If I’m not mistaken alot of the performance center firearms are hand selected for barrel accuracy before they go through the works . So they can be more accurate
I just bought a 4" 686 Plus .357. It's a joy to shoot in all configurations of ammo, even for an old geezer like myself (66). My favorite handgun all these years has been the iconic 1911 in any caliber or size and also SA/DA automatics with thumb safeties. My dad always stressed gun safety so much with his kids, that I always felt more comfortable with the safeties. Another awesome video.
Had not seen this before very interesting. I have two PC revolvers and are very nice. .500 S&W 5 inch with the comp and 629 PC 2.6" .44 MAGNUM Neither have fluted cylinders and both have smooth actions. The .500 is for hunting and the 629PC is one of my favorite carry revolvers for defensive applications. I liked the look and feel of the 629PC 2.6 " .44 magnum/.44 Special, and for me because if those reasons it was worth the upcharge for that type specialized revolver.
I wish one or all of the major firearm manufacters had a real custom shop. A shop where I can order the production gun I want with the finish, action and grip work. As it stands now I buy a gun and I need to send it to 2 or 3 different guys to get what I want at a far higher expense (to me) then if they did all of the work at one location.
Thank you, it is like buying a new car, do you want all the bells and whistles or just the basic model. Recently, I mailed in my new S & W 442 performance center revolver to get an enhance trigger pull, but it will take about 8 months to get a price quote and upgrade. The 442-performance center model was equipped with a Crimson Trace LG-105 grip laser (narrow), and I exchanged it for a (wider) LG-350 grip safety. Everything makes a difference if you are a perfectionist. It is worth the wait time and modifications.
I don't have any PC guns, but I did send a 642 and 66 to S&W for an action tune. For me anyway the expense was well worth it especially for the 66. I went with S&W for the work as opposed to aftermarket gunsmiths due to S&Ws great customer service in supporting their products.
For me personally, I'd go with standard production across the board. The enhancements, for me, would be extras that would interfere with the simplicity of point and shoot, or are just cosmetic.
The Performance Center “upgrades” to the internals of revolvers is what all Smith revolvers used to have done to them before Smith went with all the cost savings recently.
After stripping down a Smith that I have, I cleaned the machining gunk they left in it and buffed a surface and I can't seem to tell the difference between the PC version and normal now. It's just the finishing of the internals that makes the difference it seems.
I own the Performance Center M&P9 Shield and I absolutely love it. It's my main EDC. S&W did a great job the trigger and the barrel porting is great. My younger brother, who is works for the L.A. Country Sheriffs Department, carries a standard Shield. They shoot like night and day. The PC Shield trigger is so much better compared to the standard trigger. I need to expand me Performance Center collection... Soon! Great job as always. Semper Fi!... By the way... I'm really liking your 637.
Thank you, and Semper Fi Devildog! My shield (which is almost 5 years old at this point) is my only M&P with a poor trigger. I can manage it well enough, but it’s just not as “shootable” as my others. I’m glad you like your PC version. By the way, that PC 637 is an easy one to like!
I bought a 629 Classic last year and for the price it’s a great pistol , now what has peaked my interest is the Performance Center M & P AR 22 platform , I have not seen one in a gun shop yet , that’s another great video
I possess a S&W model 642 PC and to completely honest I was very skeptical about the additional cost of a PC model over a standard. But upon closer examination between the two I reluctantly purchased the PC model. I don't regret purchase Oh, and Sir may I respectfully point out one additional feature that the performance center does for the revolvers. On my particular example the cylinder had the chamber throats chamfered. Which aids in loading and smoother extraction of the rounds. As always a outstanding informative video. Carry on Marine. SEMPER FI.
There are a lot of shooters (myself included) who would like to see the same thing. Unfortunately, I doubt it will happen. Once a "safety" feature is incorporated into a design, it creates an instant liability if that same feature is later deleted. I think the best we can do is just ignore it.
