I’ve been looking for a 610-1 or even a -2 to ream out the cylinder to 10mm Magnum. I already have a Ruger SRH that I’ve reamed out, but I wanted a Smith, preferably a -1 with the unfluted cylinder because I just like the look. There are some on GB up in the $1700 range and the cheapest I’ve seen one go for is $1350 in the fairly recent past. I also already have three other 610 no dash models, a 6.5” and two 5”, but I don’t want to modify any of them. I saw this 6.5” on GB a few days ago with no bids and a minimum bid of $1125. I figured that wasn’t so bad; if I could get it at min. bid, then great, if not, I’d just let it go to someone else. I waited until a couple of minutes before the auction ended and placed the minimum bid. 15 minutes later no one had bid, so it’s mine. It has been modified with the top strap D&T for a scope mount and includes mount and rings, so I don’t feel as bad making further modifications to it. I’ll post an update as soon as I get it in hand, but it looks to be in really good condition.

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Looks like a good get to me. Love the 610’s. Have a few of them myself.

I should look more into 10mm Magnum, though as I get older, I tend to shoot less powerful stuff more anyway.

My collection of .22’s keeps growing.

Congrats, looks like a good grab. I, too, like pre lock 610s and have a 5” no dash and 6.5” -1. Since I only use em for range work, I have no desire to punch em out to 10mm magnum.

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213th FBINA

My preference leans towards the 4" fluted.

Gotta love the M610

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.............SmithNut

I really like those grips. Who makes them?

Edit to add picture…
Mine all have the factory combats, which I really like, but I’ll be looking for something to replace the goodyears on my newest acquisition. But I’ll probably put the rubbers back on just to shoot 10mag once I ream it…then back to something more elegant while it’s in the safe

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

Those grips were made by Craig Spegel, if you go to his website these were made like his pic #21 & #22.

craigspegel.com

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.............SmithNut

When the 10 mm is loaded to its full potential, it is pretty powerful own right. I really don't think I would have any reason to ream one out for the magnum cartridge.

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You're shy a few manners.

I am a fan of the Factory Combats and have them on a few of my 610s


The no finger groove Houges have been appealing to me lately.

My first set was on my 6 1/2" 610

This grip was on display at Hogues booth at the SHOT Show several years back.

When I was working the show I would get the display grips from Houge as they finished on Friday. It was nice being able to pick out the wood in person

I miss those days

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"Acta non verba"

I was out of town at the end of the week it came in, then FFL was closed Sunday and Monday, so…I finally picked it up this past Tuesday. Put it in the safe and haven’t had a chance to go through it until today. It cleaned up nicely and I ditched the rubber Hogues for some combats. When I pulled the rings, there was a layer of red loctite on top of the rib. I tried saturating it with Hoppes for an hour and scrubbing with a bronze wire brush, and that didn’t touch it. I then soaked it down with Blaster and let it sit for three hours. A good scrubbing took most of it off, but I still had a stubborn residue left. I’ve got a rag saturated with acetone sitting on it now, and if that doesn’t do it, the last thing I have in my chemical arsenal is loctite chisel.

I think I got a good deal, probably not a great deal. I’d been looking for another 610 that I could ream to 10mm mag and wanted a 610-1 or -2 because they are factory D&T, but are still pre-lock. This one fit the bill and with no box and the non-factory mod, I’m not worried about devaluing the collectibility of it. And the -1s and -2s are up in the $1600-$1750 range (read that as $1850-$2K+ after all the fees).

Anyway, it hammered for $1125 (cash price, but they only accept CC) and with the 3% CC fee, taxes, shipping, and transfer fee, my total was $1340. Yeah, it kind of sucks, but it’s not like I’d ever find it locally.

Once I modify the cylinder, I’ve got a Trijicon tritium reflex sight with depleted lamps that I got for free from a friend that I’m going to mount on it. It still works with ambient light and no batteries to worry about. So stay tuned…I’ll start another thread with a range report when I’m done.

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

After leaving this on the back burner for over eight months, I finally decided to tackle it. Over the past couple of weekends and a few nights after work, I completed the cylinder reaming.

Back in July/early August when I first starting evaluating it, I got somewhat discouraged when I learned I wasn’t going to be able to put a Trijicon red dot on it…I had even already purchased the Allchin mounting plate. The only thing that was going to work was the Leupold rings mounted on it when I received it. The hole pattern didn’t match anything and the holes were even drilled slightly off centerline. Not quite a Bubba job, but not precise either. It has also had a pretty good trigger job done on it. I also went ahead and put the Hogue monogrip back on for more comfortable shooting.

As to not being able to use the Trijicon, I had this beautiful Weaver stainless scope that looks right at home on it. Anyway, I digress. I finished cleaning and assembling it this morning, and here is the final product. Before anyone excoriates me for modifying a limited production revolver, please remember that I specifically sought out an example that was previously modified (and in the case of this one, not to the level of precision I would seek out). I have 3 other unmodified bone stock 610’s, a 6.5” and two 5”, that I would never touch.

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

Next, a range report.

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I reckon so

Include it in this thread or provide a link in this thread to the new thread. Please.

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

Smithnut, that's just the prettiest grips I've ever seen on a handgun and I do know a bit about pretty wood.

Back in the 90's Hamilton Bowen reamed out a cylinder for me. Even restamped the barrel 10MM Magnum.

When loading to 41 magnum velocities, I had to make sure the cartridges had a heavy crimp. Otherwise, the bullets would start to creep forward after a couple of rounds.

Technically a 41MAG case holds 33.8grs H²O Wt. while a 10MAG only holds 31.8grs, per my measurements, so if everything else is equal the 41MAG would still be the winner, velocity-wise.

