No more side lock on Smith &Wesson revolvers!

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BONESTOCK

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I keep waiting for someone to bring this up but I honestly haven't seen any posts about this yet. Maybe because nobody really cares, and it's just a bore to most but it's a little something different and I might be intrigued during this quiet winter season.
During the latest shot show for 2025 there were lots of exciting new things. Smith has released 5 classic style revolvers and they dropped the side plate lock so there is no longer that ugly hole.
They released 2 very nice versions of the old school mountain gun amoung several other bring back models.
Again, if your not interested and not a Smith or a revolver guy then I get it but I am 56 and deep into the FUDD years so this does get a rise out of me.
NOW! Please feel free to take over this post and run with it. I really do not mind, and I usually learn a lot and have some fun along the way.
Or not, no big deal either way. I just want something to discuss that is fun and gun related in the middle of all the madness in this world.
 

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I think one of the new releases was a model 19 also but I would need to watch the video again to be sure. There was a lot going on and I got to excited 😆
 
BONESTOCK said:
I keep waiting for someone to bring this up but I honestly haven't seen any posts about this yet. Maybe because nobody really cares, and it's just a bore to most but it's a little something different and I might be intrigued during this quiet winter season.
During the latest shot show for 2025 there were lots of exciting new things. Smith has released 5 classic style revolvers and they dropped the side plate lock so there is no longer that ugly hole.
They released 2 very nice versions of the old school mountain gun amoung several other bring back models.
Again, if your not interested and not a Smith or a revolver guy then I get it but I am 56 and deep into the FUDD years so this does get a rise out of me.
NOW! Please feel free to take over this post and run with it. I really do not mind, and I usually learn a lot and have some fun along the way.
Or not, no big deal either way. I just want something to discuss that is fun and gun related in the middle of all the madness in this world.
Click to expand...
While I think It might have been mentioned in a thread somewhere, it's well worthy of its own thread. A welcome correction.
 
Funny how only S&W put locks on their revolvers. None present (ever IIRC) on the ones from Ruger or Colt. Doubt any other makers bothered either. IMO, a lock on a revolver is beyond stupid. Seems like S&W is just making their revolvers like everyone else in that aspect. Maybe the lock was the reason why the 357 revolver from them that I tried out, years back, when looking to get one has a worse trigger than the Ruger GP100 did. Took the GP100 home and haven't looked at a S&W since then.
 
Golddiggie said:
Funny how only S&W put locks on their revolvers. None present (ever IIRC) on the ones from Ruger or Colt. Doubt any other makers bothered either. IMO, a lock on a revolver is beyond stupid. Seems like S&W is just making their revolvers like everyone else in that aspect. Maybe the lock was the reason why the 357 revolver from them that I tried out, years back, when looking to get one has a worse trigger than the Ruger GP100 did. Took the GP100 home and haven't looked at a S&W since then.
Click to expand...
When I bought my 625, the trigger felt like rubbing two bricks together. Took it to a shoot at Shirley and let anyone who wanted to try it have at it. After a couple hundred rounds it was smoothe as silk.
 
Fixxah said:
When I bought my 625, the trigger felt like rubbing two bricks together. Took it to a shoot at Shirley and let anyone who wanted to try it have at it. After a couple hundred rounds it was smoothe as silk.
Click to expand...
The trigger in the GP100 was sweet right out of the box with zero rounds through it. Same with my DE1911C. IMO, you shouldn't NEED to run hundreds of rounds through a pistol, or any gun really, to get a nice trigger or anything else. Maybe that's why I think grocks suck so much. Right out of the box, the trigger is dog shit (every one I've tried at least, at a store). Maybe they're OK at 1000 rounds through it, but I'm not going to burn through that much ammo JUST to get a more acceptable trigger. Unless they're going to start discounting the cost of the pistol with the amount of ammo it takes to make it so. Even then, I'll pass.

BTW, the trigger in the new Colt Anaconda is also very nice, right out of the box. So it's not JUST Ruger that can do a good trigger from the factory. I did try a Ruger Super Redhawk a while back that also had a very nice trigger (another NES member owned it). Not sure if anything was done to it, but I doubt there was. Also don't know the round count at the time I tried it. Don't think it was all that many though. I've not tried out any other SA/DA makers revolvers to date, with no rounds through them. Just not in the market at present. IF the S&W triggers are reasonable without the locks, I'd think about one, when I'm ready again. Higher on my list would be a new Python. It would need to be at least a 6" blued model. I'm waiting to see if they produce any 8" models in the coming couple of years.
 
Golddiggie said:
Funny how only S&W put locks on their revolvers. None present (ever IIRC) on the ones from Ruger or Colt. Doubt any other makers bothered either. IMO, a lock on a revolver is beyond stupid. Seems like S&W is just making their revolvers like everyone else in that aspect. Maybe the lock was the reason why the 357 revolver from them that I tried out, years back, when looking to get one has a worse trigger than the Ruger GP100 did. Took the GP100 home and haven't looked at a S&W since then.
Click to expand...
More likely that was from a time where QA was job 7 at S&W and you got a shit bottom of the barrel trigger.
They really do have consistency issues at times.
 
