New vs. old S&Ws

I love the old ones, but the new ones have their place in my collection. It's hard to beat 8 shots of .357 Magnum in an N- Frame revolver... :):cool:

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I carry a 340SC daily. I do so because it weighs less than 12 ounces. It serves a purpose but it has no soul. It's the only handgun I own that was made after 1970. My prewar guns move me, make my heart beat a bit faster. Later guns are merely tools.

In a way, this sums up the whole new
vs. old debate.

It's comes down to old being art objects
with the new being "merely tools" which
make pro-revolvers people happy, happy
that wheel guns are still made.
 
I only own eight (8) S&W revolvers from Model 10 to a 58. The oldest is the M10 made in 1961 when I was born. The newest is a 19-5 from 1985.
If I ever buy a new lock/MIM model, you can bet it will be an N frame, as the J and K frames have altered frame symmetry that just is so obvious as to be offensive.
 
If Smith built revolvers the way they used to and charged for it, the "new" Smiths might look a lot better to prospective buyers.

If Smith built revolvers the way they used to and charged for it, most of the people who post on this board wouldn't be able to afford one.

CAD and MIM are here to stay. It's just the way things are done at this time in history. Hand fitting worked because the hands were cheep and worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. The bluing was great because the polishing was cheep to do and the dregs from the bluing tanks got dumped in the Connecticut river. Those days are long gone. Now instead of one man making one frame at 75 cents and hour, you have one man making $30 an hour watching over 6 CAD machines that are each turning out 4 or 5 frames at a time. The fact remains that they turn out some very good guns at a price that a working person can afford. For the most part, they are not as nice to look at as a pre war model 27 but they do what they are made for.
 
I just picked up a nice 629-6 today, built in 2016. 6", nothing special, just in excellent condition. I took the rubber handles off, ran it through whatever the few checks that I know how to do with my limited abilities. I'll take it out and shoot it when the weather permits. (I'm not sure if I can use the game lands' shooting range while deer season is in.) But, this gun feels like a very well-made gun; solid, no shakes or rattles, just like my Model 10 and my Model15, only bigger and a nicer trigger. I'll have to give yinz a report when I can. I'll start a new thread. Anyhow, it feels nice & strong like my Ruger GP100 6". The lock really doesn't detract from the looks. So far, so good. To be continued...
 
You're right! And the P&R guns are still more desirable than their replacements: compare prices on comparable used examples (eg a m29-2 vs a m29-3).

No argument here, just making a point.
 
I must be really lucky. I have a bunch of used guns and for the most part they all worked well from the beginning, not counting the ones I picked up for discounted for a known problem and all those have been easily fixed.

I bet that except for LEO trade ins and the like most revolvers have pretty low round counts. I bet 90% of the revolvers out there have less than 1000 rounds fired from them. Heck, I am a revolver nut and I have some guns with less than that through them. Many people buy the gun fire maybe a box or 2 of ammo and put it away. Maybe once or twice a year fire a cylinder or 2 and back in the drawer. The bigger the bore the more apt this is to be true. Unless people reload ammo cost adds up fast. Just $30 a box means $600 for 1000rds because we are talking people who buy that way.

The people on this site are the exception not the rule for the most part.
 
I have a 442 as a routine carry gun. I'm sure the new S&Ws are well made guns. However at this stage of my life they do not address what I look for when buying revolvers.
 
I used to be one of those who couldn't stand the newer guns due to aesthetics (the lock/frame geometry), MIM parts, and the politics that got us the locks in the first place. When I finally broke over and used the new guns, and I mean put thousands and thousands of rounds of full power magnum ammo (mainly 125 gr 357) through new k, l, and n frames in double action only training, I learned some things. No MIM parts exploded, no internal safeties spontaneously activated, the guns worked, and I didn't worry about the wear and tear like I would with one of my older guns. If something broke, I knew S&W would repair it. I also found that the new guns often have better actions out of the box than my stock old ones. From my limited experience, the new guns have proven themselves. The lock is still ugly though.
 
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