Current production S&W 629

[arthury]

Any issues with the above gun in the current production? I'm catching a revolver bug ... *sigh*

Was in the middle of reading Veral Smith's Jacketed Performance with Cast Bullets when I got the itch to go measure the throat chambers and slugged the barrel with a soft lead of my SW500. The dimensions came out to be ideal. I'm impressed with the production tolerances of S&W revolvers and now, I'm craving to get another one.

My understanding is that the SW500's are made in the Performance Center. Will the 629's have wider tolerances than the 500's ? Should I expect the same level of tolerances?

 

[huntershooter]

My 629-6 had throats that were .427" to .428"- too tight. What the hell were they thinking?
Manson finished reamed throats to shoot cast bullets, as this was a hunting gun.

Not crazy about the lock, MIM parts and necessary changes to internals due to lock/MIM parts.
If you've had experience working on older S&W's, wait 'til you detail strip a new one...

 

[7075-T7]

While my throats were an even .429", the first one I got had the barrel and cyl gap at .007" one side, .014" the other side and even more at the top. Returned to S&W and a week later I got a new barrel and crane screw. They're about .006" across the board.

Not the best experiance I've had with a pistol, but it works now.

 

[Sam1911]

My 629-10 did have slightly tight throats. Can't remember the dimensions now, but I decided to send it out to cylindersmith.com and have them reamed.

That's the only change I've made besides fooling with springs. (Oh, I did ditch the flag part of the lock.)

It has ~ 15,000 rds. through it now (about 10,000 of them in one year) and even with the factory mainspring back in it I have other revolver guys tell me the trigger is like "cheating." All those MIM parts sure seem to work AWESOMELY. It has a better trigger than the P&R Model 57 sitting in the safe next to it.

I'm a VERY happy customer.

 

[arthury]

Yup, I agree with you, the current production 629 works like a clock. I love the trigger, it's buttery smooth and breaks crisply.