Smith and Wesson 610-3 4 inch. New to me

[Hamopr]

Picked up a very nice 610 yesterday, in the box with all original S&W paperwork, 4 moon clips, wax paper, etc. Gave it a good cleaning and lube this morning (only had 50 rounds fired by original owner) and took it to the range.

PPU 180 grain was as expected, fairly tame, like shooting 38 special. Freedom Munitions 180 grain spoke with authority but the primers looked flattened. I need to extract them and take a closer look under a magnifier.

I need to measure SA trigger pull, extremely light. My only complaint is the front sight is a back ramp, no red insert as I have owned on previous Smith's. I'll look into changing it in the future but will try some bright red fingernail polish temporarily.

Appreciate comments from any owners or former owners, good or bad.

[Hamopr]

Hopefully one of the reloading guru's will stop by and look at these cases. They came from my 610 yesterday and the primers look strange to me. 4 of the 5 rounds I could remove with my fingernail, the 5th round had to be poked out with a pencil.

I'll be sorting, cleaning and separating my brass today and will examine the remainder which were fired in my 1006 and 1066 pistols. If I see anything else unusual I'll report back for your learned analysis. I apologize in advance for the grainy/fuzzy pictures.



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[The_Shadow]

Primers don't look that bad, the revolver is not as dynamic as the semi auto.  By that I mean the cases when fired tend to hit the breech straight back as the pressure builds.  Where you not using the moon clips for the 10mm ammo?

Not using the clips can allow a little more casing movement as they slam the breech face upon firing.

Now about Freedom Munitions, they are probably loading with Tight Group powder which is a fast burning powder, I don't like using it in 10mm because these faster powders spike the pressures and can stress the casings.  Their brass may not be the best quality as well.

[Hamopr]

Hello Shadow and thank you for dropping by. I used all my moons with ppu ammo and when I had 5 rounds left I decided to load directly to chamber.

I've got my brass sorted and will examine the Freedom closely. At random I thought I saw a few faint smileys this morning but will inspect each case closely under my magnifier light. The Freedom cases are much cleaner after firing than the PPU, but the rims look chewed up. Are they worth reloading?

The thought has crossed my mind to sell/swap my Glock 40 with red dot and KKM barrel to a Super Redhawk in 10mm. So much easier not chasing brass

[The_Shadow]

It is possible for the moon clips to mark the brass from install/mooning and extraction/demooning and during the firing process.  If they are not heavily marked they should be fine.  It is one of the reasons why tumbling brass becomes important to smooth some of these marks out to help eliminate snags when feeding in semi autos...

The thing about the semi auto is its ammo capacity it brings to the platform over the revolver without adding extra bulk and in some firearm weight.  Revolvers can be very accurate with their finer/longer sight picture...

[Hamopr]

I didn't use moons on the Freedom ammo, those were all fired through the 1066 and 1006. I'm out of town for the weekend but was thinking back to my sorting and noticed the case head stamps were on the edge rim. Maybe that's what I thought was extractor damage?

I'll inspect closely first of the week.