So, I noticed last week that a local shop had two S&W 627 Pro series revolvers in stock. I didn't have the time that day to look at either of them up close, but I have been thinking about stopping back by for a closer look. Each was marked $1049 + tax.

Just wondering if anyone here has experience with a recent production example? If so, how was the fit & finish? Canted barrel?

Roughly 12-18 months ago (at this same shop) I passed on a new 627 due to multiple manufacturing defects -- canted barrel, gouges / tooling marks on the frame and recoil shield, and finally, the factory had installed the wrong front sight and it actually extended out past the end of the barrel by a significant amount.

I know that new production S&W's are "hit or miss" at best these days. Just wondering how many good ones are being found. :-)

I just picked up a PC 627 2-5/8" barrel that was made in June. I haven't had a chance to shoot it yet but it looks pretty much flawless to me.

While I have had to send a couple new ones back to the factory in the last few years, for the most part I have had good luck. The ones I did have to send back were taken care of pronto.

I have a 627 pro and really enjoy the gun. Superbly accurate, comfortable and simply fun to shoot. One of my favorites. Don’t think you can go wrong with it.

I use it in my ASI games- good fun.

627 in ASI

I also had an add’l cylinder chambered to accept 9mm fitted to provide some add’l flexibility.

Converting my 627 to shoot 9mm

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Guns + Dogs= Bliss

I don’t have a 627 pro but I’ve recently purchased (within the last year) a 686+ pro, a 329, a 629 PC, a 627 PC, a Governor, a 617 and a 19 carry comp and have had no real issues with any of them. Much better experience out of the box than 3 colt revolvers I got in that time.

None of them have canted barrels or messed up sights. The 686+ appears to have “timing issues” until the cylinder is full, then it has no issues locking up at all even on a slow trigger pull so I’m not worried about it. That’s the only thing I’ve noticed between shooting all of those guns fairly often.

I've had one for a year or so now. Overall, it was well put together, and it's a nice shooter. It's smooth, tight, accurate, and good handling.

I did have an issue with the ball bearing detent/lock up. It was staked improperly and departed company from the rest of the revolver. Of course, S&W wouldn't send me a new ball bearing/lock up piece and let me do my own staking. They were however gracious enough to pay shipping both ways and get it staked properly this time. (After two misses) They got it back to me a little over two months later, and it's been nuthin' but great since. If you go to change springs, delete the Hillary lock, etc. you might wanna know that mine came back from the factory with red loctite on the side plate screws.

Overall though petty details aside, I've been pleased with the gun and the customer service.

I had one, a 4”, sorry I sold it. Good solid N frame, 8 round capacity.

About 6 months ago a local dealer had two 4” 627’s . The rear sight channel in the top strap was cut crooked in both of them .

I took my Performance Center 627 2 5/8" barrel to the range last weekend.

Flawless performance for two of us shooting it. Two boxes of .357: 110 gr & 158 gr.

Great fun and accurate.

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Bob

I was in the process of buying a 627 Pro last week. I thought it was a really nice N frame. But, upon inspecting it thoroughly the forcing cone and all eight cylinder throats had threads showing like they had been skipped on the finish reamer or whatever process S&W uses. Also, it had chatter marks where it had been lightly chamfered at the face of each chamber hole (I'd never seen that before). My suspicion was that a run of cylinders were not correctly finished as it was probably done on a CNC machine.

Take your bore light and magnifier with you.....

Thanks everyone for the replies.

I finally had a chance last week to stop by the gun shop and look at both 627's up close.

Both examples were a bit rough for brand new guns... both had a mixture of the usual s&w problems -- canted barrels, poorly cut forcing cones, and tooling marks / cosmetic defects in multiple areas.

One of the two guns was considerably worse off than the other, due to a MAJOR functional defect. The barrel to cylinder gap was filed or cut VERY unevenly, leaving the left side tight and practically rubbing the cylinder while the right hand side had the largest barrel to cylinder gap that I have ever seen on a revolver after well over 20 years in the shooting sports. The defect was so extreme that I actually wonder if the entire barrel was installed in the frame at an angle.

I recommended to the salesman that it be sent back rather than being sold, but I doubt that will happen. Whoever ends up with that gun is going to have immediate and major issues with gas and lead blowback.

Needless to say, I left empty handed and the desire for a new 627 is out of my system again for the time being.

I really believe most people would gladly pay an extra $50 - $100 for every new S&W revolver if they could be guaranteed that it was built properly. The problem here, I think, is that without some major changes to production, any new QC procedures put in place would simply end up rejecting far more guns than the number that would pass QC.

I hate to hear that, but it’s becoming increasingly more common.

I had heard several S&W employees doing the inspection had been fired some time ago for letting junk go out, but that’s probably just wishful thinking.

I’ve been an S&W guy since 1971. It’s crying shame to see what’s happening.

I got to the range with my new PC 627 2-5/8 this week. One box of Federal 158 grain hollow points and two different handloads, 125 grain Hornady XTP over 7.2 Unique, and 125 grain grain Xtreme 125 grain plated over 5.5 grains Bullseye and it performed flawlessly with all.

I do need to amend my previous post unfortunately. My 627 after 30 rounds of 357 had a problem with the center cylinder pin that rendered the entire weapon inop. It would get stuck pushed in and the cylinder release therefore wouldn’t get pushed in and the action would be completely frozen. It’s at S&W now. I do believe this to be a very rare fluke, could barely find similar cases at all with a thorough internet search

I have had my 627 pro series for a few months with no issues so far.