4” 66 No Dash - Deep Dive Questions

[Muley Gil]

In 1979, I purchased a new blue Model 19, 4" square butt. I promptly round butted it, ground the serrations off of the trigger and did an action job. I carried to the police academy and shot NRA expert with it.

I have round butted a number of K and N frame revolvers for myself and for other police officers. My bedside gun is a blue 4" Model 25-5 that I bought new in 1980 and round butted.

They all fit my hand "just right".

 

[Cirrus]

Wow! Thank you all so much for all the wealth of information. I'm definitely going to keep this gun in the family. The action is definitely slicked up and trigger is very light. I'm debating on whether I should send the gun to a good gunsmith to be gone through to make sure nothing needs replaced or repaired and possibly even a nice refinish (bead blast maybe). I'd prefer to use a reputable S&W revolver gunsmith.

 

[KEN L]

I was issued an early S&W model 66 and it had the plain stainless steel front sight and silver rear sight. The front sight colored insert did not start until 66-1 IIRC. I purchased a Bangor Punta S&W 66-1 in about 1978 and it was a poor specimen which I quickly sold.

Actually, there were two variations of the 66 no dash. The earliest had the all stainless sights. The later version had the red ramp front and black rear sight. I have one of these that left the factory in 1975. As noted in another post, the 66-1 began in 1977. The dash numbers indicate engineering changes to the guns. Changing the color of the sights was not considered an engineering change, just an improvement. MTCW

 

[thefresh2o]

I was issued an early S&W model 66 and it had the plain stainless steel front sight and silver rear sight. The front sight colored insert did not start until 66-1 IIRC. I purchased a Bangor Punta S&W 66-1 in about 1978 and it was a poor specimen which I quickly sold.

I have a 66 no-dash with blackened SS rear sight and orange insert foresight.

 

[SLT223]

The was modded with the round butt and ball detent. It is also sporting a non-factory main spring, so I would gas someone did, or attempted action work.