I can't recall when I bought it (maybe 15-20 years ago?) but I have this revolver that I know little about other than what is on the label, and that I noted the seller said it was ANIB. In searching it appears there are a number of variations of 640's but I haven't found 640-1's with 4 ports, rubber grips, and w/o rear a sight?

I believe it is a Lew Horton Performance Center 640-1 Quadport that shipped April 12th of 1996 according to box label. Nice revolver.

That's pretty cool. I love my 640 Pro and carry it pretty much every day. I'm curious how much blast you'd get out of those ports when shooting magnums, and how much impact they have on controllability.

quote:

Originally posted by robtom:
.....I believe it is a Lew Horton Performance Center 640-1 Quadport.....

Thank you, searching "Quadport" helps narrow it down. http://smith-wessonforum.com/s...rt-market-value.html

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
....I'm curious how much blast you'd get out of those ports when shooting magnums, and how much impact they have on controllability.

LOL I should take it out at night and shoot it sometime!

I have an early (1995 if I remember) 640-1 that I still carry from time to time. It’s a solid shooter.

Sweet gun..

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
....I'm curious how much blast you'd get out of those ports when shooting magnums, and how much impact they have on controllability.

LOL I should take it out at night and shoot it sometime!

I imagine that would be pretty epic. Mine can make quite the fireball, even without ports! I have had to use it to put down deer at night, though, and I'll say that with my defensive load of choice (135gr Speer Gold Dot Short-Barrel .357 Mag) there wasn't much noticeable flash. It is loud as heck, though.

In this pic was shooting reloads...I think either H110 or 2400 IIRC.


The 640 is a fantastic little gun. Being all steel, it's got enough beef to it to make it shootable with magnums while still being light enough to carry in most situations. Mine is stupid accurate, too.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:

The 640 is a fantastic little gun...... Mine is stupid accurate, too.

I don't see how mine could be w/o a rear sight, it only has a long groove to line up the front sight. I wish it had a sight like yours does.

I can't really see the top strap very well in your pics...is there no "groove" or "trench" sight milled into it like the one pictured below?



I have a couple of J-frames with that style of fixed sight, and their mechanical accuracy is equal to that of the 640 with properly regulated loads, although they are definitely not as easy to acquire or align quickly as the sights on the 640 Pro.

If your gun lacks that "trench" sight completely, I definitely agree that it would make it hard to get accurate hits. I'm not sure why they would produce such a thing.

The Performance Center 640 is a fantastic little revolver

The quad porting does significantly reduce muzzle rise when firing Magnum ammunition. It is less effective with lower power ammunition. Handgun porting does not reduce recoil

Muzzle flash when carrying for Personal Defense is a non issue. As 92fstech points out that the Premium ammunition he used, similar to what most of carry in those scenarios has little to no flash. This is because part of that expense adds flash suppressants to the load.

Range ammunition and foreign ammunition have a glorious muzzle flash because those loads exclude things like flash suppressant after all that adds to the expense of the ammunition and we go for cheap when we practice

While the 135gr Speer Gold Dot Short-Barrel .357 Magnum ammunition that 92fstech references is loaded into 357 Magnum cases, Speer does not load that projectile to 357 Magnum performance levels, though it is loaded above 38 +P+ performance. This is partly why Speer can claim that it is a reduced recoil load.

Your revolver is a Lew Horton Distributor Exclusive offering that was introduced in 1999 while the first 640-1s built on the J-Magnum frame were introduced at the 1996 Shooting Hunting and Outdoor Trade show which is more commonly just called SHOT

That means your revolver was manufactured on April 12th of 2006 according to the box. The SPEC ORD number on the box label is not a shipping date. for that to happen labels would have to be printed after a distributor ordered the firearm (the day it was shipped). That would be chaos for a company that manufactures and ships thousands of firearms daily

Shipping dates can be discovered if you order a Smith & Wesson Historical letter for your revolver. That letter would also confirm that the firearm was shipped to Lew Horton

Your front sight is a Tritium Night Sight that was manufactured by Trijicon. The Tritium lamp is past it half life and too dim for most shooters to see except in total darkness. Trijicon can re-lamp that for you, but I have found that the small lamp used for the narrow width of the front sight blade is too dim to be effective for most older shooters eyes to see anyway. After all the smaller lamp contains less H3 Tritium gas than the lamp that is used in full sized sights.



I have been shooting mine for about a quarter of a century so far. I went to the rubber boot grips to create a smaller package as I have pocket carried this firearm when wearing jeans.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
I can't really see the top strap very well in your pics...is there no "groove" or "trench" sight milled into it like the one pictured below?

If your gun lacks that "trench" sight completely, I definitely agree that it would make it hard to get accurate hits. I'm not sure why they would produce such a thing.

Thank you 92fstech, yes mine has the center groove just as the black model in your image above, my images just don't show it.

colt_ssa thank you for the info on this revolver, and the Speer Gold Dot Short Barrel ammo. I'm comfortable with 38+P+ so if I decide to carry it that's likely what I'll use.

So the Lew Horton versions began about 2000, mine was made in 2006, do you happen to know when they quit making this model, and about how many were manufactured? You're right the sight is awfully small so I can see how it wouldn't be very effective as a night sight. And LOL my eyes are definitely older!
I like the grips on yours for carry they're a little shorter and bevel to the frame.