Smolt Smython
Member
I'm not trying infer that I think "old is good, new is bad" so please don't respond as such.
Just passing on a recent experience. I'm looking for a Model 36 as a donor gun for a project. I don't like to molest really nice Smith's so my perfect donor has been subject to cosmetic wear and tear that brings the price down but has been shot very little and has no mechanical/functional issues or wear. I stop by the LGS a lot because of high turnover on used guns.
This week there were no 36's on one day and 3 of them the next. Got them all out on the counter and the owner left me to play with them. A 3" 36 No Dash, a 1 7/8" 36 No Dash and a 1 7/8" 36-7. The No Dashes were priced a lot higher than the Dash 7 and looked like a typical blued gun of that age, well worn but not abused, the 3" cosmetics quite a bit nicer than the 1 7/8". Both seemed perfect functionally and had silky smooth and seemingly identical double action trigger pulls (with Snap Caps in the cylinder) and a crisp, light, single action release.
No brainer, leave the rare(er), nicer 3" alone and get the 1 7/8" No Dash, but it was too expensive (both No Dashs had the same price).
So maybe the looked like new, never fired, Dash 7?
It was a lot cheaper. Shop owner said the seller was in a hurry to sell and told him to price it low.
So I picked it up and it had one of the worst double action triggers I've had the displeasure of feeling. Heavy, but more important, glitchy, with numerous peaks and valleys in the pull as tolerances stacked and released and stacked again, over and over. The single action release was vague and the trigger creeped quite a bit before release. With the hammer down and trigger pulled firmly back the cylinder was loose rotationally and not locked up like on the No Dash versions.
The smooth trigger face on the Dash 7 made more sense than the grooved trigger's on the No Dash models. Both the narrow sights on the No Dash's and the wide sights on the Dash 7 (which I had been told were an improvement) were equally bad as being pretty much functionally useless since the front sight on both versions completely filled the rear sight notch leaving no visible light to center the front sight with.
My Model 60 No Dash and my Model 940 sights are not like that, they work well with a correct ratio of front sight width to rear sight notch width so there is some variation going on, typical of firearms of that era.
That's all I have, no opinion, just reporting.
I didn't buy any of them. The No Dash due to high price and the Dash 7 due to poor quality. Could have just been a lemon and another Dash 7 might have been a perfect gem.
Just passing on a recent experience. I'm looking for a Model 36 as a donor gun for a project. I don't like to molest really nice Smith's so my perfect donor has been subject to cosmetic wear and tear that brings the price down but has been shot very little and has no mechanical/functional issues or wear. I stop by the LGS a lot because of high turnover on used guns.
This week there were no 36's on one day and 3 of them the next. Got them all out on the counter and the owner left me to play with them. A 3" 36 No Dash, a 1 7/8" 36 No Dash and a 1 7/8" 36-7. The No Dashes were priced a lot higher than the Dash 7 and looked like a typical blued gun of that age, well worn but not abused, the 3" cosmetics quite a bit nicer than the 1 7/8". Both seemed perfect functionally and had silky smooth and seemingly identical double action trigger pulls (with Snap Caps in the cylinder) and a crisp, light, single action release.
No brainer, leave the rare(er), nicer 3" alone and get the 1 7/8" No Dash, but it was too expensive (both No Dashs had the same price).
So maybe the looked like new, never fired, Dash 7?
It was a lot cheaper. Shop owner said the seller was in a hurry to sell and told him to price it low.
So I picked it up and it had one of the worst double action triggers I've had the displeasure of feeling. Heavy, but more important, glitchy, with numerous peaks and valleys in the pull as tolerances stacked and released and stacked again, over and over. The single action release was vague and the trigger creeped quite a bit before release. With the hammer down and trigger pulled firmly back the cylinder was loose rotationally and not locked up like on the No Dash versions.
The smooth trigger face on the Dash 7 made more sense than the grooved trigger's on the No Dash models. Both the narrow sights on the No Dash's and the wide sights on the Dash 7 (which I had been told were an improvement) were equally bad as being pretty much functionally useless since the front sight on both versions completely filled the rear sight notch leaving no visible light to center the front sight with.
My Model 60 No Dash and my Model 940 sights are not like that, they work well with a correct ratio of front sight width to rear sight notch width so there is some variation going on, typical of firearms of that era.
That's all I have, no opinion, just reporting.
I didn't buy any of them. The No Dash due to high price and the Dash 7 due to poor quality. Could have just been a lemon and another Dash 7 might have been a perfect gem.
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