Golddiggie said:
Seems like a bit of a naming fail to me then.
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S&W caved to Hillary Clinton and put a stupid, non functional and occasional defective to the point of making the firearm unusable lock on the revolvers.

Many people took the gun apart and removed them because of real cases of the gun locking up during firing.

A LOT of people have never forgiven S&W for crawling into bed with Hillary on this issue, hence the Hillary Hole name and many like myself have never purchased another new S&W product

I'm surprised you have never heard the term before, it has been around for 30 years

The Hillary Hole and how to deal with that stupid lock:

The Hillary Hole and how to deal with that stupid lock We all make bad decisions, think if our exes or our Beanie Baby investment scheme. Sometimes we get an idea in our heads and it stays around like the turd that won't flush. Sometimes we have outside influences that keep trying to push us...
www.indianagunowners.com www.indianagunowners.com
 
appraiser said:
S&W caved to Hillary Clinton and put a stupid, non functional and occasional defective to the point of making the firearm unusable lock on the revolvers.

Many people took the gun apart and removed them because of real cases of the gun locking up during firing.

A LOT of people have never forgiven S&W for crawling into bed with Hillary on this issue, hence the Hillary Hole name and many like myself have never purchased another new S&W product

I'm surprised you have never heard the term before, it has been around for 30 years

The Hillary Hole and how to deal with that stupid lock:

The Hillary Hole and how to deal with that stupid lock We all make bad decisions, think if our exes or our Beanie Baby investment scheme. Sometimes we get an idea in our heads and it stays around like the turd that won't flush. Sometimes we have outside influences that keep trying to push us...
www.indianagunowners.com www.indianagunowners.com
Click to expand...
Never followed what S&W puts out beyond what some guntubers review something 'new' from them. Only time I handled one was when looking for a wheelie (as already mentioned). Didn't get the S&W due to the Ruger being that much better. Not sure if I'll ever actually get something made by S&W in the future, or not. Not that much of what they produce is of any interest to me. I'm also not even close to knowledgeable to their model numbers (for revolvers at least) that people seem to spout like they're commonly known.

I'd be more inclined to get another CZ pistol, or one of the new Staccato HD's (when I have the budget for it) than anything from S&W.

I bet with all the revolvers S&W has given Jerry over the years, none of them came with a lock.
 
Golddiggie said:
The trigger in the GP100 was sweet right out of the box with zero rounds through it. Same with my DE1911C. IMO, you shouldn't NEED to run hundreds of rounds through a pistol, or any gun really, to get a nice trigger or anything else. Maybe that's why I think grocks suck so much. Right out of the box, the trigger is dog shit (every one I've tried at least, at a store). Maybe they're OK at 1000 rounds through it, but I'm not going to burn through that much ammo JUST to get a more acceptable trigger. Unless they're going to start discounting the cost of the pistol with the amount of ammo it takes to make it so. Even then, I'll pass.

BTW, the trigger in the new Colt Anaconda is also very nice, right out of the box. So it's not JUST Ruger that can do a good trigger from the factory. I did try a Ruger Super Redhawk a while back that also had a very nice trigger (another NES member owned it). Not sure if anything was done to it, but I doubt there was. Also don't know the round count at the time I tried it. Don't think it was all that many though. I've not tried out any other SA/DA makers revolvers to date, with no rounds through them. Just not in the market at present. IF the S&W triggers are reasonable without the locks, I'd think about one, when I'm ready again. Higher on my list would be a new Python. It would need to be at least a 6" blued model. I'm waiting to see if they produce any 8" models in the coming couple of years.
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Love ya man, but saying Rugers have good triggers out of the box is akin to being an automotive enthusiast and bringing your Camry to track day. They get the job done, that's it.
 
Ultrarunner said:
Love ya man, but saying Rugers have good triggers out of the box is akin to being an automotive enthusiast and bringing your Camry to track day. They get the job done, that's it.
Click to expand...
The one I picked up has a trigger that beat the snot out of the S&W in the case at the same store. No question about it. Everyone that's tried it has agreed too. It's like comparing a bone stock grock trigger to pretty much any decent 1911/2011 trigger. No comparison at all. :D
 
I personally like both Smith and Wesson and Ruger and I currently own to many of each to even keep track of.
They both have their good and bad, much like anything else and for those of us that have been deep into this for long enough we can tell you what went wrong and when on most models.
That being said, I guess it is a bit sad that we can get excited about something that is really not new but just undoing something that was terribly wrong to begin with.
 
I gave my no lock J frame to my father via FFL in CT as he had no guns when he moved there.

So I brought a lock model 638 I couldn’t see any non lock models.

I plan on removing the “flag” and leaving the lock in as it’s largely a carry piece and isn’t some show piece. None of my guns are safe queens except for my S&W 6946 that was my grand fathers police gun which is my church gun.
 

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