Boy if I had only kept all the nice guns I sold off over the years.
I used to own a beautiful 3 inch one, nearly 100% condition.
It had the original box, papers and everything.
I sold it off several years ago. As I was reading this post it occurred to me that maybe one of you got my old gun.
I do remember firing it on a few occasions and do recall the sticky extraction. I remember having to give it a good, sharp smack with the palm of my right hand to eject/extract the fired casings most of the time. If I hand-loaded some to a little lower pressure, it seemed to work much better and shot fine with lead bullets.
I had read they were discontinued due to the high cost of the beryllium (sp?) copper extractors that mushroomed out to extract the empty casings.
I'm not a metallurgist so I don't know why beryllium copper is so tough but it must have been a very special metal to be able to spring out like it did to catch on the case rims and eject/ extract the casings and then return back to its resting position and to do that over and over without breaking.
I purchased that one several years before after having handled a few at gun shows in the early 1980's. In fact I remember seeing a broken one I passed on back then for a couple of hundred bucks at a gun show in Detroit. I almost bought it but thought after sending it back to S&W for repair, the shipping plus the cost of the gun would have been more than it was worth.
I agree that S&W is really missing the boat with items they could produce that would be very profitable (I think). With what most of us are willing to pay for quality S&W revolvers, I think S&W could definitely produce models from the past that would be money makers even considering the handwork that went into many of their older guns.
If we consider that when S&W did make these models, America was strong on employment and manufacturing, I think a return to our older ways would indeed make sense, especially in light of all the unemployed factory workers with machining experience.
I tend to think I feel like most of the people around here. Who wouldn't love to see models like the 547, the K-32, the convertible revolvers in 22 LR/22 WMR, 9mm/357, 44-40/44 special, 45 ACP/45 Colt and even new ones like the 17HMR/17Mach2, the pinned and recessed K-frame 3 inch models 65 and 66 and L-frames in 3" and 5", the model 27, model 57 and model 29 in 5" versions. Remember the Pinto revolvers? How many of you would love the chance to get a model 651 J-frame stainless kit gun in 22LR/22WMR.
I always hear that because of liability or manufacturing costs or other reasons, they can't go back to making them like they used to. Frankly I don't know how they can afford not to. It seems like there is a market and a real profit potential out there-all someone needs to do is go out and tap into it.
Just my thoughts...
