The 627 is a popular gun in Mexico, albeit hard to get and hard to register. The guys have an original nickle 6-shot Heavy Duty 38 Special cylinder laying around we pop into the guns and it actually indexes fine although it would be a no-no to fire it as the cylinder/barrel don't exactly line up because to make the 8-shot cylinder the chamber holes are slightly higher-off the star from where a 6-shooter charge hole would be. .357 Magnum is VERBOTTEN in Mexico, so guns need to be remarked and only chamber the .38 Special round at the point of registry. This, of course, is simply a gunsmithing matter and having the Heavy Duty cylinder aboard for the inspection. Once registered, you are "cool". Just use the Elmer Keith load in .38 Special casings and you are good-to-go, it does not get rechecked at Military Road Blocks searching for illegal guns. They just check to make sure you have a real transport permit, and that the numbers are correct. Mexican transport permits are made of money-paper, and there are pens that they use to mark the permit that show a distinctive color if the paper is correct. Any other paper, and the pen gives the wrong color. Technical stuff in a backward style.
Photo: Mexican transport permits list the guns, the calibers and amount of ammo for each you are allowed to transport (typically 200 for centerfire pistol or rifle, 500 for rimfire .22, and 1000 for shotshell) as well as which State or gunrange you may transport to from your domicile. SaM-Qro IPSC shooters usually had to permits with the maximum number of States, which pretty much permitted transport anywhere in the Country except for Chiappas which has a problem recognizing out-of-State permits.
For a while around 2012 it was popular amongst the bad-guys to stake out the gun-ranges and pull up alongside legitimate shooters in their cars and brandish firearms in the hopes that the good-guys would pull over and surrender up their guns. The good-guys responded accordingly and kept remarked Wee-fifty-sevens at hand (or Heavy Dutys and/or the Outdoorsman revolvers). Although guns are SUPPOSED to be transported in a bag in the back of the vehicle and out-of-immediate-reach, that rule fell by the way-side once exposed to the reality of the Drug War. I mean, the rule is still on the books, but when your life depends on it (because the bad-guys might not let you live once they get your guns -- there were early cases of that to justify the no-b.s. response on the part of the good-guys), such silliness gets dropped quickly enough.
The 627's became really popular because they offered car-penetrating power in a gun that could be doctored to pass muster in Mexico. They are not really used in competition because Mexican competition rules specify 6-shot revovlers. However, guys (and myself) use them in competitions by loading the 5-star speedloaders with the dummy snap-caps in two of the chambers. The range-officers thus will pass them after inspection, and the reload is only a little slower as you make sure to line up the 2 dud-chambers correctly to give you a nice 6-shot string. The 1/10th inch Gold Bead that comes on the 627 is hard to purchase alone and gives a nice sight-picture for the PPC or practical courses.
I used my own 627 and the Penultimate Non-Registered Magnum in an early promotion photo we used amongst the Mexican Practical Shooting crowd to promote the San Miguel/Queretaro Practical Shooting band of Merrymen and women. I was on the Queretaro Range last Saturday and shot a 627 while there, although I took no photos. The Queretaro Range costs about 800.00 Canadian a year to have a membership. It has a Pistol Moving Target Range, Falling Plate Ranges, Night Shooting Range, and Bowling Pin range in Centerfire pistol, a complete mini-silhouette range for .22 rifle and pistol, several trap and skeet ranges with automatic launchers that respond to voice commands, a live-pigeon range, and a full centerfire rifle silhouette range with live running-goat shooting range as well. (The "live" pigeon and goat shooting is something I never chronicled in either the S&W Forum or anywhere else because -- in just my own opinion -- it might be a bit much for some people to wrap their head around. Of course, a lot of what happens in real-life Mexico is a bit much for some people to wrap their head around, but I think there are some things that are best left to the eyes of the people who trouble themselves to go and actually see as opposed to those who just watch an internet video and feel they somehow have enough grasp to comment about it. But that's just me.) Of course, a full-service bar with a late-1700's bar-counter and a full-time bartender waits in the Club House. I had a devil of a time in all my clinics and pistol-matches getting the Mexican Shooters to understand that drinking and Pistol Shooting don't mix. I eventually reached the point to where I managed to keep them from starting-in on the suds until the shooting-irons had been bagged and locked in the trunks -- mostly. A couple of "the boys" were always discreetly armed in case a truckload of unknowns pulled in with their Obama/Holder Fast-and-Furious era AK's brandished in the air but that never has happened on our ranges. It did happen on others. Perhaps word spread that we were prepared to deal with it because we adapted faster than others? Who knows?
Down here, you aren't in Kansas anymore. I have one more week left here this year and then back to Canada and the completely different rules. But the years are passing and I will be back here fulltime soon enough. 2022, where are you?
Photo: The 627 and Penultimate Non-Reg Mag in a Promo Shot I did up so we could sell our SaM-Qro IPSC badges. Yes, the SaM-Qro reference ripped off Sons of Anarchy, but just being a Sport Shooter in Mexico implies you exist in quasi-legal world anyway and the T.V. show at the time was something most of us could sort of identify with. When the Drug War started, we felt persecuted from both sides. Now, 11 years later, I think the shooters have adapted, as have the Security Forces. And the bad-guys are still just the bad-guys. One must be careful. The other night, just a few miles from here, a young couple in a car was pulled over at what appeared to be a Police Road Block. She was taken, he was beaten. It appears it was not a real Police Road Block. This sort of thing only has to happen a couple of times and the gloves come off for the people who actually have guns. Those who don't continue to suffer. And guns remain hard to get here if you didn't have some already before things fell apart. It is that "first time registry" where they really put the screws to you. Once you are in the system, they back off a bit. And speaking English or bringing a translator is a waste of time and effort.
Photo: Anyway, the 5-Star Speedloaders are going to work fine in your 627 if you choose to use them instead of moonclips. The knob operates in opposite directions from the HKS loaders, but you will get used to it. And the pastel colors! Too Cool!
