question about Smith & Wessons...

[FalconLair]

I believe he meant "plugged." When you remove the lock, it leaves a hole that can be either left as-is or plugged.

that would be correct, plugging it is the only real fix available for that issue, either that or find a pre-Hillary hole 686 which isn't easy to find unless you're willing to really overpay for that model

i see plenty of Smith's nicely polished up including the hammer and trigger, i must not be the only idiot to do that

[ysr_racer]

Deleted.

[TKM]

OP. Look what I did.


Also OP. Why's everybody laughing?

[IVC]

i see plenty of Smith's nicely polished up including the hammer and trigger, i must not be the only idiot to do that

I think you caught some flak because it might be a pet peeve for some people, but it's not the end of the world. You can always replace the parts if you want to sell the gun, and it's your gun so you can have it the way you like it.

People cerakote their guns all the time and catch much less flak than you did. It's Calguns...

[Spyder]

Do what you want with your own property.

I prefer case hardened stuff now, but when I was a kid I thought it was ugly.

[The Gleam]

If it's got a Hillary hole, what are the chances the hammer and trigger are MIM anyway?

You can't case-color harden MIM, but S&W tries to color the MIM parts in a way to merely look like case-hardening. But it doesn't matter as MIM parts are sintered/hardened throughout.

If MIM, polishing won't do it any harm, because MIM does not have the inherent stresses in forging as to why you case-harden in the first place.

If the back of that trigger is hollow/slotted, not solid, it's a MIM part and you didn't do any damage.

Besides, the fake case-hardening color that S&W puts on the MIM parts DOES look more like a dull, crappy gray/yellowish tarnish, as if it's screen-printed on or hydro-dipped - instead of good rainbow-like case coloring.

In that case, if MIM - it looks better polished, and didn't hurt a thing.

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[FalconLair]

If it's got a Hillary hole, what are the chances the hammer and trigger are MIM anyway?

You can't case-color harden MIM, but S&W tries to color the MIM parts in a way to merely look like case-hardening. But it doesn't matter as MIM parts are sintered/hardened throughout.

If MIM, polishing won't do it any harm, because MIM does not have the inherent stresses in forging as to why you case-harden in the first place.

If the back of that trigger is hollow/slotted, not solid, it's a MIM part and you didn't do any damage.

Besides, the fake case-hardening color that S&W puts on the MIM parts DOES look more like a dull, crappy gray/yellowish tarnish, as if it's screen-printed on or hydro-dipped - instead of good rainbow-like case coloring.

In that case, if MIM - it looks better polished, and didn't hurt a thing.

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thanks for the good information Gleam, next time i pull out my 686 i'll give it a look to see if the trigger and hammer are MIM as i wouldn't doubt it as most of the new production on these firearms are MIM

i doubt if many, if any, put that kind of 2 and 2 together

[highpower]

Relax guys, it was inherently a less desirable Smith due to the factory mutilating it with the Hillary Hole. Polishing the hammer and trigger really does little to lessen the value.

I guess they have changed the way they finish their guns as back in the 60's and through at least the early 80's the blued or nickled guns had case colored hammers and triggers and the Stainless guns the hammer and triggers were plated to match the finish. All this was before the change to MIM parts sometime around 1995ish.

1976 Model 66 no dash:


1982 Model 66-2


However I noticed that my 1994 vintage 629-4 has what looks like case coloring on the trigger and hammer. I believe the -4 was the last of the Smiths that was made before the switch to MIM.


If I was ever inclined to buy any S&W with a polished/blued hammer or trigger (and therefore knowing that someone had fiddled with it), I would definitely give it a thorough inspection before kicking down any money.