Revolvers PAST & PRESENT

The first handgun I ever owned was a used S&W snub nose 38 special caliber with an aluminum cylinder. My father bought it for me when I was 18 years old. I have always liked revolvers from day one. I have owned countless makes and models through the years. The older S&W revolvers were excellent. I have owned older Colt Pythons that were a work of art. I remember having a new Colt Diamondback and I made a terrible mistake by selling it, I made the same mistake by selling my S&W model 34 that I used to hunt snakes with in the Florida everglades. My S&W model 60 which is about 35 years old has gotten me out of many tough situations.

The new revolvers are a different breed and there is no similarity to the quality revolvers of years long gone. I have worked on most every major DA/SA revolver made including a Ruby revolver that was made in Spain. To date I have worked on over 6000 revolvers.

The new S&W revolvers use MIM parts and the frames and barrels are not the same. The current MIM (Metal Injection Molded) Sear no longer pivots on a pin like the old ones did, the new MIM sear sits in a cradle and rocks so to speak and uses a very fragile spring, sure they work but its made to insure "UP TO DATE ECONOMY OF MANUFACTURING" .
When you dry fire a new S&W revolver they have a hollow sound to them. A lot of revolvers now have a frame mounted firing pin, I have been told this has been done to meet California requirements. Is it a better idea ??? Not in my opinion.
New revolvers have a fragile safety lock, WHY ??? Probably legal advice from their attorneys.

New 7 or 8 shot revolvers do not keep their timing as well as a 6 shot revolver because the critical pads on the ratchet on the rear of the cylinder are very tiny and wear quickly, its common to lose your timing on one or two chambers rather easily.
Current Colt revolvers are not the same. Follow the removable plate line on a new Colt Python, most I have seen have gaps, the older ones were fitted with precision, you could barely see the out line of the plate on an older Colt Python.
I had a new Colt Detective special in here and the barrel vibrated loose under recoil.

Ruger still makes a decent revolver but they do not sell critical parts to anyone including a gunsmith, the gun must be returned to the factory for them to install the part.
In my opinion Taurus is not the quality of American revolvers, and Taurus will not sell critical parts to anyone, they have a similar policy as Ruger, the gun must be returned to the factory in Miami.

I do not care what the GUN WRITERS tell you. Advertising money talks, no magazine is going to ever say anything bad about a high dollar advertiser. Think about it, if a magazine gets $5000.00 to $7000.00 for a full page advertisement, 4 color, front inside cover, per issue and maybe even more money for a back page add, do you think they would jepardize this money and honestly evaluate one of these advertisers guns and tell you about all the down sides to the product ???
NOT HARDLY. That magazine must have that money to stay in business.

I still like the S&W line of revolvers, they work fairly well but are not a work of art like the old ones. If I was going to buy a large frame revolver today, I would buy the Ruger GP 100 with a 5 inch barrel in Stainless Steel.
For a small self defense revolver I would buy one of the S&W Centennial hammerless models or the Ruger SP 101.

Most of the old world craftsmen I grew up learning to admire and bought their products are long gone to nursing homes or are in cemetaries. This is a very sad commentary for me to write. I deeply regret that it is my opinion that advertising and marketing decisions decide the direction in which handguns will be designed and manufactured and the common denominator is always BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

Teddy Jacobson
www.actionsbyt.com
281 277 4008
tjacobson@houston.rr.com