I'll probably regret this*, but there's a 3" Ruger GP100 for sale right here on P-F by @awp_101
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....quot-357-GP100
*regret because I'm sorely tempted to buy this myself.
I'll probably regret this*, but there's a 3" Ruger GP100 for sale right here on P-F by @awp_101
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....quot-357-GP100
*regret because I'm sorely tempted to buy this myself.
If the Smith were pre-lock it would get my vote, I have a 3" pre-lock 65, but I want nothing to do anymore with the lock models. I don't believe the Kimber is durable enough to be a real .357 (owned one, sold it off). I was unimpressed by the Cobra I owned, sold it, and also question its durability in general. So GP100 would be my choice (and I have one now).
The only thing that hasn't been said is if you buy a new Ruger and it has to go back, you can reasonably expect it to be returned to you with problems corrected. My experience has been the opposite of that with S&W.
I have three Rugers and one S&W at the moment (which I still need to get around to unkittening after S&W warranty service screwed it up). I got rid of several other S&Ws in the past six months. The third Ruger was picked up from the FFL today. And I might get another Ruger this year.
My vote is GP100.
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Not another dime.
Yes, someone please buy this one so I don't.Originally Posted by Mark D
Thanks.
'Nobody ever called the fire department because they did something intelligent'
I just went through this debate myself wanting a 6 shot 3” .357 revolver. The 2.75” 66 really appeals to me but I got lucky last week and couldn’t do the paperwork quick enough when I saw this.
Excellent condition 2015 model.
There it is. Add a compact grip, some speedloaders, and a JMCK AIWB bit of kydex, and be done for +/- $650, all in.
Nothing from gun broker, personally. I cherry-pick revolvers, at the dealer.
I know nothing about the King Cobra or Kimber, except that neither has been in the wild, long enough, to establish enough of a track record, for my comfort zone.
I don’t do keyhole Smiths, if I plan to shoot anything more powerful than target wadcutters. I might cherry-pick a pre-keyhole 66.
That leave Rugers. Ruger’s QC has slipped, but CS should make it right. If I just had to buy a revolver, without first handling it, it would be a Ruger.
Ruger makes revolvers with factory grips that fit my hands. (Except for the ones with Hogue grips.) I reckon that this produces some level of personal bias.
Retar’d LE. Kinesthetic dufus.
Don’t tread on volcanos!
I have zero problems with rugers, colts, or kimbers and think all of those you listed are great guns.
I went with the 2.75" m66-8 for several reasons.
1. The new guns are beefier than the old so the older tests from the border patrol aren't really relevant. The new forcing cone is thicker as is the frame itself.
2. Same speedloaders and holsters as my m19
3. Better trigger. Back when i worked in a gunshop every single new S&W had a significantly better trigger than every new ruger. I smoothed out my internals and now its better than any pre lock gun Ive shot.
4. Size. The rugers are just a tad large for me. Im really tempted to start looking for a 3" 7 shot gp100 but they are just to big to replace my m66. Especially the speedloader. I accidentally grabbed one of stephs L frame speedloaders at a uspsa match. I loaded it up and stuck it in my pocket but i knew it wasnt a k frame loader by the time I got home. Its noticable.
The smaller guns are just to small for lots of magnum shooting for me.
The 66 handles full power magnums just fine
Last edited by 03RN; 08-04-2020 at 11:48 PM.
Just pulled out my GP100 4” and ran about 50 rounds of .357 through and a little .38. I swapped it years ago to the rubber grips with wood inserts. Nothing I don’t like about that gun. Only way I can think it would be better is if it had a Prescott, AZ imprint on the side.
I have an old 66 S&W also, my first gun purchase ever from 1994. Glad to own it but it’s a .38 really, and wouldn’t buy the key-lock model on principle.
Last edited by Canyonrat; 08-05-2020 at 12:33 AM.
My timid re-entry into the revolver atmosphere has occurred in the form of a dead-common 4" stainless GP100 (the current model # is 1705).
Despite having previously abandoned big sixguns, some recent threads convinced me that I might actually have a need for a burly though not grotesquely large .357 revolver in the role of an old guy’s utility pistol. There would be no magazines to worry about and no fussing over round counts or replacing RSAs. As much as I once loved trad SA revolvers past logic "because history," this one needed to be double-action because a bobbled job of manually cocking the hammer in a hurry is not beneath my abilities. My old blued revolvers seemed to stay tight longer, but this one needed to be stainless because I have no idea what kind of conditions I might put the thing through. It had to be at least semi-friendly to disassemble and reassemble, with a minimum of special tools. Nothing could be so expensive or rare that it couldn’t be replaced. Not too short in the barrel, but not too long either. Indeed, I was looking for a “Goldilocks” .357… but with the caveat that Goldilocks would also be a cheap date. Having been around the block and down the alley with GP100s in the past, their quirks are familiar to me and I already had a school-of-hard-knocks frame of reference vis-à-vis what works for me – and perhaps more importantly, what does not – on a budget. I also wanted something that stood an even chance of a real fix if I ever had to send it back to its birthplace for something serious. Thus this “barely previously enjoyed” GP100.
