Locks Will Be Phased Out Says S&W!!

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Not for me. Life's too short to carry and shoot ugly guns with unsightly holes on them.

What about a dab of JB weld in da hole. I'm serious.

 

[Randall53]

I bought a new 642 a couple of weeks ago without the lock and would not have bought it with the lock. I've been shooting for over 40 years and have never owned a firearm with an internal lock and I'm not gonna start now.

 

[Snapping Twig]

There'll be no competition from me collecting MIM, two piece barrels or locks. You can have 'em all.

 

[BigBill]

Hang on i'm rethinking this. I just started buying the S&W revolvers that i wanted for well over 35+ years now. My first two a S&W model 57 & 58 in 41mag have the dreadful loc that no one wants. Now my new revolvers are perfect right now but i'm thinking if they discontinue the locks my two will be worth much more, so i may buy what i can now that has the lock before there gone. At the sametime as a collector and a shooter it will give me an excuse to purchase all the new S&W's without the locks too, all over again. Its a win/win for me either way. Either way i'll be happy. I'm only interested in the "N" frames anyhoo. Bill

 

[Landpimp]

if you want to see the no lock's stick around, buy them!

thats the word according to my LE rep, everyone(raises hand, but before I was a dealer) asked for them, then no one(comparitive) bought them. This year I will carry NL as I can.

 

[steamloco76]

I have a few S&W with the lock and several without. The new 642-1 I purchased as a deep concealment gun is a no-lock and that, along with the price being under $400 is why I jumped on it.
The "lock" revolvers I have are all excellent shooters, and I trust them-but I do agree that for a self defense weapon I'd much rather have no lock.

I'll buy what I like lock or no lock.

 

[ExMachina1]

can anyonw confirm that S&W thinks the locks are ugly too?

i thought that the pre-lock catalog pictures always showed the left side of the gun.

now, S&W photos market the right side of their revolvers and they also reversed their barrel markings so that the company name is now on the right side.

if i'm recalling correctly, this small observation that points to a company secretly wishing that the locks weren't there too

 

[357 guy]

If they say that no more locks then every "lock" gun out there will only be good for spiders to inhabit. And I hate spiders.

 

[everett walker]

wikipedia is a font of bad information. Much of the gun material is promulgated by video game players who support each other in shouting down people who actually have some knowlege.

 

[.357magger]

This thing just never dies. On, and on, and on (and I am helping to keep it going to ).

Suggest to those who are just too macho, or nostalgic, or cantakerous to "ever carry a revolver with a hole in it" to buy stock in Kleenex. At least the whining can earn you money.

Got both pre locks and just got a 627 PC Bloodwork with the lock removed and plugged. Will, and do, bet my life on any of them. Not good enough for someone else? Don't care. Don't have to. Just a non issue for me but it does get tiring sometimes to pretend that the world doesn't ever change. That is the only thing the world does consistently, Smith and Wesson included.

Party on.

 

[stantheman86]

I said it before and I'll say it again, those people who "boycott" S&W wheelguns because of some stupid, silly 50 cent lock that comes out in 5 minutes, are missing out on some great guns. Like was said above, I stopped trying to "convert" people, if they don't like my IL and MIM S&W's, I will still sleep at night. Some folks are too stubborn to see the light of day sometimes. The main fact is, because S&W DOES still make many of the same models of revolver it has for decades, just updated, like the 686+, 617-7, 10-14, 64-8, etc. it keeps the prices on the older forged guns down to affordable levels because there's still an equivalent on the market. Colt stopped making revolvers years ago, has anyone priced a Colt Python lately?!?! If the Python were still in production with MIM parts and a lock, there's still no way a used one from the 80's would command $2,000.

I just got done shooting my 617 with the "dreaded" IL still intact and I had a blast, if my IL S&W's don't get me "respect" from a few curmudgeons, I couldn't care less.

And to those who bemoan the frame mounted firing pins, well, Ruger has been using them since day 1 and people are sucking up Security Sixes like they are going out of style.

And to the "MIM haters", MIM is a form of casting, and Ruger has been using cast parts since the 50's, and again, they have a cult following. Late model Colt revolvers used Sintered parts, which is pretty much MIM, and people are also paying $800 for King Cobra revolvers.

Overall, people who refuse to accept changes in manufacturing can keep crying in their corn flakes, while those who realize that nothing is wrong with "new S&W" will keep using them.

 

[ladder13]

This thing just never dies. On, and on, and on..............
Party on.

Yep, never ends. The same players. Here's one of the thousands of discussions

http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-revolvers-1980-present/110903-lock-cant-get-past-hole.html

My objection is not the lock but where they put the friggin' thing. Is it really that hard to hide it somewhere less in our face? It's damn ugly where it is.