For me the short coming of the 10MAG is the lack of factory jacketed bullets that have a cannelure so you can roll-crimp them, which 41MAG bullets have naturally.

Without that roll-crimp, & tight bullet-case tensions, I haven't found you can get as good of burn results (performance) using the needed slow burn rate powders in 10MAGs as you can in 41MAGs.

I've shot close to 1000 rounds thru my converted 610-3, with many variations of powders, & that's what I base my conclusion on.

Anyone got difference results they want to post?

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10MAGs still make great fireballs though
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Waiting for the break of day

I took today off so I could go to my gun club while it wasn’t crowded. I shot 36 rounds of 200 grain XTP’s over 18 grains of 2400. My very first shot didn’t get picked up on the Garmin, so I had to reposition it. Once I got the scope sighted in, I thought I did pretty well. Really my first attempt at longer range revolver shooting and I was shooting off of a rest. I did have one new Starline case split on me, but no other cases showed any sign of over pressure and none of my velocities spiked. It was on my third cylinder, but I’m not sure which one, because I didn’t notice it until I went to extract the cases and this one hung up. I inspected the cylinder and nothing looked out of the ordinary, so I resumed shooting. In the first two targets, I was getting sighted in, but by the third, I was doing well, IMHO. Judging from my velocities, I would call these mild to slightly warm loads. There’s not much load data on the 10mm Magnum, so I was working off what Taffin published and what our very own Bluedot 37 has posted here in the past.

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

If you look at old stuff at gun shows etc sometimes you get lucky. Found these a few yrs back. Got 3 boxes of them plus new 38-40 wcf brass.

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Great groups! That split has happened mostly on my sig 10mm nickel cases (garbage BTW) anyway looks like it turned out great !

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This is the way....

Thanks, Erik. I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Did you ever try 180 gr. FMJ’s in 10 Mag? I’ve got a ton of those and I don’t want to burn up all of my XTP’s on targets.

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

Negative I stuck with the 200gr for the little that I fired... I used the 180s for mostly 40 and a few 10mm... whatever is left of my 200gr that I got form you will be used for my spicy 10mm load

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This is the way....

Yeah, pretty good velocities. Having the extra 2.6" of barrel length is nice too (-vs- my 3.875" bbl.).

I test fired, but didn't (have a) chrono, 180gr w/2400@ 18.6grs. FWIW, QuickLoad estimated 38.2Kpsi. Didn't see any issues with it, other than some jump-crimp, which wasn't unique.

LOL, that vertical split is the way just about every 40S&W I've had split looked (in my auto pistols).

I've split 10MAG brass horizontally. The Manson reamer I used was machined to tighter specs than what S&W originally cut the chambers to which leaves the slightest of a "transition" between the two cuts.

I need to try some more to reduce those transitions in my chambers, without ruining the chamber shoulder's sharpness. (I like having the option to shoot without moonclips so a good shoulder to headspace the case mouth on is necessary for that.)

Anybody else run into this? Thoughts on fixing it? I was going to invest in a custom reamer of slightly larger diameter, to clean them up, but haven't committed to that yet.

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The "transition" is the faint line near the mouth of the case. They split/separate where the brass starts to thicken, as it get closer to the web. I suspect because the case doesn't freely move rearward to the frame's breechface, when fired, because of the transitions resistance on the case mouth?

I don't think it's the brass' fault but I'm not 100% on that either.

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Waiting for the break of day

Thanks to the advice on this site, I found the info I needed to ream a new 610. On the advice of a friend, who has put a long career into making and chambering barrels, he recommended reaming one chamber and doing some testing, before I did the rest. I used a standard Clymer 10mm Auto Finish Reamer and had great results getting to the correct Magnum depth. By hand, I did one chamber one evening, and after some testing, did the other 5 on a weekend afternoon. It took good cutting oil (Viper) and lots of elbow grease, but it was pretty simple and quick. So far I've had good luck shooting Mag rounds against the shoulder in the chamber (without a moonclip - in case that feature is ever needed).
I don't seem to have any issues with an "Auto shoulder", but I've shot a very limited amount of 10mm Mag. My Magnum brass has been backordered with Starline for 7 months... so I only have one box of 20 from factory loaded Double Tap that I've been playing with.
Any advice on finding brass and loading data (I have the Taffin and Accurate Arms data) would be GREATLY appreciated.

Slow & easy, that's the way to ream them by hand, to get the most consistent results.

The only problem I see, & have experienced, with cutting a revolver chamber (with a shoulder) for auto ammo -vs- a revolver chamber cut (without a shoulder), is that you can more easily get bullet interference with the throats in the former than the latter.

I've ran into this in my 45WSM (with "auto cut" chambers) using cast LSWC bullets that leave more of the bullet's shoulder outside the case.

(I really like my 45WSM, as a wildcat "auto cartridge" in a revolver, over the 10MAG, if for no other reason than the availability of bullets with cannelures. Anything .45 is just cool anyway. )

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I've had a back-order with S-L since Apr-2021 for 10mm MAG brass. Don't know if they lost my order or they still haven't made a run of them yet?

I got some from a forum member here. You might try putting an ad in the WTB section.

I've tested a lot of different powders with 165gr JHPs in the 10MAG.

Here's some LabRadar chrono results:

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- USE AT YOU OWN RISK! -
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Waiting for the break of day

Thanks BlueDot for all the great data! I'll definitely give some of those loads a try.
I've checked with Starline a couple times in the past 6 months and they claim 10mm Mag is on their list to fill Backorders at some point. In the meantime, the WTB section is a good idea.