S&W Performance Center 627 question

[SIGcurious]

Just wondering what things you found, if any, that had to be done to this gun ...  tuning, parts, etc.  Or was it good to go from the factory?

 

Thanks.

[alecmc]

Will the gun go bang out of the factory? Sure 

 

Is it competition tuned ? No , not at all.  Prepare to touch on just about every aspect of the gun.

 

 

Edited January 27, 2020 by alecmc

[ysrracer]

On mine I had an action/trigger job done, chamfer the cylinders, change the front sight to an SDM Super Sight, change the rear blade to a Jack Wiegand blade, go to an Apex double action only hammer.

Edited January 27, 2020 by ysrracer

[Mcfoto]

Echo the comments above but emphasized the cylinder chamfering: mine would not load any rounds with the supplied moons (TK blued). Now they load short colt like budda.

[ysrracer]

Mine is chamfered under the star thingy that pushes the empty bullets back.

[MRBerg]

I just picked up the same gun your asking about and yes you will need to do plenty of work to it to make it match ready all the info. the guys here tell you to do is what needs to be done not sure how handy you are with working on your guns there are some great videos on you tube that can help you do some of the work your self if your not into that find a good gunsmith that works on revolvers or send it into a pro shop like TK 

Ron 

[ysrracer]

I'm going to go out on a limb here with a suggestion that's just crazy enough to work. Take it to a reputable S&W gunsmith, and let them do what they do.

[SIGcurious]

Thanks everyone.  I'm coming from the Single Stack world and have no experience with revolvers.  My 1911 needed relatively little to be competitive, but it looks like that's not the case with revolvers.  I'll be shooting Steel Challenge ISO  ... at least initially, so  I was just trying to get a feel for what kind of an upfront investment is necessary.  Sounds like I would need to send it off to TK,  or someone similar, for tuning/action work and throw on some good target sights. 

 

 

[kimel]

Just got one myself.  Was going to send it to TK, but budget won’t allow for that and the work I plan to do isn’t out of my comfort zone.  
Mine will get:

cylinder chamfer - has some but not quite enough and none under the ejector star

Apex hammer, firing pin, and spring kit

new front sight immediately and likely a new rear as well

smooth up the action.  I’ve done a couple others and they came out well

lock delete

hogue grip - already done

 

May crown the barrel at some point.  Mine isn’t even chamfered. Forcing cone is rough like it just came out of the chop saw.  Might have to work on that...someday, unless it proves to be an issue.
 

Timing is good, lockup is okay but eventually will deal with that, probably when I replace the trigger and rebound bar on down the road.

 

[mchapman]

6 minutes ago, SIGcurious said:

Thanks everyone.  I'm coming from the Single Stack world and have no experience with revolvers.  My 1911 needed relatively little to be competitive, but it looks like that's not the case with revolvers.  I'll be shooting Steel Challenge ISO  ... at least initially, so  I was just trying to get a feel for what kind of an upfront investment is necessary.  Sounds like I would need to send it off to TK,  or someone similar, for tuning/action work and throw on some good target sights. 

 

 

Joe at MOJO CUSTOM GUNS, Eli at TK CUSTOM, or Mark at Pinnacle , all do great work, call and check waiting times and cost and go from there.  There are others out there that also do good action jobs but not as well known or have just backed off from doing lots of work.

[pskys2]

For the casual competitor they are just fine out of the box.  The sights on the PC 627 are good, but most like a FO and it's an easy swap.  The cylinder is already chamfered lightly and is fine, but once you start getting into it you will probably like a little more aggressive chamfering though just polishing it up may do fine.  The Action Pull will be about 11 pounds and will light off everything, once you start reloading with Federal Primers you will probably like a lighter action.  Around 6 pounds is easily done and is what most like.  If you've shot several thousand rounds the action will smooth up a little and you can just lighten up springs.

 

It's not like getting a Colt 1911 that won't even feed hardball and having to upgrade everything, like we did before Kimber, STI, Les Baer, Ed Brown, SIG and all the multitudes that put together a good 1911 that needs little but personal touches added.

[PatJones]

I shoot a 5" 627PC.

I did an action job and set my trigger pull to 6 1/4. An Apex hammer allows me to prime on the 550, with the factory hammer i needed to hand seat the primers for 100% ignition. (Federal primers)

I haven't touched the cylinder chamfer. I roll crimp my 38s. The currently fashionable taper crimp can hang up on the case mouth. The fix is a light roll crimp, not a dremel tool.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

[IVC]

I have many S&W PC revolvers and they *used to* be really good. A 5" 627 PC I got years ago is by far the best factory trigger I've ever owned. Compare to the 627 PC V-Comp I got about two years back that was gritty and crappy and took a trip to TK Custom to make it amazing. My two 929's, that are PC by default, were also way less than acceptable without the extra work and were anything but "competition ready." My guess is that anything recent from PC is likely going to be just a good foundation, but the work will have to be done by someone else.

 

It's a pity that S&W PC is in the toilet and a victim of cost cutting...