 

[.357magger]

Yep, never ends. The same players. Here's one of the thousands of discussions

http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-revolvers-1980-present/110903-lock-cant-get-past-hole.html

My objection is not the lock but where they put the friggin' thing. Is it really that hard to hide it somewhere less in our face? It's damn ugly where it is.

One word Brother.

PLUG.

Nuff said and they look REALLY good on stainless imo, or rather, they don't look really bad on stainless would be more correct. But yeah, right on the sideplate was a goofy idea imo. Shame they didn't ask us no?

 

[KurtC]

Safe-T-Wesson is not the same company we grew up with. They crank out plastic pistols and AR-15's like it's armegeddon, but they choose to deface the one product that made the company famous. There must be some underlying motive there, because it doesn't make a lick of sense. It's like a deliberate slap in the face of the old company.

Moving on. I can appreciate the ingenuity and craftsmanship involved in removing the lock and plugging the hole, but it's not my responsibility to "fix" something that the company had correct in the first place. That's like rewarding bad behavior.

 

[stantheman86]

You can fix it without spending a dime......pop the lock and flag out, and the hole where the tumbler was makes a great spot for a spray hose, to blast the action out once in a while......the void where the flag was is also a great hole for a drop of Kroil

I actually appreciate the fact S&W put a handy hole for me to blast my action out, good job S&W!

 

[RychenCop]

Safe-T-Wesson is not the same company we grew up with. They crank out plastic pistols and AR-15's like it's armegeddon, but they choose to deface the one product that made the company famous. There must be some underlying motive there, because it doesn't make a lick of sense. It's like a deliberate slap in the face of the old company.

Moving on. I can appreciate the ingenuity and craftsmanship involved in removing the lock and plugging the hole, but it's not my responsibility to "fix" something that the company had correct in the first place. That's like rewarding bad behavior.

i agree. i am sooo sick of all this plastic framed **** rolling out. where are the old blued beauties they were famous for? everything does NOT have to be stainless for God's sake.

 

[bmcgilvray]

"...and to those who bemoan the frame mounted firing pins, well, Ruger has been using them since day 1 and people are sucking up Security Sixes like they are going out of style.

And to the "MIM haters", MIM is a form of casting, and Ruger has been using cast parts since the 50's..."

Only one viewpoint but I don't do cast components so avoid Rugers entirely. I prefer Colts produced before the appearance of the Mark III action. I prefer hammer-mounted firing pins on my center fire revolvers, and don't want a hole in the left side of the revolver either. Others can take up my slack on acquiring the new revolvers and that is fine. It isn't that I'm interested in a boycott of Smith & Wesson. I'm just uninterested in acquiring the revolvers as they are currently configured. If things change I'll try some new ones. Otherwise I'll happily see out my lifetime shooting and acquiring the models that I admire.

 

[stantheman86]

IMO, and not to offend those who "only like old Smiths" but the Ruger GP100 is probably one of the best handguns ever designed. I have never seen one that had a timing issue, or was too loose to shoot. The cast internal parts are big and durable, and there's almost nothing that can go wrong in there. I like the GP100's so much I have about 10 of them, in various configurations.

I have a GP100 that was someone's handload test gun, and had seen 10's of thousands of brutal handloads.....it is the loosest GP100 I had ever seen. I fixed it with two .002 endshake bearings and it was as tight as new. It has a little later carryup than my newer GP's, but that's it. I don't think even the mighty N-frame .357 could have taken the abuse this GP has. If the casting used by Ruger scares some people off, I assure you there is not a thing wrong with Ruger revolvers. And the transfer bar system just works. It's safe, and if it makes the guns cost less to make, and less for us to buy, all the better. There is NO way a Ruger is going to fire until the trigger is all the way back.

I love my S&W's dearly, but the GP100 is as close to a perfect combat revolver as was ever devised.

 

[1x2]

...those people who "boycott" S&W wheelguns...Some folks are too stubborn to see the light of day sometimes.
...if my IL S&W's don't get me "respect" from a few curmudgeons...
And to those who bemoan the frame mounted firing pins...And to the "MIM haters"...
Overall, people who refuse to accept changes in manufacturing can keep crying in their corn flakes...

I think you're attributing behaviors to people that, in the main, don't exist, unless you're frequenting forums that I don't know about, where lots of real S&W bashing is a regular feature. If you think that these things are going on here, you could guess again. I just think you could make your point without the gratuitous slaps.

All you guys who are crying in your cornflakes, raise your hand. No, no- not the hand with the spoon...

 

[Fishslayer]

OH NOES! I need to head down & snap up a few of those IL guns before they're all gone!