Originally Posted by
jh9
Well that's going to inspire some... spirited debate. If you're talking specifically L-frames I wouldn't go back any further than 1997 if you want a shooter.
As for generalities that have numerous rule-proving, individual exceptions:
the 80s were wtf-to-okay
the 90s were good-to-really good
the 00s were the same, mostly, but now with 100% more lock
the 10s were good on parts quality but assembly was hit or miss
the 20s I guess you can infer from posts here and elsewhere; IDK
Sample size of 6-7 from 1995-2012; 3 of the 6-shot 686s (1995, 2000, 198X/2003*) racked up modest round counts, with a cumulative total at approx 20k (9/8/3, respectively). Mostly IDPA with .38 +P handloads to make PF. The first 8-shot 627 (2012) that got any meaningful use-- roughly 3k in USPSA-- had finish issues and one parts failure documented here somewhere. Some others that I traded into / out of from the same time period had similar build quality even if they didn't get shot much. Guns I saw other SSR/ESR and REV shooters were using at the time lined up with the above as well.
*1980-something, AZH prefix, never got its mfg date - sent it to the PC in ~2003 for them to unfuck it where they did an ok job