Quote Originally Posted by LSP972 View Post
jh9,

You aroused my curiousity, so I did a bit of research.

The floating hand was first introduced in 1986 on the 66-3, then on the 27-4 and 29-4 in 1988. My source didn't know exactly when the factory went back to the pinned/sprung hand on those models, but he suspects it was the same time they ditched it on the L frame (early 90s).

And speaking of those, it first appeared on the 686-1 and 681-1 in 1986; earlier than I had thought.

We had no cadet classes from 1986 to 1990; the last guns we bought prior to those huge 1990 classes were 66's in 1984. So the first we knew of this abortion was in January of 1990 when that first batch of 686s arrived, with truly horrible DA pulls. Keep in mind, no internet back then. Information was exchanged via print media and FTF encounters. I remember hearing Dwight Van Horn (legendary LASO instructor/armorer) griping about some new S&W revolver thing at the Nats in the late 80s, but we were all pretty well into the grape about then and it didn't stick in the personal hard drive. I recalled that moment as soon as we opened up the first 686 and saw that abortion.

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Awesome. Thanks for the insight. Most of the guns I've actually been inside were post MIM or at the earliest post Tomkins CNC. Always keen on hearing more about the earlier guns.

I was looking at 66s not too long ago, so that's something else to keep an eye on.