The S/W revolvers I have are worthy examples for the rest of the industry. The 5" & 8" 460's are awesome, I have been able to teach youngsters and first time shooters (believe it or not!) with them. The recoil seems to come mostly straight back with only moderate muzzle rise. As you might imagine the recoil impulse is extremely fast and even experienced shooters are surprised by that. All this to testify as to the excellent design of their revolvers. The only problem I've ever had is the ejector rod backing out due to recoil. Thanks again for the great video.
No. The M&P was designed for the 40 from the ground up, so it holds up to it better than the pistols that started out as 9mm's and were then modified for the larger round.
Untrue. I would prefer to buy a traditional-looking revolver and pay a gunsmith for any custom work. A LOT of people are like me, and love classic revolvers and find the angular lines of Performance Center revolvers awkward and goofy-looking. The problem is that there are model/caliber configurations that are ONLY available in P.C. version. Buyers who want the non-cheesified version are left out.
Each of the performance center pistols are good looking guns, but that 629 is next level awesome. I know what you mean about wishing you could hand the viewer the pistol to feel the action. I have a 6" stainless Ruger GP 100 in 357 Magnum. A nice gun from the factory, but this one has a custom trigger job along and the internals smoothed and polished. It's hard to describe the silky action. Had it magna ported and tapped and drilled for a rail for hunting. None if which interfere with the functionality or enjoyment of the gun.
Great video. Back when I got into M&Ps, I got a 5” Pro model and a Compact. Both the first generation and in .40. Kind of liked the M&P over the Glock option. The Pro was their first long slide going through the Performance Center (they had the L, but wasn’t too easy to find at that time). Holding it alongside the Compact, trigger wasn’t that impressive (think they added their sear, and might have quickly worked over the action). I converted my Compact to the Apex Duty/Carry Kit (and RAM), and was leaps/bounds better than the Pro... so I converted the Pro the same way. Wanted both to have the same trigger. The Performance Center of years back is far from the same as today. That being said, I have a 629-1... and would put that up against any of the newer Performance Center revolvers. The move to the lock is about where I’m not too impressed with their revolvers... which is why I prefer to buy the older ones. Only exception being is my 642-1, which I rechambered for 9mm. But that was also before the bigger production changes that might save costs, but I’m not fond of.
I get what you're saying. I've got a 4" 686 that is bone stock, and it has one of the best actions of any revolver I've ever handled. I like the PC guns, and the features are nice, but the standard models are still around for a reason. The older once can be especially well made.
If I were allowed to own centre fire handguns in their normal form, I'd say that any of those guns would be in my gun safe! However, I really liked the polishing on the snub nosed revolver; it really adds an eye catching aspect to it.
I got a Lew Horton offering in a 3" 610. Because it's a wheelgun it's my least favorite 10mm out of a collection of 9 10mms. Bought it in '98 or '99 for $600 new when they were $650 retail. Funny thing is the LH 610 seems to get the most ooohs and aahhs even more than my Colt Custom Combat 10.
Beautiful firearms! I just picked up a 1985 65-3 that appears to have been shot VERY little. Smoothest revolver action I’ve run across. Single action breaks just under 2#. Double about 8#. 3” barrel. Thank you for the super video and work you put in.
The enhancements by the performance center are very nice. But the look of the standard production. 44 has the classic S&W profile. I like the enhancements but I love the classic look of the standard. Also, I was thinking about the video you did about your daughter creating and playing the lead in music . My thought was about when a young man that is interested in your daughter is introduced to you did the conversation go something like this? "Hello, nice to meet you. Have you seen my RU-vid channel?"
Ha! To my utter amazement and infinite relief, no such young man has YET appeared. You may find it surprising, but my reputation seems to proceed me (as does the knowledge of my channel). I doubt such an exposition will be necessary!
