Love Life: If it were not for your 6 1/2 Barrel jones, I would try to find the guy who didn't sell his 4" 625-x Mountain gun 45 at the Filer G.S. two w'kends ago @ $719... Hurt to leave it with him,& if he shows up @ the w'kends show, I may weaken as I just sold my NIB 445 Supermag this afternnon for a value price( as per usual) Onceabull
"The Eagle is no flycatcher"
I'd take a 4" mountain gun!! If you can track him down (and you don't buy it) I have cash money in hand.
LL, get your dollars ready. You are studying at the feet of The Master now. My safe is graced by acquisitions from this source point, I am very happy to report.
Good to hear about that 445's relocation, Bull.
I don't paint bullets. I like Black Rifle Coffee. Sacred cows are always fair game. California is to the United States what Syria is to Russia and North Korea is to China/South Korea/Japan--a Hermit Kingdom detached from the real world and led by delusional maniacs, an economic and social basket case sustained by "foreign" aid so as to not lose military bases.
9.3X62AL, oh I can believe it. I still kick myself for not buying one of those short barreled S&W 44 special revolvers he had for sale at the 2012 NCBS.
If I could have got my hands on another 6-8 of those snubbie S&W 44s at realistic prices I believe the whole lot would be somewhere within 80 miles or so of Twin Falls, Id. I marked up the two you saw just a tad, and they didn't last till noon,the first day of the Feb.'13 show..Every show there since then I have at least one guy asking if I have any more like the "one that XYZ bought"..Those high dollar farm guys do stick together.. (and know value pricing when pearls are cast before them..) Cheat one of them just once,and it's game over...... Onceabull
"The Eagle is no flycatcher"
Well ,I'm sure most know by now that there is always likely to be at least one 445 living here..The one that's leaving needed to be sold while still NIB,as even I can't withstand temptation to eternity..SO that 6" one some shot at NCBS '13 will likely be there again... Onceabull
"The Eagle is no flycatcher"
http://www.gunauction.com/buy/12038625/
Holy turn line batman. Looks like somebody chucked the cylinder in a lathe and single point cut the turn line in.
See. This is why I don't buy new production stuff anymore.
That grip set is pretty off-putting, too. They make Pachmayrs seem elegant in comparison.
Smith & Wesson has lost their way, and possibly their mind as well.
I don't paint bullets. I like Black Rifle Coffee. Sacred cows are always fair game. California is to the United States what Syria is to Russia and North Korea is to China/South Korea/Japan--a Hermit Kingdom detached from the real world and led by delusional maniacs, an economic and social basket case sustained by "foreign" aid so as to not lose military bases.
Kind of sad. After the bad burn from the PC I was willing to give them a try. Every NIB 25-15 I have seen pictures of has a serious turn line. My model 28 has thousands upon thousands of rds through it, and it's turn line isn't even that pronounced. Seriously.
Sheesh, you'd think they'd at least hit it with a bluing pen. Wait, I take it back because that is what they will start doing.
Hard to grade as "factory new", shame they couldn't spend a minute or two to get the bolt right.Originally Posted by Love Life
Endowment Life Member NRA, Life Member TSRA, Member WACA, NRA Whittington Center, BBHC
Smokeless powder is a passing fad! -Steve Garbe
I hate rude behavior in a man. I won't tolerate it. -Woodrow F. Call, Lonesome Dove
Some of my favorite recipes start out with a handful of depleted counterbalance devices.
You'll be dang lucky if you buy a new one with a properly indexed barrel.
Just got my JM back from Smith for a barrel straighten and a new cylinder. Only 2 chambers passed the range rod test before. Never seen a revolver before that one that had some chambers in alignment. It is usually all or none.
Sic Semper Tyrranis
I have narrowly missed several at gun shows lately. I have one slated for my purchase list.......go for it.
Check for bore reduction due to frame squeeze. Not saying you will have it but my brother did on his years ago. He sent it back (back then) and got a good one.
So where do we stand on 45Colt goodness? Get/order one yet?
If you can get a Mountain Gun for $719, better jump on it. I love mine.
I know that's right!
I got mine NIB for about $600.00 OTD some years back when that 5000 piece run was made. The LGS had 2. I shuda bought both!
Last year on GB, a slightly used one (looked perfect, had box all papers etc.) went out @ $1,650.00
Even just a gun w/o box etc. trade between $750.00 to $850.00 + these days.
