S&W 325 TR

[shred]

Mod: ok kids, remember the Forum Guidelines...

paraphrasing the key ones that people might be tempted to violate here: no "mine's bigger than yours", "limit the non-competition posts"...

Now back to discussing the merits of a light rail on a 3" N-frame...

[Tom E]

Now back to discussing the merits of a light rail on a 3" N-frame...

It's a 4", quit being so personal.

[David Sinko]

I shot my very first USPSA classifier with that 4" Redhawk. At 230 PF the first six shots were very easily controlled but then the necessary reloads with those HKS speedloaders quickly dragged me down to the 19th percentile. The ability to shoot the big bullet comfortably and accurately is sometimes more important than being able to do a sub two second speedload.

I like 4" revolvers and they're what I shoot in USPSA when I shoot revolver, which I admit is not very much these days. I would like to have another good 625 (or even a 325 variant) if I knew the 325 would hold up. That's really my biggest concern with these scandium frame guns. As I said, If I knew the gun shot cast bullets well and held up to a lot of shooting then I'd be interested, even if I had to give up my 8 shot Super which sees little use these days.

Dave Sinko

[JSCHIEFEN]

Wannabe's carrying N frames - punishment fitting the crime.

[/

It depends on what you need an N frame for. I have carried a 44 mag as backup when hunting in

areas where lions or bears are a problem. The 329PD is excellent for that and is half the weight.

I have tried and carried 454's and 500S&W and have for the current gone back to the 329PD.

It kicks as hard as either of the above. Ron Avery taught me something just a few months

ago about what works even better for fast multiple shots on a charging attack and I now

have a 460 Rowland on an STI frame. I shoot 14 rounds in the same time as 6 rds from a

44 mag 329PD or 5 rds from a 4inch 500 S&W, with better accuracy. In a couple months

I'll post results on load developement and my experience. I've spent 45 years in the back country

and I'm close to what I think will be the ultimate hand gun for close encounters of the bad kind.

[vrmn1]

I personally don't care for light rail on any of these revolvers but that is just me. I do carry a 4" 625 a lot. Yes on my hip, not just left in my truck.

It was bought before I ever thought about shooting it in a match. It was on my hip loaded with heavy hard cast 45 AR when I was fishing in Alaska.

Before I bought it I carried a 4" 28 for a little while.

I have thought about getting a 325 because of the light weight but I don't want the light rail.

Smith has brought a couple of guns at SHOT so far that I like.

They have short barrels and the C&S fixed sights.

A 396 which I may like more than any. A 325 and a 327.

Here are pictures taken by my buddies at gunblast.com

[David Sinko]

Why remove a perfectly good adjustable rear sight and replace it with a fixed sight? I have never broken any adjustable sight on any of my revolvers. They hold up to the bumps quite well and they aren't being bounced around on a slide with every shot.

Dave Sinko

[Bill Nesbitt]

Clint Smith talking about the 325 TR.

[Revopop]

Now that's a more well thought out defensive revolver. Just hack off that sharp thing on the back and we're in business!

[David Sinko]

I see that some of this country's best revolvers shooters are confessing that they carry semiautos for defense of self and I presume they are not under any kind of duress when they make these statements. Come on, you can tell me... What's wrong with you guys??? The street is the greatest competition of all!

Dave Sinko

[Dom P.]

I personally don't care for light rail on any of these revolvers but that is just me. I do carry a 4" 625 a lot. Yes on my hip, not just left in my truck.

It was bought before I ever thought about shooting it in a match. It was on my hip loaded with heavy hard cast 45 AR when I was fishing in Alaska.

Before I bought it I carried a 4" 28 for a little while.

I have thought about getting a 325 because of the light weight but I don't want the light rail.

Smith has brought a couple of guns at SHOT so far that I like.

They have short barrels and the C&S fixed sights.

A 396 which I may like more than any. A 325 and a 327.

Here are pictures taken by my buddies at gunblast.com

Are these new revolvers in 45 ACP???

[R112mercer]

I see that some of this country's best revolvers shooters are confessing that they carry semiautos for defense of self and I presume they are not under any kind of duress when they make these statements. Come on, you can tell me... What's wrong with you guys??? The street is the greatest competition of all!

Dave Sinko

I love wheelguns, but six ain't enough. People may be pretty fragile compared to animals, but if you've ever seen a guy suck up multiple rounds and ask for more you'd see why guys are carrying autos. Look at the lessons learned in the Miami shootout: link

Handguns, no matter the caliber (except possibly the big, hunting calibers) aren't great at stopping people. People can be REALLY hard to stop, despite multiple hits. Throw in multiple attackers and you're going to need more than six.

