wanted to put my 2 cents into this discussion. I own 2 Weigand Model 640's, one in .38 special & the other in .357 magnum. Jack Weigand built both of these guns for me back in 1994 & 1995 respectively. They are my favorite carry guns, though I have tucked the .38 away in the safe to pass along to my son someday. Jack is a master pistolsmith, though he no longer accepts any work, and is a very nice man to boot. Both of the models he built for me were flawlessly executed, and at the time they were done cost about $325.00 each, excluding the initial cost of the guns. That was at the time, an incredibly good price for all the work performed. I don't know what you gave for your Centennial, but I can say that what you got for your money was better than anything the S&W Performance Center was turning out at the time. As for those Spegel Grips that came with your gun, these days Spegel's Coco-Bolo grips are going for nearly $300.00 for the Presentation grade. Thanks.

FWIW. About that front sight you're looking for. Jack had installed Tritium sights on both my 640s, and he may still have a few in stock, or at least be able to point you in the right direction to a source. It's worth a call to find out. However, after firing a few rounds the ports do tend to obscure the tritium night sight with burnt powder, and if I had it to do over, I would've just stuck with the original dovetail sights like the one on your gun. The tritium sight added 60.00 onto the cost of the conversion. Hope this helps.

I am sure this is a concern of many on this forum. Thanks for the info.

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GA Carry member
Vietnam Vet

Now, THAT is an impressive sight seeing that flame come out all around the revolver!

Those ports look nasty! I like the PC640 ported. Very nice too!

I also have one of these, made back in 94 / 95. Sent my stock 640 (SS / steel frame .38) to Jack Weigand and he added the Hybra-Port barrel, .357 ejector rod, action job, chamfered chambers, polished the pins and trigger. Put on the Spegel stocks. Only difference from yours is I had mine with a tritium front sight. As I recall, Weigand charged only $300 for the package, and it was called the "Street Fighter."

It was an outstanding carry gun. Never had a 2" shoot to point of aim for me, but this one does. The ported match barrel has very little flip, recoil comes straight back into the hand. Light and heavy bullets shoot to virtually same POI at 25 yards, with excellent accuracy. It turned a "belly gun" into an honest to God fighting gun...for 5 shots anyway.

The barrel does look like a jet engine firing in dim light, but it isn't distracting after a little practice. Carried it as a back up to my Glock in uniform and plainclothes. Shot the hell out of it in practice and several schools.

Unfortunately, after a couple years, it got run over by a car...long story...and was destroyed! I salvaged the stocks and had Mr. Weigand build me another on the 642 Airweight frame. This one is significantly lighter, but shoots just as well. I still carry it daily and shoot it often. The finish is worn, as are the stocks, but it's still beautiful in my eyes. It's my only "custom" handgun. Jack Weigand is a very pleasant guy to work with.

Only downside is the tritium capsule got burned up from the gases in the front port...it lasted fine for 7 or 8 years though. Weigand no longer makes the guns. I've procrastinated, but I'd like to have a front sight with a gold bead made up.

Can't say enough about this shooter...I'll carry it 'til I die.

[QUOTE=Brian894x4;135668914]The Gold Dot is a very nice shooting round, a little snappy. Definately know it's there, but not a problem at all and it was much easier to shoot in the 640 ported, than my old model 60. I'm guessing it's moving at around 800 ft/sec. Which is a little slow for my tastes, but this bullet get such great reviews otherwise. This will probably be my city carry round.

I have a hard time debating whether to carry this one or the Gold dots. I wish Speer would up charge their Gold Dots or Buffalo Bore load Gold dots instead of the soft lead semi-wad cutter.

QUOTE]

Curious still as to why you seem unsure of the Gold Dot loading. I carry these in a number of J and K frames and simply put, they are SUPER destructive on contact. Last ones I dug out of ballistic gel were almost .60 caliber. At the speeds you're listing, I'd call it a day and sleep VERY soundly with that load.

THANKS for sharing the detailed pics of a SUPER nice revolver.

Wow, what a good lookin' gun. Love those Spegels, too.

I have one for sale at this very moment... if you're interested. Would entertain a reasonable offer for a spendy gun. They are as good as or better than anyone would expect of a custom Centennial.

jack

Jack- email or pm me info and price.

PM me as well, lets start the bidding war!

[email protected]

I felt compelled to add to this cool post. I own the actual cover gun from the American Handgunner article. It came with a copy of the magazine and a letter from Weigand to the original owner. The pistol was in great shape but had been fired plenty so I've never hesitated to fire it myself. I just recently acquired a 642 no dash with the same package. Very surprised to come across it. The grips have darkened up on the cover gun but neither is helped by my substandard photos. It was nice to read that other people were enjoying this well executed J frame package! The top one is the cover gun and one more by itself.

Ha! I'll chime in - I have a Weigand 4PJ Executive that I had created many moons ago. Right after Cameron Hopkins article published.
Called in & talked to Mrs. Weigand and had them stop right before the bead blasting. So the Airweight it's built on is brushed with the cool porter barrel. I like the look. Got some Hogue Bantam grips for it that are just right.
I also would like to find a different front sight. My tritium is about completely dim after all these years. But even when new, the sight blacked out after a few shots.
It's a keeper!

I Had Jack make me one of these on the 90's. But I had mine built on the ruger sp101 frame. It was called Tame the Beast at the time. I had mine made with the Tritium sight, but it wore out. So I replaced it with a gold dot bead. Don't know were I found the front sight but it installed very easy.
Great gun would not mind carrying it as my CCW.