The Smith and Wesson 25 has a checkered history. When it came on line, it came with very large cylinder throats that mimicked the old Colt monster throats. Accuracy was nothing to write home about.
In 1989 the 25-7 was introduced and it had uniform .453 throats, a 5" barrel and an unfluted cylinder. Hearing that Smith and Wesson got it right on this handgun I bought one that had languished in an Odessa Texas pawn shop. It proved to be a good purchase. Accuracy was first rate.
I don't know, but I suppose that Smith and Wesson took a lesson from the 25-7 and tightened the throats on all subsequent versions of the 25. Others will have to verify that.
Cylinder backspin was a problem with the Model 29 and heavy loads. Also about 1989 Smith and Wesson monkeyed with the lockwork and brought out their enhanced version of the 29 and cylinder backspin ceased to be an issue. I don't know if they incorporated that enhanced lockwork into the 25 line or not.
I never shot anything stouter than 8.5/Unique/260 Keith SWC in my 25-7 and never had any cylinder backspin issues.
In a handgun with properly dimensioned charge holes and throats, the 45 Colt is a very accurate round. I have never seen any purpose in trying to hot rod one of these. That is why the 44 Magnum is made.
BTW I have a latter 29 Model of 1989 with the enhanced lockwork and sure enough, no backspin.
A final word of disclosure and confession, I am a huge Smith and Wesson fan. That said, I am not blind to the problems some of them have and have sold quite a few down river because they were clunkers for one reason or another. But when you get a good one, you have a very good handgun. I have found it worth culling out the bad ones to find the jewels.
Everybody who makes handguns over a period of time will turn out some less than wonderful products. That includes Smith and Wesson, Colt and Ruger. When we do find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it is worth the quest and occasional disappointments along the way.
Enjoy your new toy and let us know how it works for you.
Last edited by Char-Gar; 03-04-2014 at 06:25 PM.
Disclaimer: The above is not holy writ. It is just my opinion based on my experience and knowledge. Your mileage may vary.
I wonder.....if the correction to the S&W heavy recoil-cylinder backspin problem--too light bolt spring--is causing the furrowed cylinder seen on the examples mentioned?
One note of caution for those getting started with the 45 Colt loading bit.....do a Tale Of The Tape on all pieces within the die set. My initial tooling (RCBS tungsten-carbide set) did too good a job of resizing fired brass--down to .469". SAAMI spec is .480" or a taste under that. I bought an RCBS steel die, and its work is mo bettah, .476"-.477" depending on brass make. Brass life is improved considerably via this change. Also, the expander spud dimension is .448". This might be OK for .451" j-words, but ain't gonna fly for soft-alloy plain-base boolits that mic .454". Buckshot to the rescue, he turned me a .452" spud for the Lyman M-die so the boolits survive seating without over-squeezing.
I don't paint bullets. I like Black Rifle Coffee. Sacred cows are always fair game. California is to the United States what Syria is to Russia and North Korea is to China/South Korea/Japan--a Hermit Kingdom detached from the real world and led by delusional maniacs, an economic and social basket case sustained by "foreign" aid so as to not lose military bases.
Bolt unlocking happens on all older N frames. When I lived in Hartford, I was a consistent visitor, say every 6 months for 4 years, at Smith with a suitcase full of guns each time. Some were returned more than once, and some were only shot 100 rounds before a return. I am here to tell you now, that the lockworks in these pissolas is what makes these guns accurate or not. Get the works out of sync just a little, you can see the accuracy drift. The bolt system on revolvers, no matter what brand, is the culprit to be looked at first. ... felix
felix
Heck, I just wish I had a suitcase full of guns!!
No dice on the 25-15 yet as I really don't believe the turn line monsters being sold as "NIB" are worth the money. I'm not spending that kind of money on a new gun with a worse turn line than my 1970's model 28. No Sir, No way, No how.
Hartford to Springfield was 20 miles, and with New England traffic, that was a lot of time and effort. Might as well make the time worth while, so taking a suitcase full of guns was most imperative to come out ahead. Most everyone in the Harfford area that I knew belonged to a competitive gun team of some sort. Pat and I shot for the Bears BullsEye club, and that consisted of probably 20 members. After a night's match the revolters came out for show and tell mostly, but really to exchange what's to be done to make them better. Most went to Smith for tuning because Smith knew the folks well on the area teams because of the Model 41 popularity. The auto guns were best fixed by Colt folks and those smithies assigned to the local ranges. So, a suitcase full of guns was community property with 100 percent probability. ... felix
felix
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