S&W 625 JM

[cmh]

Local shop has one in and I remembered a few of you had them... curious what you thought of them? Thanks, Craig

[rjm52]

I had one of the pre-IL 5" guns...one of the best Smiths I have ever owned. Sold it to a friend who collects .45 ACP revolvers and he still has it...





Bob

[cmh]

Thats a nice group 😉

[jsh]

My JM shoots that good now. It was a long road to get there. I have been told by numerous folks that SW is putting out some of the best guns ever, I must have got a Monday or Friday gun.
The best thing on this project was, anything I did to it was an improvement.

[cmh]

Sounds like perhaps there are some issues?

[AxeHandle]

Mine works well... Put a Power Custom tool steel trigger and a spring kit in it. Installed a plain patridge front blade and swapped out the grips. Bought a PC 625 at the same time. The PC gun had better trigger parts but had to shim the cylinder to make it work right. PC gun has a shorter cylinder

[jsh]

IMHO the JM cylinder should be like the PC.

Axe, side by side comparison,accuracy department. Does one shoot better than the other?
In my mind the short cylinder should, but I know little of these things.

I know the whereabouts of a PC local to me, just have not convinced myself to pursue it.
Any place special you get front blades from?
Jeff

[AxeHandle]

Blade set came from S&W... They pretty much shoot the same..

[cmh]

Thanks...... trying to deal with the guy so Ill see what happens.

[AxeHandle]

To elaborate a bit I actually bought the PC gun for less than the JM. The action would bind on the JM when cycled. The old crane stretcher will not work on the new S&W guns. S&W sells a shim set that is used instead. I ordered shims and played with it a bit and it never misses a beat now. So far as the shorter cylinder I'd call it more of a gimmick than anything else. The old PPC gun builder Fred Schmidt built the short cylinder 38 Special revolvers with increased accuracy as the intended outcome. What tells the tale for me is Jim Collins and Phillip Hemphill shot standard length cylinders in their PPC guns..

[cmh]

Keeping my fingers crossed.... might have a deal on a 625-3 😉

[nockhunter]

I think the shorter cylinders have less rotating mass for action shooting.

Mike

[magnumwheelman]

^^^ I would think that is a good point... note that the longer flutes & shorter cylinder would have a real world weight savings on the rotating mass... would like to see the bigger stop notches from the JM gun for added strength & even more lightening but...