Master Blaster
Member
I have gotten the bug to buy another smith revolver in .357, or possibly a single action ruger or a stampede in .357. I'm toying with the idea of getting a 6" 686+ because I like my 4" 686+ pre agreement model from 1999 so much.
Any hoo I read about the new 620 which is an L frame with a half underlug instead of the full underlug barrel found on the 686. I noticed that it has a 2 piece barrel and is stainless steel. So I called S&W to ask about this 2 piece barrel and had a nice conversation with ther Customer service person. He explained that the outter barrel is cast and the inner barrel is forged steel and broach rifled. This is the design found on the lightweight titanium/ scandium snubbies and on the new 500 series x-frames. It has the advantage for them of lessening the number of machining set ups and helping them keep the manufacturing process costs low. It also may make for a more accurate barrel because the barrel is tensioned, like the Dan Wessons made in the 1980s.
He also told me that they are thinking of going to this design feature on all of their revolvers in the future. HMMM
Well I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not. so I'm thinking; get a 6" 686+ or 686 now while the entire barrel is still forged, rather than just the insert.
My 1999 686+ has the ECR rifling (eletrochemical rifling, similar to EDM) its very accurate and the mirror finish and lack of tooling marks make it easy to clean. The CS rep mentioned that at the moment they have discontinued this process because it is less expensive to do the tension barrel set up but they may be using the ECR/EDM method in the future to make the inserts. The tension barrel allows them to make a long rifled pipe and then cut it to length and insert it in different barrel lengths and styles using the outer cast sleeve, and elimiates different machining setups (much like frame mounted firing pins did away with different hammers)
Very interesting, HMM maybe I should just look for an older smith because I dont want to be a guinea pig again, but then again a 6" 620 without the underlug in 7 shot may be worth waiting for. OTOH my local shop has a 6" 686 six shot nib for $529, a 4" 620 7 shot for $529, as well. Also tempting is a LNIB 6" 629 if I wanted to add the the 44 mag collection (I have a ruger super blackhawk and red hawk already) made just before the key lock was added for $529.
What do you all think ?????
Any hoo I read about the new 620 which is an L frame with a half underlug instead of the full underlug barrel found on the 686. I noticed that it has a 2 piece barrel and is stainless steel. So I called S&W to ask about this 2 piece barrel and had a nice conversation with ther Customer service person. He explained that the outter barrel is cast and the inner barrel is forged steel and broach rifled. This is the design found on the lightweight titanium/ scandium snubbies and on the new 500 series x-frames. It has the advantage for them of lessening the number of machining set ups and helping them keep the manufacturing process costs low. It also may make for a more accurate barrel because the barrel is tensioned, like the Dan Wessons made in the 1980s.
He also told me that they are thinking of going to this design feature on all of their revolvers in the future. HMMM
Well I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not. so I'm thinking; get a 6" 686+ or 686 now while the entire barrel is still forged, rather than just the insert.
My 1999 686+ has the ECR rifling (eletrochemical rifling, similar to EDM) its very accurate and the mirror finish and lack of tooling marks make it easy to clean. The CS rep mentioned that at the moment they have discontinued this process because it is less expensive to do the tension barrel set up but they may be using the ECR/EDM method in the future to make the inserts. The tension barrel allows them to make a long rifled pipe and then cut it to length and insert it in different barrel lengths and styles using the outer cast sleeve, and elimiates different machining setups (much like frame mounted firing pins did away with different hammers)
Very interesting, HMM maybe I should just look for an older smith because I dont want to be a guinea pig again, but then again a 6" 620 without the underlug in 7 shot may be worth waiting for. OTOH my local shop has a 6" 686 six shot nib for $529, a 4" 620 7 shot for $529, as well. Also tempting is a LNIB 6" 629 if I wanted to add the the 44 mag collection (I have a ruger super blackhawk and red hawk already) made just before the key lock was added for $529.
What do you all think ?????
