625 shopping

[scottyinAZ]

Hello everyone. i am shopping for a 625 in 45acp. reading on smiths web page, some say that they are detent lockup and some dont say that. is there a difference in 625's??? i know the older 625-3's and such are a little different. are the current group of 625's any different other than the barrel length, minor sight differences and such?? i shoot a 627 PC gun in 38super and am wondering what may be different between the 2 other than the caliber. my gun has a ball detent on the crane that locks up in a notch cut in the barrel lug. is that a detent lock up? and is the 625 different. i know a few guys that own them, just never looked at them that close. any pics or info would be great as i am 625 dumb. =) i plan on sending it to randy when i do get one, as he did my 627. His work is flawless as far as i can tell and my gun has never missed a beat. ever.

thanks in advance for the help

Scott Shepherd

link to the gun i like link

[David Sinko]

I had a ball lock installed on the front of my older 625 match gun (so I could say I own a 625 Triple Lock) and I believe the only thing it serves to accomplish is to make the cylinder slightly more difficult to open when you need to do a reload. I wouldn't worry about how the front end locks up unless you need to install a custom barrel and have to bypass the original setup.

Dave Sinko

[the Cod Father]

HI Scotty,

Welcome to the 625 Club and nice to have you . Just on a personal note with your choice of model, the PC 625 is a nice gun however you have aleady decided to send it to Randy for work ,correct?

Well the base model is not setup for moonclips as the PC version is , but the next level model is set up for them . The PC version has gone through the shop for some tweeking and trigger work and inside smoothing etc . Isn't this the same stuff that you want Randy to do so why pay for it twice .The other thing is the PC has the JM grips and you can order them for $60ish if you want them so why pay hundreds more for smithwork you are going to have redone and a set of grips you can get later for less tan the PC price's .

JMHO

TCF

[Carmoney]

The PC version has gone through the shop for some tweeking and trigger work and inside smoothing etc . Isn't this the same stuff that you want Randy to do so why pay for it twice .

There will be a night and day difference between anything the S&W Performance Center puts out, and the work of a top revolversmith like Randy Lee. I have seen Swingline staple guns that have better trigger pulls than some of the stuff put out by the Performance Center. So be forewarned.

(FYI: Randy's work is excellent, and I have recommended him many times in the past. He is a top-flight gunsmith and a good man. One problem though--his turnaround time is extremely long right now. One of my shooting friends sent Randy a couple guns two and a half years ago, checked on them recently, and they're still not done. Now there can't be that much custom revolver work out there to create that kind of backlog--Randy must be working on other projects right now or something....)

Anyway, just don't think that a PC gun isn't going to need action work to get it into shape for competition. Like any other S&W revolver, they're nice raw material from which a true gem can be forged!!

[scottyinAZ]

thanks for the input all. i would have rather bought a standard 625 and had Randy do it up for me, except you cant get a 5" 625 any way other than from the PC!!! unless i go used. stupid S&W. i want the 5" so its the PC for me, again. i do realize Randy is going to have to re-do everything the PC gun has, but it came down to the longer barrel and short cylinder that made the extra money worth it for me. Randy did my 38 super 627 PC gun and its perfect. it was "ok" from the PC but not great. the other PC 627 357s that i have handled were much worse than my 38 super ever was. not sure why the 357's are so bad. i have handled one 625 that had Vics spring kit and it felt good overall, just a standard 625. i like the long barrel and short cylinder, would cost a lot to get that done to a 4" gun. i like the hogue grip that comes with for the 45, seems to help soften the recoil a bit. dont care for the JM grips, got 2 pair that are great paper weights. i shoot the big butt grips on the super, and like them very much. i do the strong hand reload, not the border shift so thats why the choice on grips. Randy had my super for just about a year, hope he can do the same or a little better this time arround. i bought the gun to shoot our area 2 desert classic with, just over a year away. I would like to start up a petition for "open revolver" class in the uspsa so we can all shoot our open guns and have a class for us. i already ordered the PC for the barrel length. the only other 5" guns i found were in 45LC. pluss my hogue/warren holster will work with the 38sup and 45 since the barrels are close to the same length. thanks very much for all the help so far. i will post up some pics once i get it in hand.

moon clips??? i hear the clips dillon has work well for the 45 and not worth the extra money for the hearthco?? opinions????

sucks that smith wont make more of the guns we want, maybe we are just a minority in the revo sales. it is a shame to pay extra money for a "premium firearm" and have to tear into it and rebuild everything to make it work right. but at least we have randy!!!!

thanks again

Scott

[mwx40x40]

Could it be that S&W knows exactly what we want and experimenting to see how bad we want it? By only offering PC guns with 5" bbl. for elevated price. Just a thought, I see this type of thing in many other markets.

[TMC]

I have a blue 6" 45LC barrel you could have Randy put on a standard gun. Than all you'll need is a Ti cylinder and you'll have a John B signature 3-tone gun

[Jaxshooter]

I just got my PC 625 back from Mike. Beleive what he said they need just as much work as a stock 625.

Check with Rolex he has a Carmonized 625 for sale.