new 66-7 and older 586

whoisavner

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hi everyone, great forum! figured I'd show my couple .357's - one new and one long sold - and say what's up from lovely socialist Kalifornistan. we're trying to fix it, but that's another story.

I've been a .357 fan from literally childhood, I remember reading Six Days of the Condor in 6th grade and he used a .357 magnum in that book rather dramatically and it stuck with me. I also remember after that at the toy store getting a 2" diecast of what I know realize was a model 27 w six inch barrel. had that for years. somehow the .357 just stuck with me and always was what I wanted.

I got a 8 3/8" 586 back in 1990 and shot it for a while and it was very smooth, but eventually it shot loose, where the ejector rod would start becoming unscrewed after only a few heavy loads. anyway it probably just needed to be re-tightened by a smith, but by that point we had toddlers around and I ended up selling it in 1996. I'm glad that back then I at least had the sense to get this one pic of it. I put on the Hogue wood grip. it came with the standard S&W wood grips. it had a really nice combat trigger (grooved and as wide as the trigger guard) and the wide hammer spur. firing pin on the hammer. of course now I wish I'd kept it. ah well.

1990SmithWesson586.jpg


last year I gave in to several years of wanting one again, and despite thinking GP100 at first, I just couldn't pull that trigger so to speak, I just had to have a Smith. I found a BNIB model 66-7 at a gun show which really spoke to me, just looks fantastic. I guess it's a 2004 model from right before these were discontinued, two-pc barrel, I guess it was sitting due to people not being crazy about the 2 pc barrel but the gun shoots fantastic, almost smoother than my 586. I want to clean up the trigger a bit but other than that it's great. I added the Hogue monogrip since those fit my hand so well. gotta love Smiths. just blew about 200 rounds of magnums through it today and the barrel was hot as hell.

mysmith66-7030311b.jpg


and with the stock grips in the box.

mysmith66-7Apr820105.jpg
 
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I also picked up yesterday a 66-7 made in 2004. They also have no cut to the forcing cone that makes it thinner on the bottom 6 o'clock position. That is one difference that many people don't know about in the 66 family.

My dealer claimed that the -7 model was made for government and international sales. He had received 10 of the same model. On the crane there is 067 marking making me think it was part of a large purchase.

Great looking gun and can't wait to shoot it.
 
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My local pusher had a dozen of them some years back - $449 - a bargain even then. At the last of last year, they had a used one in their case - easily discerned by the two piece barrel seen at the muzzle. I have a 6" 66-6 I bought new 9/03 from a Texas closeout store - $349! Still, I was tempted by the used 4" 66-7 there - even at the last tag price of $549. Of course, when I got interested... it had evaporated!

That's a nice find!

Stainz
 
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