farscott
Member
Since the 327 TRR8 did not work for my wife (see the thread on the revolver with a rail), I kept digging. What we ended up with is interesting, but it cannot wear a light. I say, "we", but this one is going to be mine.
Last night I picked up one of the M627-6 PC eight-shot revolvers. It is a revolver that looks wrong, but form follows function. It is milled for moon clips, but I am not planning on using them with the rimmed .357 Magnum and .38 Special cartridges for which the revolver is chambered. I believe the target audience for the gun is ICORE competitive shooters, but it will work for me as an HD and hunting revolver. It "points" extremely well, and, like all five-inch N-frames of my experience, balances nicely in the hand. It feels better in the hand than my well worn, square-butt, and fixed-sight M520. For a large N-frame steel revolver, it feels light.
It has a decent out-of-the-box action and feels better than some of the other S&W revolvers in my dealer's display cases. The hammer and trigger are flash chromed forged steel, not the MIM parts seen on most current production S&W revolvers. The trigger has a piece of tube stock welded to its rear as a trigger stop. The hammer is the "tear drop" shape that shows up on quite a few PC revolvers. Like most new S&W revolvers, it was shipped dry and dirt; lubrication, cleaning, and dry firing improved the action feel quite a bit.
The finish appears to be glass bead blasted stainless steel with polished barrel flats. It looks weird, and my wife and daughter hated it on sight at the gun shop. My wife really hates the funky barrel underlug, but it does not bother me. The stainless will be easier to maintain than the worn polished blue of my M520. The barrel rib is serrated. Of course, the serrated grip frame tangs are missing. Of all of the changes to S&W revolvers, the loss of the serrated tangs on the target revolvers bothers me the most. I could also live without the internal lock, but I will say no more about the lock on a public forum.
I was concerned about lockup and timing since there were eight cylinders to time instead of just six, but it passed the "sticky" tests. The gold bead on the black front post is easy to acquire, but there is something even better. The front sight is interchangeable, allowing me to install a C&S fixed rear sight and a front post of the correct height and profile for the load I want to shoot.
The firing pin length is something that concerns me. The firing pin protrusion from the breech face, with the trigger back, is the shortest I have ever seen on any revolver. At first I thought the firing pin was broken; however, it does not appear to be damaged when viewed under 10X magnification. The point is nicely radiused and looks symmetric. I need to measure it with my calipers to get an exact length, but it is darn short. It worked at S&W since it was shipped with lots of residue from the test firing. It may be an artifact of the need to relocate the firing pin to support the eight-shot cylinder. I hope to get it to the range in the next week or so to see how it shoots.
If it shoots as well as it should, my old M520 might be looking for a new home. Then again I may just refinish the M520 to make it a bit more resistant to the elements.
Last night I picked up one of the M627-6 PC eight-shot revolvers. It is a revolver that looks wrong, but form follows function. It is milled for moon clips, but I am not planning on using them with the rimmed .357 Magnum and .38 Special cartridges for which the revolver is chambered. I believe the target audience for the gun is ICORE competitive shooters, but it will work for me as an HD and hunting revolver. It "points" extremely well, and, like all five-inch N-frames of my experience, balances nicely in the hand. It feels better in the hand than my well worn, square-butt, and fixed-sight M520. For a large N-frame steel revolver, it feels light.
It has a decent out-of-the-box action and feels better than some of the other S&W revolvers in my dealer's display cases. The hammer and trigger are flash chromed forged steel, not the MIM parts seen on most current production S&W revolvers. The trigger has a piece of tube stock welded to its rear as a trigger stop. The hammer is the "tear drop" shape that shows up on quite a few PC revolvers. Like most new S&W revolvers, it was shipped dry and dirt; lubrication, cleaning, and dry firing improved the action feel quite a bit.
The finish appears to be glass bead blasted stainless steel with polished barrel flats. It looks weird, and my wife and daughter hated it on sight at the gun shop. My wife really hates the funky barrel underlug, but it does not bother me. The stainless will be easier to maintain than the worn polished blue of my M520. The barrel rib is serrated. Of course, the serrated grip frame tangs are missing. Of all of the changes to S&W revolvers, the loss of the serrated tangs on the target revolvers bothers me the most. I could also live without the internal lock, but I will say no more about the lock on a public forum.
I was concerned about lockup and timing since there were eight cylinders to time instead of just six, but it passed the "sticky" tests. The gold bead on the black front post is easy to acquire, but there is something even better. The front sight is interchangeable, allowing me to install a C&S fixed rear sight and a front post of the correct height and profile for the load I want to shoot.
The firing pin length is something that concerns me. The firing pin protrusion from the breech face, with the trigger back, is the shortest I have ever seen on any revolver. At first I thought the firing pin was broken; however, it does not appear to be damaged when viewed under 10X magnification. The point is nicely radiused and looks symmetric. I need to measure it with my calipers to get an exact length, but it is darn short. It worked at S&W since it was shipped with lots of residue from the test firing. It may be an artifact of the need to relocate the firing pin to support the eight-shot cylinder. I hope to get it to the range in the next week or so to see how it shoots.
If it shoots as well as it should, my old M520 might be looking for a new home. Then again I may just refinish the M520 to make it a bit more resistant to the elements.
