Hello, all--
I'm a long time reader but this is my first post. I'll start by saying that I have found by far the best and most useful info at THR and it's always interesting.
Now to the meat and potatoes. I'm an experienced shooter mostly dealing with clay sports and handgunning, and last week I ordered a 627 from Smith's Performance Center. I know a couple of people that have one, and by reading here the general consensus is that most people have a positive experience with them. Every one that I have fired or handled in the past has been an excellent shooter with about as nice a trigger as you'll find in a semi-production .357. Mine came in Friday, and when I went to pick it up I looked it over sort of quickly as I was in a hurry to pick my son up after work. I dry fired, checked timing, lock-up, etc. Looked and felt great. I packed it back up and went home. This morning was the first time I was able to shoot it. The owner of the shop gave me a box of Independence 158 gr. SJSP, and I had a box of my own 140 gr. SWC loads which have never let me down in ANY revo. I used them in.
I got out there and set up, and the first thing I noticed was how sloppy the rear blade was in the mount. I could actually shake the gun and hear it rattle, and after a phone call to my buddy he told me that his 627's bade was tight and straight. I thought well, whatever, Ill take it in and have them replace it. No big deal, just irritating in a $1,000 gun. So. Then I get loaded up, rested and pointed down range. This is when it gets bad. The front sight definitely looked like it was leaning to the left. I figured it had to be the bad rear sight so I decided I'd just keep a consistent hold and see how it grouped...Way high/right. I popped the rest of the cylinder, walked down and saw that I had about a basketball-sized group (I'm definitely a sub-basketball group shooter, and I an get my 686 to hold a couple inches at 25 yds.). Changed to my loads, same thing. I tried that exact 686, and I was right on. I did manage to get the POI brought back down in front of the gun, but not by much.
Now I'm pretty pissed about buying this thing, and when I got it home to clean it I found some horrifying things out. Examining the front sight to see why it looked canted, I saw that the serrations on the backstrap didn't quite line up with those on the barrel, nor with anything else. Looking down the barrel (unloaded of course) I could tell that the entire thing was rotated in the frame about 3 or 4 degrees, maybe more or less depending on my estimation, but you could definitely see that it was pressed in clockwise to the frame. Now I'm REALLY pissed. Next I put two straight edges on the frame and I could see that the barrel's NOT EVEN IN THE FRAME STRAIGHT.
Back to the store I go. The owner was also quite perturbed about Smith sending this thing out, especially because I was showing him all of this stuff in front of a few potential customers. It's going back Monday morning to get fixed (hopefully replaced). Now I am a pretty forgiving person, so I will say that I'm willing to give the P.C. a chance to make it right. I don't have any experience with the folks there, but I hear they're decent and I love the action (better than the aforementioned 686) and the rest of the gun. If however it comes back as a POS like it is now, I'm going to consider it a learning experience, sell it for what I can get, and tell everyone within yelling distance what kind of stuff comes from the P.C. for a thousand bucks.
Guys, I really, really hope I'm not disappointed with their answer for this because I really do like the other ones I've shot. If you would be interested in hearing what happens wen I get it back, I'll keep you posted. Thanks for reading this far.
--Nick
I'm a long time reader but this is my first post. I'll start by saying that I have found by far the best and most useful info at THR and it's always interesting.
Now to the meat and potatoes. I'm an experienced shooter mostly dealing with clay sports and handgunning, and last week I ordered a 627 from Smith's Performance Center. I know a couple of people that have one, and by reading here the general consensus is that most people have a positive experience with them. Every one that I have fired or handled in the past has been an excellent shooter with about as nice a trigger as you'll find in a semi-production .357. Mine came in Friday, and when I went to pick it up I looked it over sort of quickly as I was in a hurry to pick my son up after work. I dry fired, checked timing, lock-up, etc. Looked and felt great. I packed it back up and went home. This morning was the first time I was able to shoot it. The owner of the shop gave me a box of Independence 158 gr. SJSP, and I had a box of my own 140 gr. SWC loads which have never let me down in ANY revo. I used them in.
I got out there and set up, and the first thing I noticed was how sloppy the rear blade was in the mount. I could actually shake the gun and hear it rattle, and after a phone call to my buddy he told me that his 627's bade was tight and straight. I thought well, whatever, Ill take it in and have them replace it. No big deal, just irritating in a $1,000 gun. So. Then I get loaded up, rested and pointed down range. This is when it gets bad. The front sight definitely looked like it was leaning to the left. I figured it had to be the bad rear sight so I decided I'd just keep a consistent hold and see how it grouped...Way high/right. I popped the rest of the cylinder, walked down and saw that I had about a basketball-sized group (I'm definitely a sub-basketball group shooter, and I an get my 686 to hold a couple inches at 25 yds.). Changed to my loads, same thing. I tried that exact 686, and I was right on. I did manage to get the POI brought back down in front of the gun, but not by much.
Now I'm pretty pissed about buying this thing, and when I got it home to clean it I found some horrifying things out. Examining the front sight to see why it looked canted, I saw that the serrations on the backstrap didn't quite line up with those on the barrel, nor with anything else. Looking down the barrel (unloaded of course) I could tell that the entire thing was rotated in the frame about 3 or 4 degrees, maybe more or less depending on my estimation, but you could definitely see that it was pressed in clockwise to the frame. Now I'm REALLY pissed. Next I put two straight edges on the frame and I could see that the barrel's NOT EVEN IN THE FRAME STRAIGHT.
Back to the store I go. The owner was also quite perturbed about Smith sending this thing out, especially because I was showing him all of this stuff in front of a few potential customers. It's going back Monday morning to get fixed (hopefully replaced). Now I am a pretty forgiving person, so I will say that I'm willing to give the P.C. a chance to make it right. I don't have any experience with the folks there, but I hear they're decent and I love the action (better than the aforementioned 686) and the rest of the gun. If however it comes back as a POS like it is now, I'm going to consider it a learning experience, sell it for what I can get, and tell everyone within yelling distance what kind of stuff comes from the P.C. for a thousand bucks.
Guys, I really, really hope I'm not disappointed with their answer for this because I really do like the other ones I've shot. If you would be interested in hearing what happens wen I get it back, I'll keep you posted. Thanks for reading this far.
--Nick
