scooter123
Member
For those who have never shot a moon clipped revolver, you really have to try one sometimes. I loaded up 16 before the trip to the range and just put the fired clips back into the box to demoon at home. By doing this all I had to do at the range was shoot and reload.
Now about the 610, mine is the 6 1/2 inch version and I was shooting 40 caliber Federal Champion from Walmart. In single or double action slow fire the gun is a real nail driver. Spent some time fine tuning the sights at 40 feet by shooting it in single action off the bench and the groups ranged from 3/4 to 1 1/4 inch.
However, that long heavy barrel is currently an issue for me during rapid fire in double action. I know that full underlugs are all the rage but I am seriously thinking about machining it off. The problem is that there is enough inertia that it makes coming back on target quickly difficult and it's very easy to over correct. To be honest, I don't think that I'll ever shoot it as well in rapid fire as my 4 inch 620. However, the practice of horsing it back on target will probably really help my shooting with my guns that have a lower swing weight.
There are a couple of minor issue that I'll need to address.
There were two chambers in the cylinder that showed that it has a tendancy to shave the jacketing when shooting the 40 S&W (it is a 10mm revolver). In one chamber there was a jacket fragment that I had to use a pick on to remove and it was stuck pretty tight. Next week I'll get a 5/16 diameter stone from a tool supply house and spend about 6 hours breaking the edge in each chamber slightly.
The other was that there was some leading in the barrel just past the forcing cone. Enough so that I felt it as soon as I patched the barrel when I got home. I'm thinking that as the forcing cone wear in I'll see a reduction in this but since the ammo I was shooting was FMJ it was a bit of a surprize. However, with two cylinders shaving jacketing it might also be a result of that issue. I would welcome any comments or suggestions on this.
Other than those two issues the gun funtioned perfectly. I also saw zero degradation in accuracy in spite of the leading I found when I got home. I was curious to see if extraction of the moon clips would become an issue but after 96 rounds downrange they still didn't show any tendancy to stick. Cases also showed very little evidence of blowby which means the chambers are sized near perfectly. I had zero issues with light strikes or misfires like those reported by some concerning the 625 moon clip guns. I am also pleased to report that the DA trigger stroke has become quite smooth, despite the incorporation of MIM components.
Bottomline, I am really liking the 610. It's cheaper to shoot than my 38's or 357's, has a very mild recoil, and the moon clips are a real treat to use. Fact is, when the budget allows and I can find one, I will probably purchase the 4 inch version or a 3 incher if Lew Horton does another issue of that version. Fact is, a 3 inch 610 would be a really sweet handgun and S&W should consider making it a standard offering. One other thing they should look into is offering a cylinder assembly specific to the 40 S&W. I'm sure that having a 40 S&W specific cylinder would save me about 6 hours of some very tedious hand stoning and would possibly improve the accuracy with that caliber by a bit. While they are at it, they should also look into releasing a moon clip 9mm cylinder assembly for the 686 and 620.
Now about the 610, mine is the 6 1/2 inch version and I was shooting 40 caliber Federal Champion from Walmart. In single or double action slow fire the gun is a real nail driver. Spent some time fine tuning the sights at 40 feet by shooting it in single action off the bench and the groups ranged from 3/4 to 1 1/4 inch.
However, that long heavy barrel is currently an issue for me during rapid fire in double action. I know that full underlugs are all the rage but I am seriously thinking about machining it off. The problem is that there is enough inertia that it makes coming back on target quickly difficult and it's very easy to over correct. To be honest, I don't think that I'll ever shoot it as well in rapid fire as my 4 inch 620. However, the practice of horsing it back on target will probably really help my shooting with my guns that have a lower swing weight.
There are a couple of minor issue that I'll need to address.
There were two chambers in the cylinder that showed that it has a tendancy to shave the jacketing when shooting the 40 S&W (it is a 10mm revolver). In one chamber there was a jacket fragment that I had to use a pick on to remove and it was stuck pretty tight. Next week I'll get a 5/16 diameter stone from a tool supply house and spend about 6 hours breaking the edge in each chamber slightly.
The other was that there was some leading in the barrel just past the forcing cone. Enough so that I felt it as soon as I patched the barrel when I got home. I'm thinking that as the forcing cone wear in I'll see a reduction in this but since the ammo I was shooting was FMJ it was a bit of a surprize. However, with two cylinders shaving jacketing it might also be a result of that issue. I would welcome any comments or suggestions on this.
Other than those two issues the gun funtioned perfectly. I also saw zero degradation in accuracy in spite of the leading I found when I got home. I was curious to see if extraction of the moon clips would become an issue but after 96 rounds downrange they still didn't show any tendancy to stick. Cases also showed very little evidence of blowby which means the chambers are sized near perfectly. I had zero issues with light strikes or misfires like those reported by some concerning the 625 moon clip guns. I am also pleased to report that the DA trigger stroke has become quite smooth, despite the incorporation of MIM components.
Bottomline, I am really liking the 610. It's cheaper to shoot than my 38's or 357's, has a very mild recoil, and the moon clips are a real treat to use. Fact is, when the budget allows and I can find one, I will probably purchase the 4 inch version or a 3 incher if Lew Horton does another issue of that version. Fact is, a 3 inch 610 would be a really sweet handgun and S&W should consider making it a standard offering. One other thing they should look into is offering a cylinder assembly specific to the 40 S&W. I'm sure that having a 40 S&W specific cylinder would save me about 6 hours of some very tedious hand stoning and would possibly improve the accuracy with that caliber by a bit. While they are at it, they should also look into releasing a moon clip 9mm cylinder assembly for the 686 and 620.