@@hrfunk no doubt. I went through the dealing with a bunch of overly eager young men wanting to seeing my daughter some time ago. There was only one that I had to explain my desire for him to find another object of his affection to pursue. Blessings brother
What are your experiences with a rmr mounted to pistols Hr ? It’s been all good on my end ,with amazing results . Carry optics are the up and coming enhancements . Opposed to standard sights . K ! Nice s&w 40 core sure it’s a sweet shooter . Thought you switched to 9mm away from 40 s&w .
IMHO, the PC Heritage Series Model 15s are the best K frames I have ever owned. The blued and color case-hardened models are truly beautiful, but the nickel version has the benefit of added contrast between the rear sight/front sight. The DA pull on these 15s were incredible OOB. The SA pull was better than any tuned Model 10/15 I've owned or handled.
They may still be available at reasonable prices. These were originally distributed by Lew Horton, and the 15s were very overpriced at the time in 2000-2001. My father, my uncle, and myself bought a total of five of these at Whittaker's Guns in KY in 2003. (My uncle also bought a Heritage Series 1917 for something like $900.) At the time these were new guns that were considered "used," because they had entered the secondary market. I paid $399.99 for a blued model and $429.99 for a nickel model. I believe they were originally priced @$800 by Lew Horton Distributors.
Wow! You got a great price on a couple of really cool revolvers. I haven’t seen any of that series for sale in close to 15 years. They don’t show up at gun shows or in used gun cases. At least, not in my area. I haven’t checked the on-line dealers but, if there are any of them listed tthere, they are probably well out of my price range. Congratulations on acquiring the ones you gave!
I'm a little puzzled about the PC j-frame. Was the bobbed hammer a standard feature on that, or did you specify it? In either case why the bobbed hammer instead of the concealed one?
The hammer came that way on the PC 637. I suppose the bobbed hammer allows for a smaller overall frame while maintaining the snag-free characteristics of the Centennial models. Otherwise, it offers no real advantages since the action is DAO.
So question for you...when it comes to SW, and value, what do you think of the SD9VE? I actually bought one to have an additional handgun when going to the range if I bring someone. I found the grip great and very good accuracy. Interesting to see a video on it.
Thank you sir! Discovered your channel and really like the way you present your reviews. Keep up the good job on here and I will spread the word at the range.
Marine-------always enjoy your stuff.......I have aPC Shield 9mm that is my carry gun.....I really enjoy it, shoots very well.........Carry On...........lol
Another great review I do have a question though. Please for give my ignorance but the port holes in the m&p performance barrel. does that interfere with the accuracy at all.
Cool I hope you are able to do a shooting review of them all especially the m&p performance. Thanks again for awesome reviews a d for answering all my questions
So I wanted to let you know I bought my first revolver today. I decided to by the s&w 19 classic in 357 mag I only paid 650 for it and I recieved 2 boxes of 38+p semi wadcutters for practice I'm excited and cant wait to shoot it
Thank you. For me it's would be the purpose(Reason) to have the gun. If it's a work gun or everyday carry I would want the standard one it's a tool and disposable for want of a better word. If it was for competition or hunting or just a special gun for me to own I would want (Maybe can't afford) the best gun I can get which would in this case would be the Performance Center ones. All wonderful guns maybe one day I move to the USA and get me some guns. Having just had a 38 day driving holiday in the USA with my wife and children we went up the West Coast to Canada and back to Las Vegas. I got my introduction to driving on the wrong side of the road in LA this was stressful. I'm a very experienced driver and I wouldn't advise anyone who has never driven on the right hand side to start driving in LA as the drivers in general do not obey road rules. I actually had a chat to a police officer to confirm my understanding of road rules are correct because I began to believe they must be completely different in LA to the rest of the world, well it turned out they aren't. It's a lovely place the scenery is incredible the people are so friendly and unfortunately I never got time to go shooting which was a disappointment however I did drive over 6,000 miles so we saw a lot of country and that was very enjoyable.
