If you look for solid reviews on this firearm, you will find a guy shooting one from SHOT, a couple hillbilly type inaccurately discussing one in a mom and pop type shop, a ding dong handling a loaded gun with a glass a hard liquor that he just poured himself (also loads a couple other firearms in the same video), the JM video, and the Nutnfancy video. Aside from the last two reviews there is really nothing of value out there for others that are considering picking up one of these revolvers.

I am asking for info about experiences, thoughts, or ownership of this particular model (or the R8) from anyone on this forum that has something of value to lend to the topic. Your insight is very much welcomed.

Thanks

I have one, it's my woods gun and infrequent CCW.

I like it very well, accurate, light and 8 shots. I don't have an optic or anything like that on it so the rails are in the box.

For reasons unknown to me the barrel decided to unscrew itself not long after I bought it(not many rounds down range either), sent it back to smith and it's been fine ever since.

I use the moon clips but find the long slender 357/38s to be somewhat difficult to finesse into the chambers all at once something that I have not experienced with the 45 ACP moon clipped revolvers.

They don't seem to be very popular I suspect $$$ is the likely reason.

Maggie has been toting one on "the walking dead" so maybe they will jump in popularity!

Welcome to the Forum

Did you use the Forum's search function? There are several threads on those two firearms.


Normally I would do a longer comment for you, but I have a sprained wrist and am typing with one hand.

327TRR8 Questions

R8

Moon Clip Help for TRR8

327 TRR8 M&P R8 differences?

Scandium Tree Fitty Seven's

Soon to be R8 owner ....Anyone else have one ?

Are My scandium framed revolvers less durable?

I am not into tacti-cool guns at all, but I bought a new one recently because the light weight appealed to me. Turned out to be the most accurate revolver I own. I keep a spreadsheet on hand loads for all my revolvers. This TRR8 is accurate with a wider variety of .38 and .357 than my other Smiths in bench rest testing and it's easiest to group well at 15 & 25 yards offhand. The DA & SA trigger is fine as is. It's drawn two interested comments at the range. I'm relearning shooting skills after a 30-plus year lay-off. This TRR8 is sure making it easy!

Yeah, I have no doubt what you're saying is true, but they are sooooo ugly.

I have one and it's my favorite range revolver. VERY accurate and soft shooting. It did have the light strike on double action problem that is common to these guns but a quick trip back to the factory cured it. Makes a great house gun with eight rounds of .38spl +P and a rail under the barrel for a light. I would say get one but they are hard to find.

I have the M&P R8, in my opinion, it is an excellent shooter..

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Dave T

Bought the M&P R8 a couple days after Christmas and have run a couple thousand rounds of my loads through it and absolutely love it.

I have one also and it was worth every penny

Those wood grips look good too dude !

What kind of grips is that?

If I had to do it again I would get the R8 instead probably. The shape/finish/fit of the top and lower tactical rails is lower quality then I expected (but I do like the look). Holsters too are hard to find. I ended up getting some Triple K holster from cowboyneeds.com.

I have an R8, and it has the best out of the box trigger I ever owned, it rivals custom triggers. These 8 shot lightweights are great revolvers, as far as looks go, I don't care, they shoot.

Factory S&W round butt combat grips

I really like mine but out of the box the single action pull was 6 pounds and gritty and my Lyman trigger gauge wouldn't measure the double action pull which means it was something over 11 pounds. For $120 the guy at my LGS brought it down to 2 3/4 & 7 pounds and smooth as silk. I ended up with a really top notch shooter but I was under the impression before I bought it that the Performance Center had already done a trigger job on it.

My TRR8, like others, is shockingly accurate.
Posed shot when it was new:

It did have problems, however.
Light strikes. Sent it in on the warranty, and came back "no fault found"
Replaced the firing pin with the C&S longer one. Problem fixed.
The DA had a noticable hitch in the action. Got that fixed by a local gunsmith who specializes in competition revolver tuning.
Threw away the awful Hogue grip, used a 629 unit instead.

Especially like the top rail that allows iron sight usage with it in place.
Depending on the game, the optic can quickly go on or off.
Also swapped the front sight for a fiber optic one.
And the bottom rail is left off.

My club has speed games that include a dueling tree at 25 yards. This revolver rules that one, even against semi-autos.

I shoot it with "38 Mid" (Special cases cut to 38 Super length) with 160 grain bullets, moon clipped, of course.

Disregard the .357s in my posed shot. Quickly gave up on that as the cases are just too long for really fast loading.

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

Maggie on The Walking Dead carries one.

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Co-Owner NoDak Spud LLC

Got a R8 only because it was a good buy and I had extra cash the sights had been changed to Fiber Optic. One of my favorite shooters now very accurate and goes on every range trip. Not in to tacticool guns but when they shoot this good you learn to love them.

The first time I saw a TRR8, I thought "who would want such an ugly gun?" Well, months later turned out I wanted one after talking to a few gun nuts. I can overlook the looks when it shoots so accurately and easily. There may be something to these two piece barrels. I have a new 66 and a 69, both are super accurate.

Well after a couple weeks of waiting ,this revolver arrived at my shop. I have to say I was completely bummed. I immediately checked the cylinder lock up and was let down in a big way, the revolver that arrived was borderline dangerous. The lock up was on par with a Taurus. Additionally the single action trigger pull left a lot to be desired as there was a really notable creep that actually made an audible "etch" sound as I pulled the trigger in single action before coming to a rest and then thereafter (with further force applied) breaking. The double action trigger pull was fair, but a bit heavy, I perceived. I bounced the revolver off of a couple of my other employees to get a gauge for who actually knew what they were looking for and as I figured the guys that have been around the block felt my dismay too.

At the same time we received a 6" 629 that I inspected. The 629 was 100% locked up with the hammer back and had a superb single action trigger pull. The double action was on par with the TRR8.

LET ME REPEAT THAT. A production gun demonstrated far better lock up, and craftsmanship than a PC handgun. Given the state of the firearm and the fact that I really do believe it to be borderline dangerous I will be sending it back to S&W to be reevaluated. Has anybody else seen this in a PC gun before?

We have another one of these revolvers coming in next week. I surely hope this revolver I saw today was an anomaly. I was really looking forward to owning this one and sharing it with others. As I mentioned in my intro I own a few other Smith revolvers and love them dearly, but had I handled this gun with a blindfold I would have pegged it as a Taurus clone. :-(

The local gunsmith who specializes in competition revolver tuning told me that, in his experience, Performance Center is just the person that stamps the logo on.
Said that he has sent a number of new ones, 929s particularly, back for work before he even starts in on them.
All that said, when tuned, they are sweet.

__________________
-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

Groo here
I got an early one.
The gun is one of those guns that you can put in a safe for a year,
take out to the range ,check zero,go get your deer ,and put it away
then do it again next year.
It just flat SHOOTS.

Or the CNC programmer who sets the mill to unnecessarily slab side the barrels to make them ugly.