Last year I purchased a Model 619. It was still posted on S&Ws website when I bought it, and shortly afterwards it disappeared along with the excellent 620 from S&Ws lineup, which is a shame. I liked the 619 because it's basically an L-Frame M65. I've always really liked the K-Frame 4" HB square butt configurations. Sadly, S&W seems to prefer RBs these days, but it's not so much of a big deal to me, that can easily be remedied with the myriads of grip choices.
After I had purchased this 619 and was still waiting for the paperwork to clear (several weeks before I could take possession of it), I read posts about all the issues so many seem to have with the L-Frame IL, MIM, two-piece barrels, etc, etc, etc, and I thought I must have made a huge mistake. After I recieved it and fired it with both .38 spl and .357 magnum loads, I was puzzled by so many of the comments I had read. Scooter123 had given a really good report of the two-piece barrel and I was interested to test the accuracy claim he was making. His assessment was correct, it is the most accurate revolver I have ever owned.
I have to laugh at all the complaining about IL and MIM. It simply has no impact on the quality of the revolver that I can see, and as a matter of fact, the IL is useful to me. If you don't have use for it, then you don't have to use it. When I was a soldier, we always used to say "Better to have it and not need it, then to need it and not have it". I am required to lock weapons when I transport them here in Germany, so it definately has it's use. I can think of a lot of other instances where it could be useful too, and not just in Germany. The whole MIM thing has no issue as far as I can tell unless one wants to say "it doesn't look good" which is a very subjective basis to judge something on. I haven't experienced any of the issues claimed by some, and always disregard third party stories of events.
I have read about issues with barrels and have experienced none of them. I've seen some third party stories of two-piece barrels flying off. All I can say is that my 619 seems to digest .38/.357 magnum loads routinely with no issues. I rather like the heavy barrel on my 619, but then I've always liked the 4" HB in J, K and N frames. As mentioned, it produces more than satisfactory accuracy, and I don't know for sure why, but this is the tamest recoiling .357 magnum of any barrel length (and yes, I've owned an 8 3/8" model 27 in the past) I've ever owned. I even changed out the goodyear's for Ahrends finger grooved combat grips and have no recoil issues at all.
That's all the good, now here's the bad. After I got my 619, I noticed on the sideplate a strange thing that looked a bit like a dent or a warp. The polish and finish on the the revolver overall was excellent, except for this strange indentation. When I queried the S&W service department about it, they sent back a one line email that stated they could not replace the sideplate since they were polished to the finished revolver. That was it; no offer to do anything else, no suggestion of a fix. The "dent" is not such a big deal to me and isn't painfully obvious and does not impact on balance or operation at all, but it was not much of a customer service solution to me. Two more slight issues; around the edge of the forcing cone, there were really sharpe edges, enough so it could cut a fingertip while cleaning (that's how I discovered it). It was easy to polish up, but a bit strange I thought. The other issue is that the extractor has a bit of a rough side to it; when extracting, if the cylinder is turned to a certain degree, there is a very slight "rough" spot I have yet to figure out how to polish out. I have given up on doing that so that I don't damage anything, but it's really only annoying and does not impair on functioning at all.
So, my assessment in the end is a little mixed, but leans decidedly to the thumbs up category. I feel this new 619 had some literal rough edges and some slight QA faults, but not enough to really give it a bad review. I love this revolver, it balances extremely well, is accurate and looks good even with the little blemish. In those Ahrend's grips it really looks good (to me, anyway), and has that classic 4" HB look that the K-Frames are so well known for; looks a lot like a model 65, which I have always liked.
If I had it to do over again, I'd buy one just like it, and may even do that anyway since it's looking like 619s and 620s may even gain a little collectors status. There are plenty of older models that I want (I just purchased a NIB Model 547 for instance), but I would not hesitate to purchase a new model of anything from S&W after my experience with this 619.
It's really a shame S&W isn't making the 619/620 anymore since so many really like the M65 and 66, it was a good modern L-Frame version of an older and popular K-Frame design. I guess sales just weren't there.