I’m so glad you had the opportunity to visit the US. May I ask where you live? If you come back, be sure to visit us here in the Midwest. I know what you mean about learning to drive on the opposite side of the road. When I was in Japan I had to learn to drive on the left side of the road. That took some time, but it was even harder to get used to driving on the right side again when I came home! Thanks for watching my video!
@@hrfunk I am an Aussie. I live in Sunny Queensland, the Capital city Brisbane (pronounced Brisbin) about three months it gets so cold here I won't swim in the pool.lol. Sorry to hear about the weather you are currently experiencing in the USA.
I would love to visit Australia someday. Your country has always seemed quite interesting to me. Maybe because there are historical similarities between it and the USA. You are correct, the current weather here is, shall we say, brisk? It was -4 when I left home this morning, and the windchill is somewhere around -20. My jeep was not happy about having to start!
@@hrfunk Mate if you choose to come to Sth East Qld I would love to show you and your family around. Currently can't offer you accomodation as house is pretty full. However I have a seven seater 4X4 an can take you places most tourist rarely go or know about. A Day driving on Rainbow beach is must do(Got it's name because of the many different coloured sands). Sunshine Coast is beautiful would take two to three days to explore just the hinterland which is sub tropic (North of Brissy) Gold Coast two to three days to explore hinterland (south of Brissy) and we haven't gone west and that is different again. Then you have all the tourist stuff you can do. And all you would need to wear is shorts and a t shirt and if you like swimming a swim suit. The lists go on and on it really depends what you are into.
Thank you so much! I just showed your message to my wife and she also said thank you! We will certainly accept your generous offer. As to getting there, that might take some time. I’ll give you plenty of warning! Thank you again!
Sorry about that. There are a couple of different variants of the M&P CORE. The one in the video is the PC M&P40L (SKU: 10100). It goes for about $775 in my area. A standard M&P is about $425. The "Pro" model would be roughly in the middle between those two, and it won't have the porting, the lightening cuts, and I don't believe it has a tuned action or the an over-travel stop.
I'll have to try it against my 2.0's and see how it compares. The trigger on my original M&P has always been very good. I even commented when I first got the 2.0 that the trigger didn't really seem much better to me. The problem is, in the intervening years between 2007 and to debut of the 2.0 series, S&W changed the geoetry of the M&P lockwork. The triggers on the later production 1.0 pistols was noticeably inferior to the earlier ones.
I have a 2600 round sd9ve, that has 1900 of those rounds with a Apex tactical spring kit. It has a lighter trigger than my new gen 5 Glock 26. It is no doubt a pretty long Pull. But honestly it feels like a really easy trigger to me. And I shoot it well. Many still talk very nasty about that pistol though. I could never really figure out why. I mean it's a Smith & Wesson made in America. And it's stainless steel and reliable. How could you hate it?? I mean my other range friend hates it like his wife was having an affair with it 10 years ago. Lol.
Ha, ha! They really are good pistols. Some people still don’t like the trigger, but I think it’s very good for those people who want a defensive pistol, but don’t shoot too often. The longer trigger reduces the chance of an unintentional discharge under stress.
Cylinder latch would lock up after shot new bolt and they fixed the yoke why don't know the other the cylinder had high ridges in it when bored out cases would expand get stuck new cylinder no excuse for this
On your performance center 629, I've noticed that it has somewhat of a different barrel profile than the current one's available today. Today's unit looks like a steeper barrel slope to an integral and smaller compensator. Was that a modification requesting a different barrel and compensator? Do they offer that exact set up today? Thanks
I'm not sure if the exact same revolver is offered by the PC today or not. They tend to come and go over time. The compensator on mine is removable and it can be replaced by something different or with a simple muzzle cap that matches the contour of the barrel.
Hi! New sub here. I appreciate your lifetime of practical experience behind your channel. That, and also because I’m a M&P guy. 😀 Permission to come aboard sir?
