It is a 64-5. For some reason, somebody put square-butt Pachmyer grips on a round-butt gun. That'll be something I'll change, eventually. The timing is OK. It's kind of close on a couple of double-action cylinders, but it's good for now. There's no endshake. It's definitely a shooter-grade gun that has seen some hard use.
I took it to the range. This is at ten yards, with the bare stainless-steel fixed sights:
I'll paint them before the next range outing with some cheap yellow nail polish on the front post and black on the rear notch. Shiny metal sights are not very friendly to use. I like using nail polish for changing the colors of sights, for it's cheap, easy to touch up and if I want to change the color or remove it completely, it comes right off with some acetone on a cotton ball or swab.
Now I have three of the classic five stainless Ks. If I see a 67 at a good price, I'll jump on that. 68s are rare, I've never seen one, let alone seen one up for sale.
What influences "the timing" and how?
ReplyDeleteI'm a revolver ignoramus :-(
Wear on the hand that pushes the cylinder in its rotation, usually. When it wears on a S&W, the bolt won't drop into the locking notch before the hammer is released.
ReplyDeleteFrom what little I've seen, the N-frame .357s are more often found to have bad timing. Something about the rotational mass of the cylinder in fast operation can damage the hands of those guns.
Revolver gurus have told me that in heavily-used revolvers, Colts tend to go out of time more often. And they are far more expensive to fix, as good Colt gunsmiths are scarce these days.
Score.
ReplyDeleteS&W considers 3 out 6 cylinders timing to be sellable, new, from the factory, now.
Took me years to learn timing. SO simple when you are finally shown
When buying a used revolver, The Revolver Checkout is yer fren'.
ReplyDeleteAnd ti turned out that Skeeter Skelton wrote something similar decades ago.