cole440 Posted January 15, 2023 Share Posted January 15, 2023 Hi all, after lurking for many, many years, I am here to ask a question! So far I have found all of my questions answered on this forum without ever needing to ask one! I think this is the right place to ask, so please forgive my newness. I am looking at buying a 627. I am looking both new and used, and I am noticing a wide variation in the marking configurations of the available 627's out in the marketplace. It *looks* like the current production guns all have the ".357 Magnum - 8 Times" on the drivers side of the pistol, and have the "Performance Center" roll mark on the passenger side of the pistol. Some of the used ones I have seen (same dash model) have this configuration reversed, where the Performance center is on the driver's side and vise versa. Even more confusing, I have seen one pistol now that has the ".357 Magnum - 8 Times" on the driver's side of the barrel, and had "Smith & Wesson" on the passenger side of the barrel. Keep in mind that it is a performance center gun and has the correct PC roll mark behind the cylinder. My first thought was that this is possibly a PC gun with a barrel from a pro series in it. But! It is a 5 inch barrel which, as far as I know, was never offered on a pro series 627. Any thoughts as to what is going on here, or when/why markings changed. Any more desirable or pick one and go have fun? This will be my first moon clip gun, and first revolver over 6 rounds. I am excited to see what it is all about and might even consider some local revolver matches for fun. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Sahlberg Posted January 15, 2023 Share Posted January 15, 2023 I bought 3 627s from the 1st production run of S&W through Lew Horton Dist. These were also from S&Ws Performance Center but had pretty thoroughly fit parts, timing hands, and action trigger jobs. Not sure on new markings on guns like the 8 x 357 on either side of barrels but they were all 5" barrels and came with S&W full moonclips. The newer 8 shot revolvers have many more internal MIM parts than the early ones (before they added the lock & key to all of them) The two 929s I bought had the 6" bbl & trigger locks thinking these new breakout Performance Center guns would be like the early 627s. I had to do a ton of work on mine and neither came close to my 1997 627s. Others will tell you that the 1st production runs of the 5" bbl 627 8 shot were awesome compared to the 6" bbl 8 shot 9MMs BTW, my 627s will shoot the following calibers with very good groups in the 5" bbl. 38/357 38 Colt Short 38 Super (different moon clips) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ysrracer Posted January 15, 2023 Share Posted January 15, 2023 I've shot a 627 PC for a few years now. No idea what it says on the barrel, I'm looking at the front sight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cole440 Posted January 15, 2023 Author Share Posted January 15, 2023 39 minutes ago, ysrracer said: I've shot a 627 PC for a few years now. No idea what it says on the barrel, I'm looking at the front sight I like the way you think! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chillywig Posted January 16, 2023 Share Posted January 16, 2023 I shoot roll sized 9mm without issue... 627-4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cole440 Posted January 16, 2023 Author Share Posted January 16, 2023 1 hour ago, Chillywig said: I shoot roll sized 9mm without issue... 627-4 What kind of grips are you running on that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cole440 Posted January 16, 2023 Author Share Posted January 16, 2023 (edited) Ok all, and for future folks who may be reading this. Here is what I have found out so far. Pre lock models (627-4) have the performance center marking on the drivers side while the 357 marking is on the passenger side. It looks like the early models with the lock (627-5) also have this config. Sometime, seemingly very early in the post-lock era this changed and the writing reversed. Furthermore, when this change occurred, the roll mark changed. The early roll mark has a period after 357 mag. while the later one does not. It seems like all of these early ones came in the hard case from the performance center also, I am now off to research when changes were made on that. Based on additional research, it looks like this change happened at the same time that they dropped the aluminum performance center case, It looks like this change happened in 2003 or so. Edited January 16, 2023 by cole440 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ysrracer Posted January 16, 2023 Share Posted January 16, 2023 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ysrracer Posted January 16, 2023 Share Posted January 16, 2023 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMM50 Posted January 16, 2023 Share Posted January 16, 2023 Quote I believe this is mostly marketing with a pinch of engineering added in. Large distributors (Lew Horton) need unique/exclusive part numbers. Marketing needs a new product to sell. Different cylinder release or front sight. That's about all I can figure out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chillywig Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 21 hours ago, cole440 said: What kind of grips are you running on that? It a Big Butt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carmoney Posted January 19, 2023 Share Posted January 19, 2023 Further information is available at www.bigbutts.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzShooter Posted January 19, 2023 Share Posted January 19, 2023 Wrong site Mike. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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