Parker, you can get a decent quality Pre-27 (five-screw .357 Magnum from the 1950-55 era) with a six-inch barrel for about $500-600. Other barrel lengths are more sought after and will cost more, but consider that an entry level price.

Your .38/44 is worth more than that. The serial number on the rear face of the cylinder puts manufacture in 1938, so it's a late prewar gun. Those are postwar stocks on it, but I have paid over $600 for prewar HDs with the wrong stocks in lesser condition than that one. I haven't closely followed HD prices in recent months, but there should be willing buyers for that one in the $750-800 range. It looks to be in 90-95% condition. That doesn't look like a refinish to me, so that holds its value up.

That gun is one of the last to have the small company logo on the left side of the gun. Later in 1938 the logo got larger and moved to the sideplate.

Since I'm writing from California, where we are surrounded by an economic reality distortion field, I may be somewhat off on the valuation. But others here should speak up.

I join all the others in encouraging you to leave that gun alone. Converting it to .357 will lessen its collector value. The original Depression era .38-44 loads were almost the equal of .357 Magnum loads. You could make the argument that the .357 Magnum exists because people were trying to achieve that level of power by shooting .38/44 rounds in smaller frame guns, destroying them with the extra pressures. The .357's longer case solved the chambering problem, and gave S&W a new model to sell as well.

That is a wonderful collectible specimen of a classic prewar S&W revolver. If you can, keep it. Its value will only go up. If you want a .357, buy a good used one from the 1950s.

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David Wilson