God Bless the men who patrolled our streets with dump pouches, cartridge loops, 158 LRN's and 4" pencil barrels. You need BIG balls to have only that when bad guys even in the 20's and 30's had Thompson's and cut-down BAR's. Just look what happened to the guys in the Brink's Robbery: link

[vrmn1]

I personally don't care for light rail on any of these revolvers but that is just me. I do carry a 4" 625 a lot. Yes on my hip, not just left in my truck.

It was bought before I ever thought about shooting it in a match. It was on my hip loaded with heavy hard cast 45 AR when I was fishing in Alaska.

Before I bought it I carried a 4" 28 for a little while.

I have thought about getting a 325 because of the light weight but I don't want the light rail.

Smith has brought a couple of guns at SHOT so far that I like.

They have short barrels and the C&S fixed sights.

A 396 which I may like more than any. A 325 and a 327.

Here are pictures taken by my buddies at gunblast.com

Are these new revolvers in 45 ACP???

The 325's are 45 acp, the 396's are 44 special, the 327's are 357.

[David Sinko]

As one who also works the street, I'll choose six rounds of .452 in a revolver before I choose anything else, given the choice. I maintain that 165 PF in a handgun is nothing to brag about no matter what the caliber. I don't know how much the scandium frame increases the felt recoil, but with the stainless steel cylinder and light rail I don't think it would be unbearable. It would be a good companion to my heavily worn 625 and I'm always more enthusiastic about shooting matches with a new gun that has potential for "other" uses. I'm still interested in the 325 TR but I still don't know how these guns and the others with scandium frames hold up to lots of shooting. I will never buy anything that is meant to be "carried a lot and shot a little" and therefore can not be counted on to hold up under hard use. I feel that S&W is moving in that direction with many of these new offerings. If anybody has any experiences I'd like to hear about them.

Dave Sinko

[Carmoney]

Dave, since the focus of this forum is competition shooting (as moderator Shred reminded us above), I'm curious about your involvement in the shooting sports. What type of matches do you shoot, and in what part of the country? Have you participated in any major matches? You mention that you don't shoot revolver very much any more--have you drifted to another division?

[David Sinko]

OK then, since you asked...

My introduction to competitive shooting was at a local USPSA match almost six years ago. I shot Revolver with my very heavily utilized Bowen Classic Arms .45 Colt Redhawk Alpine Conversion. I had used this gun to kill most of the local wildlife, I carried it concealed at the time and I figured I'd try competition with it. I shot a 19% on the classifier making good hits but very slow speedloads. I was a lone revolver shooter in a sea of Limited and Open (I don't think there was a Production Division at the time) and promptly lost interest.

Then I started shooting IDPA, bought a 625 and quickly made Master back when SSR was 125 PF with moonclips. Here in eastern PA we are fortunate to have all kinds of competitive shooting opportunities and IDPA seemed to be the perfect environment for the revolver. But I got bored with the lack of competition and bought my first auto. My skill with the revolver has been declining ever since.

I am ready to quit IDPA. I have never seen a chronograph at any of the six or so sanctioned matches I've shot. At some matches they collect ammo but never do anything with it. ESR is a complete waste of time. Many local shooters in ESR shoot Minor and never get called on it. It's a joke. If that is the future of IDPA then I will not be a part of it. I don't enjoy SSR that much since I don't use Comp III loaders and have no use for them.

I am now shooting USPSA almost exclusively, though mostly in Production. I have done quite a bit of Steel Challenge type shooting but can never place near the top since I refuse to buy and use competition only holsters. I enjoyed shooting my 627 but was getting killed on the draw with my Blade Tech holster. I just signed up for Area 8 in Production and I am agonizing over the Summer Blast. I would really like to shoot Revolver but haven't been practicing much lately. Being an IDPA shooter I don't perform well on long range standards and much of the one handed shooting. I struggled with understanding much of the scoring in USPSA and I'm only a C shooter in Revolver. I haven't given it much time or effort lately but if I'm gonna shoot the Summer Blast (really a local match for me) I know I had better decide real quick and get in my application. Part of me still wants to be a fulltime revolver shooter. The lack of competition at the local matches is really discouraging though.

As for that 325 TR, I think I have pretty much decided against it...

Dave Sinko

[Bones]

Dave -

Sorry I missed you at the Frozen Pengiun - I shot it on Friday.