Having used about every GP100 grip marketed to the masses, I had already whittled my grip choices down. Remaining in the contest were Hogue’s latest iteration of their “finger-grooveless” rubber grip, or a much-modified – and hideously ugly - Hogue standard rubber grip with the lower finger groove protrusion and bottom rear “heel” ground away on a sanding disc; the only other serious candidate would be Ruger’s “original style” factory compact grips which were tough to find at a reasonable price for a few years. Because the Hogues were - and are - a tad bulky for my idea of an all-purpose GP100, I went with the factory compacts, which may look like mere truncations of the full-size counterparts… but brothers and sisters, this grip option’s total is a bit more than the sum of its parts. Perfect? No. Pretty dang good, though, assuming your hand meshes with it.
The original factory GP100 “plunger retained” front sight has always been an abomination to me, the smooth, shallow slope of the rear face reflecting all the ambient light in the vicinity and turning the thing into a useless, gray suggestion most of the time. The factory accessory red insert version of same has never been much better for me – more on that below– so I had previously used an XS 24/7 (standard) dot, and while it was a decent quick, short-range choice, it made longer distance shooting a tad problematic. Because my machine shop access is now nonexistent and I could not make my own McGivern-style gold bead (hiring it done violates the “inexpensive” imperative of this whole dealio), I got a Dawson Precision. 270” H, .125” W fiber optic front blade. It works with the factory rear and is light years ahead of the factory front.
(In Ned Beatty’s stern, terse voice from “Raiders of the Lost Ark”: “LIGHT. YEARS.”)
The red insert version of the Ruger front sight may be less underwhelming for other people. I have had some eye issues over last two decades that have kicked the crap out of my vision, and one of the problems is that my color perception has been undergoing a continual, but subtle shift. I have developed a preference for green fiber optics because they “pop” better for me than the equivalent red; this was not necessarily the case when FO sights first came to my attention. I should note that there was a bit of filing that had to be done on the Dawson front sight to fit it to this particular revolver. It took about an hour of fiddling with a needle file and applying some Brownell’s Oxpho-Blue, and while it was not my best example of workmanship, the sight is fitted well enough that I called it good. Whoever gets the gun at my estate sale can file on the sight some more if they are more OCD than me.
The GP100 of this essay has been “smoothed” a bit in a low-key manner only because doing so is easy and inexpensive; “deburred” is probably the more appropriate term. In my experience, Rugers will often perk right up with nothing more than what amounts to removing obvious burrs, getting a thorough cleaning and an application of proper lubrication. I have installed a 12# Wolff hammer spring in this one for now, though I may go back to the factory spring if everything slicks up a bit after more use. I am always conflicted about pull weight versus lock time and realize that I may never actually be able to have my kibble and eat it too. The trigger return and latch spring is a 10# Wolff, based on my earlier use of that spring in long-gone GP100s; this is also subject to change.
Why did I not obtain a Match Champion GP100 (other than initial low cost and instant availability of this particular specimen)? Mostly because the barrel on this GP has a full lug; my tolerance for recoil has been diminishing with age. The MC has a better front sight, generally a better action out of the box and chamfered charge holes in the cylinder, along with the “Wiley Clapp” cylinder taper… all are nice touches that improve the GP100 procedurally (though I personally dislike tapered cylinders). The wood grips, I do not care for… although they do LOOK nice, I would change them out immediately. If I were still a young buck, I would probably get a Match Champion, learn to embrace the recoil, change the grips and try to curb my instincts to tinker with what ain’t broken. If TALO or Lipsey’s had commissioned a run of Match Champions with full-lug barrels and compact rubber grips, I’d probably have succumbed.
Everything I need and nothing I don’t, without fancy or expensive modifications. The simplest interface I can ask for short of childhood cap pistols. Will set off ammunition of a bewildering variety of bullet styles and power levels as long as it fits in the cylinder… from powder-puff LWC .38 Specials to flinch-inducing stiff .357 Magnums, shot cartridges inclusive.
We shall see if one prticular tired old cat has finally acquired enough common sense to keep this kind of revolver around.
gn
"On the internet, nobody knows if you are a dog... or even a cat."
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