The Model 27 was an example of what was going wrong with S&W for years - corporate bean counters. Once the finest .357 made, S&W dropped the pinned barrel, dropped the pinned front sight, dropped the counterbores for the case rims, dropped the quality of the bluing, dropped the internal polishing that gave it a nice action, and, I believe, even dropped the fine checkering on the top strap. The L-frames were introduced, stainless became more common, and sales of blue revolvers with NO special features went down - duh! By the time they dropped the revolver from their regular product line, it was only a shadow of its former self.