S&W Model 60 Pro

Through the efforts of another real nice forum member here I was able to arrange for my don to get a S&W Model 60 Lady Smith. I am looking forward to training her with it. Really nice gun and I have loaded about 100 rounds with 148 grain HBWC over 2.7 grains of Bullseye. Then we can move along to some hotter JHP loads. They really are nice guns. Enjoy yours.

Ron

I have a Model 60 Pro Series. I paid $150 to have a trigger job done on it but I have issues with hand strength. I shoot 38 Special through it because 357 Magnum kicks like a God damn mule!
.

Note: I am not posting this to rain on anyone’s parade. I just want to relate my experience.

I owned a model 60 Pro that I bought in 2017. Mine was very accurate and I really liked it. I bought it as a gun to have on me when salmon and steelhead fishing in Oregon and when traipsing around in the woods. I really liked that revolver.
I did fire quite a few 158 grain .357 magnum rounds through it. Perhaps this was the start of my trouble.
Anyway, one day I was shooting it and try cylinder locked up and I could not release it no matter what I tried. I figured the extractor rod had backed off and I tried to free it with some pliers that I taped up not to scratch but the sucker wouldn’t budge. So I sent it in to S&W with a cylinder full of empties.

They returned it snd said the Performance Center didn’t thread the extractor rod far enough. So, being me and having disassembled it before and had photos, I disassembled the cylinder assembly and
compared the extractor rod to my photos. I take photos so I have a reassembly reference when I take apart a gun.
The extractor rod looked exactly as it had before. Odd that they claimed they had retreaded it, but there was no evidence of it. I reassembled it and moved on.
I took it to the range and fired it. For some reason it was hitting a couple of. Inches to the right. I chalked it up to my bad shooting that day.

A long story short…
I took a job in CA and moved. Months later I got my 60 Pro out and went to the range a few times with it. The rounds started hitting about 4” left on the target. Really weird.
One day I noticed the barrel appeared turned to the left.
This photo shows the barrel is turned to the left. Notice the rear sight setting. It still shot to the right. It’s not a great photo. It was hard to get a shot that truly displayed how off kilter the barrel was.


So, off it went to S&W. 3 times before they fixed it! They didn’t repair the original problem. They turned the barrel (or barrel shroud) to free the extractor rod so the cylinder would release. I never did figure out if it was a 2 piece or 1 piece barrel.
The last time it was returned they sent a snotty note about how they would never accept that gun again for warranty issues. Needless to say, I was pretty PO’d about the whole thing and I sold the gun. I did inform the buyer of it’s history.

So, moral of the story is - should your cylinder release become inoperable and you have to send your gun in tell them up front you will not accept turning of the barrel as a fix!


I truly did like my 60 Pro. It’s too bad S&W has an unscrupulous butthead working in their warranty repair department.

Jonesy814 said:

I jokingly refer to my 60 pro as the uncatalogged Trump commemorative. The serial number prefix is DJT

Click to expand...

How cool would it be if DJT was followed by 2016 or 2024?

I like and shoot big bores regularly up to 460S&W. I am quite recoil tolerant. I could not get through a cylinder full of .357 Magnums in the M60 Pro. The trigger guard cut my trigger finger rather badly. I can't shoot the lightweight J-frames very well in general, but I won't ever be doing that again. That M60 was absolutely brutal!

ROK'N THUNDER said:

I have a Model 60 Pro Series. I paid $150 to have a trigger job done on it but I have issues with hand strength. I shoot 38 Special through it because 357 Magnum kicks like a damn mule!
.

Click to expand...

sparkyv said:

I like and shoot big bores regularly up to 460S&W. I am quite recoil tolerant. I could not get through a cylinder full of .357 Magnums in the M60 Pro. The trigger guard cut my trigger finger rather badly. I can't shoot the lightweight J-frames very well in general, but I won't ever be doing that again. That M60 was absolutely brutal!

Click to expand...

Yes, they are invigorating, to say the least.