[Mighty Favog]

I sold guns for about 13 years for a local dept. store (now out of business) and I was one of the few people that worked there (in the numerous employee turnovers) that actually went out and did some shooting once in while

Anyway, my local gunsmith was also a bit of the sage/guru on philosophy and having a little more insite than the average Joe. Amongst the many things he told me was that S&W wasn't worth nearly what it used to be in quality. Read- anything without a pinned barrel on a revolver.

He said, that in current production when a gun was being assembled (we'll use a revolver here) the person doing the assembly would reach into a box/bin/container full of the part needed and see if it would fit. If not, the part would go into another box/bin/container and another part pulled out and tried. This was done until a fitting part was found then used in that particular gun.

In the old days S&W had a lot of old Dutchman working for them with great mechanical knowhow and pride. The same box of parts were used BUT if the part didn't fit exactly right (and they rarely did) the files came out and the craftsman went to work on it until it was deemed worthy. Thus the reason for the incredible trigger pulls and absence of creep on older made units.

That's why, he said, that working on older S&W's was a real bitch because the replacement part that he had to put in had to be re-fitted to much more exacting tollerances.

He has since passed away and, yes, I do own an S&W PPK/S but I had it reworked by Cylinder and Slide just to be sure.

 

[Mighty Favog]

Try these article if you haven't already:

http://www.cylinder-slide.com/combathandgun.htm

 

[Mighty Favog]

I guess the only logic I can offer would be the gun's reliability since so much care was taken to build it.

I feel new grips are a must. I opted for Hogue's Pau Ferro with a smooth finish. If you carry it in an inside-the-pants holster against your skin the stock plastic grips are like wearing a couple of meat tenderizers. I usually wear mine in the same holster (Galco USA-204) but in the front and I use a t-shirt between me and the gun and THEN another shirt or sweatshirt over that to cover it all. O.k., so that only works for the winter.

When I first got the gun back from Mr. Laughridge I practiced drawing the weapon with the above clothing setup (w/sweatshirt). I found it to draw sooooooo much easier with the corner rounding job C&S did (mine was worked on by Ralph Gutekunst). That added to the emotional end of things with more confidence in drawing the weapon without thinking about it.

This has been said before about a lot of guns but the gun really does feel like one piece of metal.