[AzShooter]

If you are going to do the  gunsmithing yourself, get the new Apex Mass Drive Hammer.  It still has a small spur on it if you ever want to shoot single action. i.e. for group testing.  Randy Lee says that you can get a 6.5 pound trigger just by replacing your hammer with theirs.  Add the Apex Firing Pin and spring.  I use an 11 pound rebound spring in my guns and am very happy with the trigger pulls.  You need to balance the springs and will probably lighten the mainspring some.

Edited January 29, 2020 by AzShooter

[SIGcurious]

• Quote

I probably won't be doing any work myself ... at this point I would probably do more harm than good, so I'll have to rely on a pro.

 

I expected it would need some amount of work, but it seems like a solid gun.  I have a line on an unmolested one still stock for a good price, so I'll probably jump on it.

 

Now I just need to work out the "short/mid/long" 38 thing and find a good load for Steel Challenge.

[kimel]

8 hours ago, AzShooter said:

If you are going to do the  gunsmithing yourself, get the new Apex Mass Drive Hammer.  It still has a small spur on it if you ever want to shoot single action. i.e. for group testing.  Randy Lee says that you can get a 6.5 pound trigger just by replacing your hammer with theirs.  Add the Apex Firing Pin and spring.  I use an 11 pound recoil spring in my guns and am very happy with the trigger pulls.  You need to balance the springs and will probably lighten the mainspring some.

The only mass drive hammer I see on the Apex site is for L frame.  Unless the description is misleading or I’m missing something.

[ysrracer]

I thought a mass driver hammer was only for a .22?

[AzShooter]

They announced the new hammers this week at Shot Show.  I don't know if they are available yet.

 

[MWP]

On 1/28/2020 at 5:19 AM, SIGcurious said:

• Quote

I probably won't be doing any work myself ... at this point I would probably do more harm than good, so I'll have to rely on a pro.

 

I expected it would need some amount of work, but it seems like a solid gun.  I have a line on an unmolested one still stock for a good price, so I'll probably jump on it.

 

Now I just need to work out the "short/mid/long" 38 thing and find a good load for Steel Challenge.

Use shorts for steel loads. If you’re fast, you will be able to get light first shots with anything longer like LC or specials. 

 

If you’re not worried about that, specials are fine for SC loads. 

[Toolguy]

On 1/28/2020 at 8:21 AM, kimel said:

The only mass drive hammer I see on the Apex site is for L frame.  Unless the description is misleading or I’m missing something.

On the new guns with firing pin in frame, the K and L use the same hammer. N is different. On the old ones with firing pin on hammer (hammer nose) there is a different hammer for each frame size.

[kimel]

On 1/28/2020 at 4:08 PM, AzShooter said:

They announced the new hammers this week at Shot Show.  I don't know if they are available yet.

 

Figures, I place my order and new things get announced.  May have to ping them and see about exchanging, if they are really available now.

[SIGcurious]

23 hours ago, MWP said:

Use shorts for steel loads. If you’re fast, you will be able to get light first shots with anything longer like LC or specials. 

 

If you’re not worried about that, specials are fine for SC loads. 

 

Are most people using 38 Short Colt (for a 38/357 gun) for Steel Challenge?  I don't know much about them.  From what I can tell a 38/357 die is used for de-capping/sizing, and 9mm dies for expanding, seating, and crimping (taper)?  Not finding a lot of 38 Short load data out there ... do you just use 9mm data?

[AzShooter]

11 minutes ago, SIGcurious said:

 

Are most people using 38 Short Colt (for a 38/357 gun) for Steel Challenge?  I don't know much about them.  From what I can tell a 38/357 die is used for de-capping/sizing, and 9mm dies for expanding, seating, and crimping (taper)?  Not finding a lot of 38 Short load data out there ... do you just use 9mm data?

Uses 9mm load data and you will be spot on.  I like using 160 grain bullets but you may not find data for them 14 7 and 135s will give you no problems.

[MikeBurgess]

56 minutes ago, SIGcurious said:

 

Are most people using 38 Short Colt (for a 38/357 gun) for Steel Challenge?  I don't know much about them.  From what I can tell a 38/357 die is used for de-capping/sizing, and 9mm dies for expanding, seating, and crimping (taper)?  Not finding a lot of 38 Short load data out there ... do you just use 9mm data?

For steel challenge the short colts are not necessary, if your set up for 38 spl or just want to buy factory. the short colt brass shines for doing reloads, but at a steel match those should be off the clock so no advantage to the short brass. that said I run one load for my 627s for USPSA,ICORE and Steel for simplicity sake.

 

 

[SIGcurious]

45 minutes ago, MikeBurgess said:

For steel challenge the short colts are not necessary, if your set up for 38 spl or just want to buy factory. the short colt brass shines for doing reloads, but at a steel match those should be off the clock so no advantage to the short brass. that said I run one load for my 627s for USPSA,ICORE and Steel for simplicity sake.

 

That's what I was thinking (no reloads), ... but I thought the shorter case was popular due to preventing light 1st strikes from where the powder lies inside the case.  Or is that totally powder dependent and not really an issue either for Steel?