Since my eyes are starting to go bad and I am starting to have a difficult time seeing the tiny sights of my trusty 49, I was pleasantly surprised to find a shiny new 640 Pro Series at one of the local shops. Of course, I made the mistake of asking to look at it and the next thing I knew it was following me home... Doing the paperwork for it just seems like kind of a blur...
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I got it to the range today, and thought some of you might like a brief review/range report, since there don't seem to be many of these guns out there yet:
The sights are easy for me to see and are tritium 3-dots. The rear sight dots look larger than the front due to having white dots around the tritium vials while the front sight does not. The sights are bright and easy to pick up in dim light.
Fit and function are excellent, the finish has a brushed look to it which is just fine for a working gun, IMO. There is no internal lock on this gun, which is the way I like 'em (not a shot at those who have and like the lock, just my preference). I'm not sure that the fluted barrel actually serves much purpose, other than to look cool, though I suppose the increased surface area might help with cooling and may save a fraction of an ounce in weight.
Speaking of weight, this gun weighs in at 23 ounces, so it's definitely not a feather-weight unobtanium pocket gun. I have always carried steel snubbies in my jeans pockets, so it's not an issue for me, but I could see it making the pockets of dressier pants sag.
The stock grips seem a bit skinny for my hands, but were otherwise comfortable. I swapped them out for the rosewood grips after returning from the range. These are the grips I normally have on my other snubbies, and I kind of wish that I had put them on the gun prior to the range trip as I may have shot better with what I am used to.
The cylinder is also cut for moon clips, and the gun comes with three. They are very easy to bend if you aren't careful, and don't seem very sturdy to me, though this is my first experience with them. I don't see myself carrying a loaded moon clip in my pocket for fear of bending it, but I like that all of the empties are ejected in one package so that I don't have to worry about any casings being partially ejected. The gun will be carried with a moon clip in place so that the first cylinder full of empties is guaranteed to all come out with one whack to the ejector.
The trigger is the smoothest I have had in a new j-frame right out of the box. I find it comparable to my 40 year old model 60 that has had thousands of rounds through it. Trigger pull weight seems comparable to my other J-frames, but I don't have a scale for a true comparison.
As for the shooting, the gun functioned flawlessly and grouped well when the shooter did his part. I found Remington Golden Saber 125gr "magnums" to hit about 2.5" low at 7 yards. 135gr WWB FMJ was closer to point of aim at about 1.5" low, and Remington 158gr LSWCHPs and my 158gr SWC reloads went right about where the front sight dot was on the target.
These targets were shot with the Remington 158grs and my reloads, respectively, offhand at 7 yards. Not bad for the first time out, and good enough for a close encounter in my book.
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Overall, I'm very happy with the gun. It cost me about $200 more than a standard 640, but I'm sure that getting a trigger job, having a cylinder cut for moon clips, and getting 3-dot night sights installed on a standard 640 would run more than that.
Although I love my old 49, I think I am going to be retiring it and carrying the 640 Pro instead.
As a kind of an odd side-note, the model number stamped on the frame (under the yoke) is 640-1, not the -3 I was expecting.
640 Pro Series
Threaded Mode
