Ive been narrowing in on what I want my second revolver to be. My first I picked up recently is a vintage 4 M66. Now I want a snubbie and while I actually want a 3, I have no desire to pay triple the price of a 4 that people on gunbroker are asking and I have no desire to have a 4 gun chopped at least at this time.
Ive narrowed my choices to buying nothing, buying a pre-lock (possibly P&R) M66 2.5, or buying a new production M66-8 2.75.
My understanding is:
The sight radius and muzzle velocity will be marginally better on the new 2.75 gun
The front sight in the new gun is changeable without gunsmithing a dovetail in
The new gun has spare parts available if it breaks
The new gun has full length ejector rod
The new gun has stronger forcing cone to better handle magnum rounds
But...
The old gun has no lock, which ideologically makes me feel better (even if that makes me stupid, its how I feel). The old gun has better internal parts. I have no desire to reload a revolver quickly so the shorter ejector rod doesnt matter to me. I dont plan to shoot many 357mag through it so the forcing cone doesnt matter to me. The trigger on the older gun is probably better. The older gun has some numismatic value being older and more collectible.
What makes this a tough decision is that surprisingly to me, both options are about the same price. Im looking at about $650 to $700 for the newer gun slightly used and $700 to $800 for the vintage gun.
Given they are the same price, it makes it a harder decision for me because Im leaning toward the vintage but a lot of the benefits of the newer gun makes sense to me. Although the main two benefits forcing Cone and ejector rod are not something that matters much to me because my use case doesnt call for fast reloads nor shooting much 357 mag. It will mostly be a 38sp gun with occasional mags. And Ill never carry a reload with it.
I may occasionally carry this AIWB.
Thoughts on deciding between the two of them?