New 649 retails for $751. Don't know how much lower than that they may sell for. I'd have to shoot it to be sure DA trigger hadn't been lightened up too much w/Wolf springs to ensure positive ignition of primer. Have a 40 year old M38 Bodyguard and many years ago I tried to lighten up DA pull by clipping few coils off hammer spring. After a number of failures to fire, had to go back to stock spring. If you have a friend who knows revolvers, u may want to let him check it out for cylinder timing,etc and ideally u put enough rds thru it using DA trigger pull to make sure it fires everytime. If u haven't shot much, use 38Sp rds. U won't like 357 rds in it at first.....if ever.

I've shot my dad's .357 a few times, both with a 5" and 2" (+plus change) barrel. He only had standard pressure .38's, which felt like .22's in both barrels. The .357 wasn't too bad. I think with a bit of practice it won't be too bad.

I do plan on putting a lot of rounds through it. It will be my carry piece, so i will want to check for reliability. Is it hard to change the spring back to stock if needed?

unless S&W has changed something from way mine is, not hard at all.