New models or Vintage?

You are right gmh.

New revolvers suck (as a catagory) unless you want some high tech lightweight styrofoam-like frame.

No thanks. Real metal and craftsmaship

As I told a buddy of mine...autos are getting better, revolvers are getting worse. I will buy all the old Smith and Colt revolvers that I can now as they are a diminishing resource. The next auto wondergun is just around the corner.

Sadly the guys at GT Distributors are raising the prices on their used revolvers. They are 50 bucks high on most everything in the case. New management perhaps. Oh well.

I had a shocking experience the other day...

Handled a Smith & Wesson that locked up as tight as any Colt hand-ejector I've come across. No perceptable end-shake or rotational movement.

And the sideplate was so closely fitted that at 3 feet you couldn't make out where the plate touched the frame.

What was this wonder gun? A .38 top-break made during 1884 or '85.

According to some guys on this forum, back then the cutting tools were made from chipped flint, But for fit and finish today's CNC made revolvers couldn't touch it.

I have notiiced that older guys that have some experience tend to like older handguns, while much less experienced young ones go for the new stuff. I suppose that 50 years from now they'll be telling everyone how great today's plastic & potmetal guns were...

Fortunately I won't be around to listen.

Dear GMH,

Almost every day I think about getting a Glock or Kel-Tec or something else that holds a bunch of bullets, but my old Smith and Colt revolvers just, they just, they . . . How do you say it?

LBS

Old S&W's just keep going. Better fit and finish than new ones.

Save up and treat yourself to a Colt Diamondback in .22. The untimate "Man Gift" for ones self.

I dunno . . . I'm in my mid-50s . . . well . . . actually 58 and I just bought a new S&W revolver that's the nicest I've ever had. Other than that . . . my truck is a '76 Jimmy and my camper a '67 Frolic. And, my ATV is a 3-wheeler . . . a 1987 Honda 250es "Big Red."


I hunt with an early Remington 700LH (BDL variant in left hand) made in '73, and with a 12 gauge Ithaca Model 37 from 1969.




My carry revolver is a '71 S&W Model 37. I still have my honeymoon car in the garage . . . my '66 Mustang V8 2+2 Fastback. BUT . . .


But my new S&W revolver is something else. Here it is . . . I got it recently!

As can be seen, the problem with this attitude is a great many others share it, making the guns (and cars) we like expensive and hard to find.

Dave

Hi gmh1013,



While many very good, fine quality, good fit and finish Arms have been made since say WWII...

The sweetest to my eye and hand, have always been among those made before WWII, if not even before WWI, or in the 19th Century.

Long Arms or Hand Gun, either way.


In my opinion, the apex of our Culture, and, it's capacity for self respect, sense, and aesthetics, pretty well crested it's long peak in Century ending by the nineteen twenties to early 'thirties...and, has been on the wane, since.


Lincoln left a rusting Knive in it's Kidney...Wilson did likewise...and FDR and International Money Lenders tied a Bag over it's head, and, spun it around...

Oh well...


At least we got to live in an era where there was still just enough dribs and attenuated vestiges of good things left laying around, to more or less get by on.

I love my oldies, but I have a place for modern technology, especially with automobiles. My 4th gen Camaro is faster, quicker and more reliable than any of the 1st gen big block ones I have owned, plus it gets 20+mpg on the open road. The only thing I would consider swapping my C5 for would be a 67 435hp C2. The only 'new' revolvers I own are Rugers and they are not as nice as the older ones.

no one is typing on their computer to an internet gun community that there is no place for technology. But as far as revolvers go...nothing new compares unless you ultra lightness is a factor for you. Or giant calibers like 454 Casull and .500 S&W.

I am just bemoaning how few older revolvers are available around Austin. My pawn shops have little or none, GT Distributors have raised their prices, McBride's is always very high. Where have the they all gone?

But as far as revolvers go...nothing new compares

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Maybe so, if fit and finish are one's primary or even sole concerns. Seems to those who've contributed to this thread, that's so, and that's cool.

That said, fit and finish are only part of the tale. How they shoot matters too. At least it does to me.

I have old and new revolvers, and, IME, the newer stuff shoots every bit...nay...better...than the old stuff. Neither of my 5-screw 6"ers shoot as accurately as their CNC-produced, lock- and MIM-infested 4" counterparts.

I love vintage revolvers for their fit and finish and what they represent, but my newer guns are quickly accumulating mileage that the older ones can only envy.

the newer stuff shoots every bit...nay...better...than the old stuff

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your experience is different than mine.

My daughter's old model 19 is superior to either my current wife's 686 or mine. Better action and more accurate (marginally)

That said, I am happy with my 686. It is going to get a certain amount of abuse as a trail gun. I would hate to have a great classic gun getting the blue sanded off of it by trail dust.

So I too have a couple of CNC, MIM revolvers too and they are welcome members of the family (no locks, we do have standards)

Where have the they all gone?

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The greedy Old Fuff has struck!!!

Seriously, they are out there, but more and more people that have them aren't selling unless they are financially pressured to do so. I think in some cases it's because people don't trust the government, and in others they are aware that they, "don't make them like they used too," and what you have tends to look good when a new one is priced in the $500 range and up.

Another indicator is recent ammunition sales. During the Obama Bubble even .38 Special and .380 ACP dried up for awhile.

