S&W Model 60 .357 Mag...Talk me out of it.....

[Timothy]

Saw one slightly previously owned.....500 bucks....felt good, well balanced and lighter than the Ruger....

Ready, Set, GO.....!

[Hazcat]

Internal lock?  If so, then NO!

[Timothy]

Internal lock?  If so, then NO!

Yea, it had the little hole....that was kind of the thing that bothered me.  Ayoob says that he's only heard of three problems but all related to hot loads in light frames..

[Hazcat]

MB had the same problems with heavy loads (meaning heay bullets), also (I know some will go 'boo hoo') the internal locks were a 'give' to the antis, so I will NOT but an S&W with one.

[hollandm]

For the uninformed can you tell me what the Internal Lock is?

I'm looking at revolvers for my wife.

[Sponsor]

[Timothy]

For the uninformed can you tell me what the Internal Lock is?

I'm looking at revolvers for my wife.

On the left side of the frame there is a little hole above the cylinder release where you insert a small key which rotates a tear drop shaped lobe into position internally to prevent the handgun from being fired.

As Haz stated above, it was for so called "safety" issues and done more than likely for political reasons.

S&W has said they are phasing the locks out of their guns this year though I can't find the link...

[hollandm]

Ah, thanks very much for the explanation, sounds pretty weird.

[fightingquaker13]

Actually,I like the idea of the internal locks. I know there's all sorts of political bs around them, but a good idea is a good idea and I dont give a damn where it comes from. Seriously, how many of us would spring for trigger locks or safes if the anti's hadn't pushed it? I'm sure as hell not sympathsizing, but I do know that all of my guns have trigger locks except for my carry. When I was in grad school in my early twenties and lived in a group house where drunken weirdness from me or one of my 4 roomates was the norm, all sorts of bad things could have happened without those locks. As a Florida voter, I'm no fan of Ralph Nader, but I'm glad seatbelts come standard with my truck. The thing is, when I leave my house, I leave my guns. I like the idea of knowing that if some punk steals them I won't have a dead Circle K clerk on my head. I don't like making them mandatory, but if offered as an option, I would pay extra for it. That would go double if I had kids.

The only thing that concerns me is whether they will come on during use and turn my gun into a very short club. That would be unacceptable. I would really like to hear info on this. As I said, I don't care about the politics, just the mechanics of this. If it makes the weapon unreliable, its bad. If its just a feature you can choose to use or not, like seat belt or a motorcycle helmet, than thats all good.
fightigquaker13   

[tombogan03884]

A friend of mine won a J frame S&W. The lock worked in the store when He picked it up but when he got it home it would not unlock. Turned out that when it was assembled a piece of wood chipped off the grip and eventually lodged in the lock mechanism.
I will not own one, I will stick with the types of responsible storage that have worked for the last 500 years.

[Timothy]

Well, I've convinced myself, with help, to avoid this little plaything.

I did a little research and the silly internal lock doesn't even satisfy the MA regs on stowage and safe keeping of firearms so it appears that S&W caved to the west coast when they started installing them.

With that and the fact that the only reason I would buy one is for self defense, I won't waste my money or risk my families safety on something that ain't gonna go BANG, every time, without fail...

I'll be ordering the SP-101 in a few weeks.....I've got more experience with the Ruger wheel guns anyway...  Rock solid, always have been...

Thanks Haz, Tom....good advice!

p.s.  I did find the blog of MB's about the problem, thanks for the tip...