I'm sorry to hear of your dad passing. I lost my step dad last fall as well.

I would exercise caution with finding ammo for it. Much like some have mentioned, check with an old-timer or long term S&W guy. I believe with the ammo not only do you want to avoid +P ammo but also 124gr bullets. From what I had been told, you want to be using 158gr cowboy loads. Modern 124gr are pushing more pressure and can cause you barrel to fail. I was shooting weak 124gr loads and cracked a forcing cone on my early 50s K-frame. No squib load or double charge. The only thing was that they were 124gr and I was told that they were the cause because of that.