Have you seen my recent post about the S&W match? We've still got a FEW openings for Thursday at the IDPA Indoor Nationals, why not join us? It's an easy 3 hour drive from eastern PA and you can shoot the entire match in half a day.

We can always use another revolver shooter. They'll be plenty of competition - we're heading to 50 of us at last count. You'll be hard pressed to find that many revolver shooters outside an ICORE or SASS match anywhere.

Hope to see you in a few weeks and Best Regards,

Craig

Edited February 5, 2008 by Bones

[Carmoney]

Dave, thanks for the reply--it's always interesting to hear different people's stories about how they chose a particular sport or division.

I would strongly encourage you to sign up to shoot Revolver Division at the Summer Blast, over the past several years it has turned into one of the best venues for revolver shooters in the whole USPSA game, both in terms of quantity (usually 20+ wheels) and quality (plenty of GMs and Ms) of the shooters. Generally each half-day session has at least one full revolver squad, which really makes it fun. Plus the whole match is a really well done event, which is why a bunch of come from all over the country to shoot a half-day match. We always have a good time after hours as well!

[Glenn Tracey]

I like 4" revolvers and they're what I shoot in USPSA when I shoot revolver, which I admit is not very much these days. I would like to have another good 625 (or even a 325 variant) if I knew the 325 would hold up. That's really my biggest concern with these scandium frame guns. As I said, If I knew the gun shot cast bullets well and held up to a lot of shooting then I'd be interested, even if I had to give up my 8 shot Super which sees little use these days.

Dave Sinko

Well Dave, Since you would like to have another 625, I offer you a New in the Box, 625 w'3" barrel. for your 8 shot S&W .38 Super. An even up trade.

You might as well get rid of something that gets little use and put something practical into competition, or your pants pocket.

I have too many 625's & I'd like a sleeping 8 shot .38 Super. Competition shoots might do that Super some good. This is a serious offer. No kidding on this end.

Glenn

[David Sinko]

I am very particular about my choice in a 625. It must be pre-MIM and with a 4" full lug barrel. I'm not even sure if S&W ever made any of these; mine was a 5" that had been cut down. The only one I've ever seen for sale that was similar belonged to Herb Beck and I foolishly passed on it when he offered it to me. I actually won a 4" 625 at an IDPA match but was morally opposed to the cheapening of the product so I traded it on a Glock 21. I have been on the downward slide ever since. I finally got the search function to work and see that nobody has anything good to say about the scandium frame guns so it looks like the 325 series will be out of the question too. I guess I am just unreasonable.

But now that 4" 627 looks kind of interesting...

Dave Sinko

[R112mercer]

It must be pre-MIM and with a 4" full lug barrel. I'm not even sure if S&W ever made any of these; The only one I've ever seen for sale that was similar belonged to Herb Beck and I foolishly passed on it when he offered it to me.

Dave Sinko

If it's worth anything, Dave, I bought Herb's 4" 625 and promptly sold it to my brother-in-law. What a mistake, that gun's super accurate and has a sweet trigger job. My brother-in-law's been using that gun in the Service Weapon class in PPC and has kicked ass with it.

[R112mercer]

Oh, and I have seen other 4" 625's with forged guts. Passed on the last one I saw as well. Still haven't learned my lesson.

[Carmoney]

So buy one of those JM 4" 625s why don'tcha? They got forged parts, and even a serrated trigger if that's your thing. I did the action on COF's, and it came out super nice. They're a little more expensive than the "regular" version, but you can almost eliminate the price difference if you eBay the uncomfortable Jerry grips.

[COF]

So buy one of those JM 4" 625s why don'tcha? They got forged parts, and even a serrated trigger if that's your thing. I did the action on COF's, and it came out super nice. They're a little more expensive than the "regular" version, but you can almost eliminate the price difference if you eBay the uncomfortable Jerry grips.

Hey now! I have to keep those grips on my gun since they have my initials on them Mike did a hell of a job on the action. I was fondling the 625 last night and was amazed all over again how smooth it is.

Take the plunge, Dave. Send it to Mike for the magic and never look back. By the way, everyone who shoots ESR here shoots 165+ PF - they couldn't live down the razzing it they didn't. Of course when you're shooting the same load for IDPA and USPSA it makes it easy.

Jerry

[Tom E]

Yep, Sounds like a 625 JM should be just what he's looking for. The search is over.

[David Sinko]

Does the JM use forged parts? I saw one and the trigger looked MIM to me. The serrations seemed a bit wider too. The website doesn't mention anything about it.

Dave Sinko