So I was at Hunters trading post some months ago and I noticed a 5 inch 625 in the case. By the look of it, it was used a lot and used hard. Lots of dings. The rear sight was damaged and grips were cracked. I notice that the side plate did not fit properly, I was told that the original owner had engraved his social security number in the original side plate so they ordered a new one to replace it. The gun functioned fine but the plate was thicker than the original and was not flush with the frame. Even though the condition was poor the lockup was good. Since you can't have to many 625's, I made an offer and took it home. I had been looking at it trying to decide what to do with it. Since I already had two 5 inch and a 4 inch 625's I decided to make it into a 3.125 inch. I removed and cut the barrel. I chose 3.125 because I wanted to use the factory detent and any shorter would have been a problem. A front sight base was made and installed. The muzzle end was machined and an 11 degree crown was put on. Since the rear sight was damaged and I was not going to pay $150 for a replacement , I mounted a new round style rear sight that I had. Now that the barrel was done I set out to blend the side plate to the frame. This took the most time but came out good. Everything was bead blasted and new grips installed.