625 Differences

[JFlowers]

Does anyone know what the differences between a -2 and a -3 are? The only thing i have been able to find is that the -3 was suppose to hae longer hand notches on the cylinder.

[Tom Mainus]

Don't quote me on this, but I think the -3 are the ones that have a floating hand. They are different from all the other guns. Have given guys problems before but I think the problem can be fixed. Do a search for floating hand, I bet some topics will come up. I 'm sure some of the more knowledgable guys will chime in.

Tom

[Carmoney]

All 625-2s and some 625-3s have the floating hand. All 625-2s have chamber dimension problems (way too tight). These issues can be fixed, but I recommend just avoiding the 625-2s. The late '80s were not good years at the S&W factory, in terms of general QC. The late '90s and early 2000s were much better times.

I deal with a lot of 625s. Here is my personal preference of the 625 variants, in descending order:

625-6

625-8

625-4

625-3

[JFlowers]

Cool. I currently have a 5" 625-4 Model of 1989 that has been Carmonized and I just purchased a 5" 625-3 Model of 1989. I had been looking at a Model of 1988 but Mike steered me clear.

Edited June 10, 2011 by JFlowers

[dillon]

I've had very good luck with my personal 625-2, well over 10,000 rounds through it, and no mechanical problems to date. However, I did get a gunsmith to pick it out of 6 or 7 in the store for me at the time, however. It sometimes helps to have friends

[GlockCanMan]

I have been looking for a 5" 625 lately and all I seem to find are the -2 models. What does it take to replace the floating hand?

[Toolguy]

Remove the trigger, punch out the pin of the floating hand, replace with a regular hand. Very easy.

[Carmoney]

Then you generally have to fit the hand to the window, and then to the ratchet. Sometimes you get lucky and they drop in pretty decently without a lot of fitting work, but you can't count on that happening. Heck, for that matter, sometimes the floating hands work out just fine and don't even need replaced!

The tight chambers can be reamed easily enough, too.

The real thing I hate about S&W guns of that era (mid-'80s through mid-'90s) is the rough finish on all the internals. I mean rough, people. Tough and time-consuming to work on, and tough to make smooth. With the proper effort, most of them will slick up OK, but why make things difficult? I tell people to buy them if they can find them dirt cheap. It's still a 5" 625 and most of them are plenty accurate and can be made to function pretty well. But it does take substantially more effort to bring a 625-2 into the realm of being reasonably shootable, in most instances.

[Toolguy]

The same is true of a lot of K,L and N frames from that time period. They range anywhere from "not too bad" to "almost have to rebuild before doing the action".

[26120]

I have a 625-3 and have had know problems with it.I have had a problem with the rear sight ramp.It seems that the forward part of the ramp sticks up leaving a gap if you look at it from the front of the gun.Just dont know how to remedy that.