As a follow up to these posts, I will add that when Russ and I did the article for the Journal on the Missouri State Highway Patrol 5 inch Combat Masterpiece revolvers, we came across factory letters for ISP 5 inch K38s which speculate that up to 5,000 of the 5 inch variation were made.

There are two points to make concerning the ISP and the MSHP 5 inch revolvers.

First, they are different. The ISP is a true straight wall barrel K38. The MSHP is a tapered barrel Combat Masterpiece, and the boxes were so marked.

The second point is that we have reason to believe that the estimate that 5,000 of the 5 inch revolvers were made is a GROSS over estimate.

Apart from the 5 inch MSHP revolvers and an EXTREMELY small number of overruns (less than a dozen), we could find no additional 5 inch Combat Masterpiece revolvers. It should be noted that Roy Jinks gets great credit for looking into this. He spent his entire Thanksgiving weekend that year scouring factory records looking for more 5 inch Combat Masterpiece revolvers. If there were ever any more of them, they are few and EXCEEDINGLY far between, and they have evaded discovery despite a very thorough examination of factory records.

We are certain that there are far more of the ISP version (5 inch K38) than of the MSHP version. This is, in part, because of Herbie Harris over at Chicago, who ordered the 5 inch K38s for customer sales. One was sent to Elmer Keith, who reviewed it in his column in the March 1960 Guns Magazine, along with the Chiefs Special with the Micrometer Click adjustable sight also being sold as a special at H. H. Harris.

There is likely another reason that the 5 inch K38 outnumbers the MSHP version of the 5 inch CM.

Russ and I came to a working hypothesis that the MSHP version, which was made in 1952, was made up on leftover original K38 barrels with the tapered contour. You will recall that the K38 was originally made with both the tapered version, and then the heavy or straight wall barrel, which ultimately survived in the line whereas when it was introduced, sales of the tapered version dwindled. Since the ISP guns came along 5 years later, it made sense that 5 inch K models would be made using the 6 inch straight wall barrel, shortened, as opposed to the 6 inch tapered barrel, shortened as was most likely the case for the MSHP revolvers.

Russ, feel free to step in here, but I think that explains a few additional points about these excellent 5 inch K frame models. These are models which I believe balance best and should have stayed in the line.

Shawn