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Funny, I just bought a 3" model 68 at a LGS. I had wanted a model 36/60 3" for awhile, but the price was always too much for me. The 68 looked in good shape, an old interarms import.
However, when I got it home I found it had some issues. The double action was stiff (no surprise) but also had some roughness right at start. I have learned it is probably from sear click so need to stone a bit off the double action sear. I detail stripped it I found some problems.
* The hammer seat on the rebound slide was chipped and worn to metal, and also worn at an angle (worn more to the right side than left side).
* The hand is canted a bit to the left and is god awful rough.
* The rebound slide is rusty where the spring is kept.
* The cylinder release could not be removed; I think that the spring is rusty and will not fully compress to allow the slide to be backed out of the channel.
* Finally, the hand tension spring broke upon disassembly of the trigger group (this has happened to me before on on old S&W model 63 and I still have an extra spring around here somewhere).
I think all this is fixable, except maybe the cylinder release, which I will keep well lubricated and should not affect function. However, I am assuming that I will need to replace the rebound slide with a S&W J frame slide and fit it. The hand has me concerned as I don't think I can reshape it due to the poor quality of steel. I found a used replacement that should work, although I am going to try to straighten the original first, so I don't have to try to fit a new hand.
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