A Review of the S&W Model 681

[mtngunr]

Well, no one makes it out of this world alive, except for those in the rapture. Glenn was always good to me. His uncle Willard Pryor actually raised Glenn. I believe Glenn flew helicopters in the army. Sad to hear about his passing. Anyway, thank you for the info. God Bless you and be safe out there.

Favorite Vietnam era helicopter story...favorite Army story for that matter...
My aviation instructor, same as something like 95% of the folk who went to initial helicopter flight training in Texas, washed out and ended up a crew chief. They were flying the old Hughes piston-powered ones as seen in MASH and Whirlybirds. At that time, they still used an ignition key. Also, at that time, whether fixed or rotary wing, flight instruction included turning off the ignition to simulate such an emergency as well as practicing restart procedures, where today, only throttle gets chopped since there were too many crashes otherwise. One of my instructor's classmates was tired of being whacked over the head with maps during flight training and cursed by the Instructor Pilot, and apparently also tired of the Army in general...so, when the IP reached over and turned off the ignition and said, "NOW, what are you going to do?!", the student reached down and ripped out the key and pitched it out the door, and said, "Now, what are YOU going to do!?"....they pancaked into a lake, and if that student is still alive, I imagine he is still paying for that helicopter.

 

[mtngunr]

Please note the 13, and 65 were also a bull barrel. I had both at one time. I still say Trooper Dan Combs was one of the main drivers behind the 13. He took a bull barrel 10 and bored it out to 357 MAG shell length. He showed the original to me. The 357 ammo came close to extending out the front of the cylinder. He said it was a lot easier to do that than to try to fit a 19 cylinder and having to modify the forcing cone.

The Model 19 had improved steel and heat treat to handle the pressure, and a .38Spl cylinder lacks the length for longer heavier bullets...in case someone is thinking of breaking out the chamber reamers.

 

[mtngunr]

I miss ol Glenn. He may have hard nosed, but he was always that way. I think he kicked me in in the derrière once or busted it at Washington Street Baptist Church I Hobart Ok when he was home on leave from helicopter duty in the tropical paradise of Vietnam Nam. His uncle, Willard Pryor was our RA teacher. Willard bought us boxing gloves for our Wednesday night meetings. I don’t know what happened to Glenn after he left USSA in Tulsa. He was cool to me. I still have a 681. I’ve cleaned and rubbed on to so much, it almost looks nickel. I need to just go ahead and polish it.

If you feel your heart overflowing and bursting with love for the 681 sufficient to generate the elbow grease equivalent of a 10" felt wheel at 2000rpm dressed with tripoli compound, mine could use a little of that love....just sayin'.

 

[osu007]

I love my 13 and 65 3” versions. Like you said one of the best carry revolvers ever made. Many try to copy it but not the real deal.

I had a blue 4” 13. One of the most accurate, best feeling and shooting guns I ever had. Such fond memories……

 

[osu007]

The Model 19 had improved steel and heat treat to handle the pressure, and a .38Spl cylinder lacks the length for longer heavier bullets...in case someone is thinking of breaking out the chamber reamers.

Wow!! That’s another name I haven’t heard in a while. Dan Combs. He and my father were friends. I think Dan may have swatted my derrière once or twice too. I have photos of me and him when I was a little kid. Dan was my pistolara idle. I was finally to accomplish some of the same “tricks” Dan used to do, and was able to almost as comparably. Both Dan and my father would always “fast draw”. Dan from a strong side draw, and my father preferred a cross draw. Dan was way cool. And I think Dan was probably the reason OHP issued 4’ s&w 65’s. Which is the stainless version of the model 13. Finest issue pistol of all times. A 681 or 3 1/2’ 27 is second. Pinned and recessed of course. This was back in the day when OHP ran super hopped up LTD’s with interceptors. Awwwww the memories.

 

[Lucky]

The Smith & Wesson model 681 is the very weapon I took with me to CLEET way back in the summer of 1990. I qualified with it the very first time with a 78.

After a few other qualifying runs, my score climbed every time to the mid 80's and finally to my best score which was somewhere in the upper 90's.

Mine was actually shooting to the right just a little bit, so I told the coordinator, Glen McEntire about it and he said, "ok, lets go see the gunsmith. He can sight it in for you."

I said, "sight it in? But it's a fixed sight gun."

He smiled real big like the cat that just ate the canary.

We walk into the gunsmith's shop, McEntire told the smitty, "hey this guy's revolver needs sighted in." The smitty grabbed a piece of a wooden broom handle, laid the gun down on his bench and proceeded to pound on the barrel of the gun with the broom handle!

I said, "hey, HEY, HEY!!! What in the hell are you doing?!"

Hey pulled a bright and shiny Smith & Wesson glossy blued model 27 with a 3.5 inch barrel out of his holster, laid it down in front of me and said, "if I leave a single mark on this hogleg, that 27 is yours."

I told him, "pound away my good man!"

After he was finished, it shot spot on and no, there wasn't a mark on it anywhere.

I miss that ol' magnum. Hell...I miss 'em all.

I understand this very old post, but how did that correct the sighting?????

 

[Glock 'em down]

I understand this very old post, but how did that correct the sighting?????

It bent the barrel just slightly.

 

[Lucky]

It bent the barrel just slightly.

I was guessing that it got everything in alignment.

 

[trbii]

Please note the 13, and 65 were also a bull barrel. I had both at one time. I still say Trooper Dan Combs was one of the main drivers behind the 13. He took a bull barrel 10 and bored it out to 357 MAG shell length. He showed the original to me. The 357 ammo came close to extending out the front of the cylinder. He said it was a lot easier to do that than to try to fit a 19 cylinder and having to modify the forcing cone.

I heard a story about boring out a .38 spl. cylinder to accept .357 magnum cartridges back in the 1980’s. I was just getting into pistol shooting/competing back then and was shocked/confused by this. I mentioned something about “but what about the heat treatment to accept magnum pressures?”, the more experienced shooters present just smiled, nodding their heads.

 

[mtngunr]

It bent the barrel just slightly.

I pondered that, as well, and will point out another possibility....the old standard way of correcting windage on fixed sight revolvers both at factory regulation (back when that was done) and by gunsmiths, was to clamp both frame and barrel in fitted fixtures and to turn the barrel. The turning is very minor to make significant changes to windage, such as if you made a scribe line from barrel onto frame, a major correction done by moving the barrel half the width of the scribe line. If the whacking were happening with a kitchen nightstick out near/on front ramp or rib, the barrel might have turned a half a hair.