By: Joe Gorman
Smith and Wesson’s 627 Performance Center V-Comp
In a world where most shooters consider the wheel gun to be a relic from a different age and useless in anything but a hunting role, a few of us still know better. A revolver in the right hands can be an accurate and reliable hunting, sporting, and self-defense gun. If that wheel gun has a red dot optic mounted to it, it becomes a wheel-fun-gun!
At the leading edge of revolver technology, we find Smith and Wesson’s Performance Center 627 V-Comp. (It’s been the leading edge for more than 25 years in several variants!) This 8-shot .357 magnum leaves the factory with a cylinder that’s machined to accept moon clips, a Performance Center tuned action, a removable compensator, drilled and tapped for an optic rail, a spring-loaded ball bearing crane lock and a coated stainless-steel N-frame.
With Hogue exotic wood monogrips and three full moon clips, the 627 V-Comp is ready to be carried (compensator replaced with muzzle protector)
This revolver is built for competition and it’s ready to compete out of the box. I did want to add an optic to the 627 V-Comp and looked to the innovative LPA Sight/mount for securing a red dot. The LPA sight combines a RMR rail base (1 slot) with a fully adjustable and rugged rear sight. This sight/base will fit any Smith that is factory drilled for a mount and the sight features micro adjustments for elevation and windage. I installed the FPA red front sight as well. Both the rear and the front sights are fitted with light pipes for maximum visibility and man, are they bright! The green of the rear sight contrasts nicely with the bright red of the front sight. Before installing an RMR, I took the time to sight in the irons. In any daytime shooting, these sights were easy to align and even my old eyes could shoot tight groups with them. The LPA sights are ruggedly built, solidly affixed to the 627 V-COMP and beautifully designed. Even in the days of crazy reliable red dots, knowing you have calibrated iron sights, should your optics fail, is a reassuring thought.
LPA’s sight base is a crazy-rugged base that has extremely bright light pipes and contrasts nicely with their red front sight.
I chose a Vortex Defender micro red dot for the optics to run on this project. The Defender’s low profile and absolute reliability, even when mounted to a Mossberg 940 12-gauge shotgun, carries a lot of weight when deciding on what optic to mount to a handgun that might fire thousands of rounds between hunting seasons. The shake-awake feature on the Vortex Defender is also welcome on a revolver that may need to go from holster to lining up on a trophy buck in a short time. Once dialed in at 15 yards, I noted that with the Hornady 158gr XTP ammunition, I was a couple inches high at 65 yards. Still within the minute of deer requirement though. The adjustable dot intensity was able to handle all the lighting conditions I encountered. Just so you know, the lowest two settings on the Defender are night-vision compatible. The 3-moa dot proved to be just the right size for quick shooting with the capability to line up for a precision shot at distance.
The LPA sights are super bright in daylight and provide a solid foundation for a red dot.
Before shooting the 627 V-Comp, moon clips were unfamiliar to me. I’d seen them but never had a revolver set up to run them. Holy cow are they cool. Once loaded with ammunition, inserting a moon clip into a revolver chamber quickly is a breeze. It’s way faster than using a traditional speed loader. Where have these things been all my life and why has no one told me about them?! Honestly, with a little practice, an average shooter can unload and reload a moon clip as fast as an average shooter can reload a Glock 17! My wimpy fingers were hurting from loading and particularly unloading the moon clips though. Fortunately, TK Custom came to the rescue. TK Custom manufactures moon clip loading and unloading tools that proved to be a very efficient means to load and unload moon clips. TK Custom also makes a couple flavors of moon clips for the 627 V-Comp tool. I tended to prefer the older style solid clips, just because, I’m a caveman.
TK Custom makes moon clips, a clip loading tool and a clip unloading tool. TK Custom products are first rate quality and a necessity for shooting moon clips!
Sitting down to load up a bunch of moon clips with the TK Custom loading tool was easy. Place an empty moon clip on the loading tool mandrel and place a fresh cartridge on top of the moon clip, under the cut away section of the loading tool lever arm and press down on the lever. Once in a rhythm, loading goes quickly. My wife was watching me do this and wanted to try. She loaded up 5 moon clips with Hornady .357 magnum XTP ammunition in no time. As I mentioned, once in a moon clip, loading the 627 V-Comp was smooth. Open the cylinder, point the muzzle straight down, line up the ammo with the chamber and drop the moon clip. Unloading the revolver is equally as smooth and easy. Open the cylinder, orient the revolver vertically, muzzle up, and press the ejector rod. Finding your spent brass is very easy as it’s still help by the moon clip. Tactical reloads are fast and easy. When you want to strip the spent brass from the moon clip, the TK Custom unloading tool works great. Place the hollow center of the unloading tool over the spent brass, hold the mouth of the tool against the surface of the moon clip and rotate the tool. The spent brass comes out without bleeding or cursing, which was not the case before I started using the tool.
TK Custom’s moon clip unloading tool. You will love this if you shoot moon clips.
Even Miko wanted to load moon clips with the TK Customs gear! It turns a chore into fun.
Shooting the 627 V-Comp was a treat. The silky-smooth action and the super visible LPA sights on the superb sight base with the mounted Vortex red dot allowed me to shoot groups tighter than I can ordinarily shoot with my trusty Model 27 (FBI Commemorative 1984) and irons in all light conditions.
15 yards with the Vortex Defender mounted and a moon clip full of Hornady 158gr XTP equals a small group.
Author’s reloads worked well fired double action from 12 yards (Left). Cast loads shot to a different POI but were still accurate (Right)
Smith’s Performance Center clearly knows how to tune a revolver. The 627 V-Comp performed flawlessly. Loading and unloading of the moon clips with Hornady 158gr XTP and the 130gr Handgun Hunter ammunition was so fast and easy it felt like cheating. Adding the LPA sight base and Vortex’s Defender micro dot take the capability of the 627 V-Comp to the next level. Zeroing the 627 V-Comp for Hornady’s excellent 158 grain XTP ammo at 10 yards allowed me turn in world class groups even out to 65 yards. Despite my old eyes, nailing the IDPA A zone steel targets at 50 yards was remarkably easy. If I shot cast reloads (158gr hard cast with 6.5 grains of Unique) my POI was low at 10 yards but still crazy accurate. This is revolver you could purchase, mount an LPA sight base, mount a Vortex Defender, load up a ton of ammo in TK Custom moon clip via a TK Custom loading tool and compete nationally in target or combat shooting events.
This revolver could compete with any handgun.
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