As for old vs. new accuracy, especially in S&W products. Recent barrels have very shallow rifling that tended to work O.K, with jacketed bullets, but less so with lead ones. Older barrels with deeper rifling favored lead bullets. Otherwise I don't see where recent changes, such as MIM lockwork, the internal lock, etc. would affect accuracy one way or the other.

Of course they're is always the possibility that one may get a particularly good or bad gun on an individual basis - old or new.

Count me in in this club. I have a 1978 Chevy 2x4 pickup, a Camper Special with a 454 and auto, and a 1974 Chevy 2x4 with a 350 4 speed, and both run like new. I love them. I also have a 1969 Shasta Airflyte 16ft trailer as a camper and would not give it up till it won't keep rain off my head, and drive a vintage 1985 BMW M535 Dinan daily. I love old guns, I only have 1911s for autos, and have a Dan Wesson 14-2, a first run GP100, a S&W Airweight from the 60s, a Model 19-2 in 2.5in, and am ALWAYS looking for my next old S&W or COLT revolver. I also love [retty much anything old because the new stuff as a whole just doesn't seem to last, and has the lack of chachter.

The greedy Old Fuff has struck!!!

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I did not know that your long arm extended this far. Damn it!!!

While I have a Colt DS and a S&W Bodyguard I inherited from my grandfather, I actually like the modular Ruger GP-100 better than any of them. I can just go shoot the hell out of it without worrying about breaking it and I can work on the iron myself without any arcane knowledge from a dead world.

I think "modern revolvers" only suck hard when they are things like S&Ws that were designed during the old school and are now being cheapened where and whenever possible. The Rugers use a more modern design so that a GP-100 made in 2010 is pretty much identical to the first ones that shipped in 1985.



It ain't the prettiest, just an enduring mechanical achievement of a different sort.

Hey Boats...want to sell those crappy old revolvers?

Count me in on the old wheelie club too but...

I've come across two lately, while they are pre locks (sorry, just can't do the whole hole in the sideplate thing), they are MIM part "transitionals". One is a 686+ and the other a 625-6 Mountain Gun in .45 acp. BOTH of these can easily keep up with or outshoot my K38 Masterpiece (1952) or my Officers Model Match HB (1938).

Did try several years ago the 627 Pro from S&W which was a lock gun and while it shot like a champ, I couldn't get over staring at "the hole" on the side. Also didn't find that 8 shot moonclips were nearly as fast as 6 or 7 shot speedloaders, but that may have been that I have lots more trigger time on the latter. The 8 rounders just seemed to "wobble" in the clips and made hitting the chamber hole slower. Just my .02 on those.

So imo, S&W is churning out some VERY accurate revolvers, but I'll agree that the fit and polish of the older hand ejectors, both pre and post WW2 were to a higher standard. A pre 27, or even 27-2 (or even a model 28), is a mighty purty thing compared to say...a 327 Nightguard. Jes sayin is all.

Happy Shooting.

Tim

Hey Boats...want to sell those crappy old revolvers?

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They're not crappy--just delicate.

Hey Boats...want to sell those delicate old revolvers?

The new Smiths are'nt exactly crap, but the quality is not where it was 30-40 years ago... I debated for a long time whether to buy a new classic model 17, but ended up buying a lightly used 33 year old one. No comparison in triggers.

There is a reason I have never bought a new gun. I only look for used and/or out of production. No point in anything else. The newest one I have was made around 91. The oldest around '44.

ey Boats...want to sell those delicate old revolvers?

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Thanks, but no. They're heirlooms.

Those old revolvers are sitting in the homes of men in their 60s+. I'm kicking myself harder and harder for letting a S&W 27 3.5" nickel plated(95%+) slip through my fingers becaues I couldn't "justify it," it would have been a safe queen and not a shooter honestly, but still. The guy who I helped sell all his old revolvers, had S&W 13s, a 28, Colt Troopers, you wouldn't believe. The guy who I got all my model 19s from (paid me to do his house painting while I'm in lawschool) still has a few choice Colts and Smiths in his safe that I've eyed but he's really holding onto those for his grandchildren(he's got two grandsons that live with him now along with his daughter ergo the painting).

I know another "More Wise" gentleman sitting on a proverbial gold mine of older classic guns sitting in a double-wide of his on 100+ acres of land. And no he wouldn't let me take a picture and I don't quite blame him, he only showed me because he knew I'd get a kick out of it. I'm sure to see him once every couple weeks and help out around his place (he also lets me do my NRA pistol classes on his property) in the hopes me may fondly remember me in his Last Will and Testament.

For us young guys(I'm still young at 25) we simply got beat to the punch as they say. We missed out on the relatively cheap ammo heydays, we largely missed out on the easy days of milsurp collecting, and so now we get to watch the last police-tradein revolvers go the way of the Dodo(I at least found a non-neutrered 15-3). No more Einfield SMLEs, Schmidtt Rubins will be collectors items, and say goodbye to the cheap supplise of 8mm and 7.62x54r, we hardly knew yee.

But we'll get to see the new and hopefully better laws protecting our 2nd-Amendment, and we can always hold out against hope for an end to the 1968' NFA machine gun registry limit.

All said, I really like Colt 1903s and I wish someone would remake a tougher all-steel updated reproduction.