A new factory Smith with an action job, no lock, whatever else I want & a warranty

[kilov]

A new factory Smith with an action job, no lock, whatever else I want & a warranty

I’ve had my own idea for a wish list for a while but even more so since Taran Tactical (Taran Tactical Innovations) and other similar business models have become more popular. It’s been a popular concept in the car and truck world (Saleen, Rouch, Zagato) but seems a bit more limited in the revolver market.

Here is the poll question for the wish list: A 3rd party company gets a factory new S&W revolver. They then replace the hammer and trigger to your spec (steel, MIM, 3D printed; target, serrated, smoothed, service style, etc.), do an proper action job, plug the lock, perform a crown, cone & muzzle chamfer. The rest is via an a la carte system where you can order whatever you want from a list (rechamber to non production caliber, sights, bead blast, blue or cerakote finishing, stocks, fitted pelican or wooden presentation case, porting, etc.). The product would have a warranty, decent customer service, a navigable website & ordering proces, etc.

So, rather than finding an existing gun yourself and shipping it to multiple gunsmiths and getting back, you essentially get a semi-custom or custom revolver from the get go and for a few dollars less than organizing it all yourself.

Would you go for it? Why or why not? What services or specs would you order it to?

 

[n8vmind]

S&W has performance center model revolvers, so if wanted a semi custom revolver I will just order one from performance center.



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[Protocall_Design]

I would only buy OEM or used, but only because I can do all the custom work myself. I think there might be a market for this service if it's high quality. There is a benefit in having everything done in one place. Most people can't do their own, so a turnkey custom job is what they want. There are a few remaining revo guys who can do these things, but they are thinning out.

The S&W Performance Center doesn't put out anything near what a good revo smith can do.

 

[k22fan]

If they are kept in decent and more importantly original condition then sooner or later all quality guns acquire collector value. You'd be paying big bucks to eliminate the gun ever becoming a collector item.

My own trigger jobs make S&W revolvers easier to shoot accurately than professional trigger jobs do. As a practical matter the only way to undo a professional trigger job and start over would be to replace the hammer and trigger. No thank-you.

BTW, ordinary trigger jobs do not effect collector value.

That's not to say never do stupid stuff that makes you happy. About 1982, counting its Leupold scope, I sunk $700 into a U.S. 1917 Enfield. Today an original would have multiple time its value. I have no regrets.

I voted no but I do not only buy OEM. I do buy altered guns when their price is right.

 

[lrrifleman]

I voted no. First and foremost, every S&W revolver I have ever purchased has been a catalog version, and it has met (and usually exceeded) it's mission parameters.

Only one of my seven S&W revolvers has the Hillary hole, and the jury is still out. In my opinion, revolvers are blue steel with wood grips, maybe stainless with rubber grips if it meets mission needs. Only one has required a lighter rebound spring. Factory stock has met my needs.

I shoot bullseye, PPC, and metallic silhouette with my Smiths, maybe an occasional IDPA. I am not Jerry Miculek, so I don't need lightning fast speed.

Honestly, I think what you are looking for would be better served if S&W had a true, customer ordered custom shop!

 

[Green Frog]

I have owned only three S&W revolvers that could be regarded as more than slightly modified (ie changed grips, sights, etc.) At one time I owned a full custom PPC gun built by Fred Schmidt as his demo piece to take to events and show his work. It was a great gun that I bought from his estate and used in casual competition for several years before I sold it to a collector.

I’ve had two guns built for myself by custom gunsmiths, but in both cases you have to know they aren’t factory, or they might fool you. I had a Model 66 ND converted to 327 FM and except for Andy Horvath’s logo on the barrel it looked factory stock until I added a Behlert rear sight and custom grips.

More recently I had a K-32 Frankengun built using a NOS barrel, a reworked K-22 cylinder, and a well used Model 14-3 as the donor gun. Other than the Altamont Roper-style grips, you have to open the cylinder and check the Model # stamped inside to know it’s not a factory 16-3.

For target shooting or other competitions I’ve had more radical custom work done on Colt and High Standard semi-autos, but that’s fodder for a different discussion, so to answer the initial question, yes I have both bought and built highly modified S&W revolvers to get guns I wanted. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Froggie

 

[robvious]

only from a short list of known gunsmiths...
Cylinder & Slide comes to mind

 

[ContinentalOp]

I would be interested in such a product, but with a couple of conditions.

First, it would have to be a better value than purchasing a gun and having it worked over to my needs/wants by a gunsmith, in terms of either price, turnaround time, or, preferably, both.

Second, the people doing the work need to have fairly well-established reputations for doing good quality work.

I don't have a problem with companies that make guns like that. A LTT 92 Elite is on my wish list, particularly since they recently came out with a Compact model.

And I've owned a couple of gunsmith-modified S&W revolvers that worked out very nicely for me, a 3" 65 (no longer in my possession) and a 642ND (currently filling a "back-up" role for my currently-carried 642-1).