“June 29, 1933: Order to make 250 .38 H.E. 2” barrels for round butt blue revolvers per H. Wesson”

..............................from “Smith & Wesson 1857-1945”
.................................by Robert J. Neal & Roy G. Jinks


So what happened after this order was written. Well, frankly, beats me… but I can say that after owning some for decades and close to a decade and a half of in depth study of this model, in this variation, and documenting...

Sometimes, even when you look at guns a lot, there are things that you don’t see. I had determined that between S68327 and S68348, the 38/44 Heavy Duty went to a straight ejector rod, rolling the top of the barrel with patent dates and address information was stopped and Smith & Wesson began stamping the frame with a four line address. Looking at 4 inch Transition Heavy Duties from S68348 to S75604 this assumption is correct (4 inch guns did not have the patent dates and address information...

Within the last couple of years, a new variation of 38/44 Heavy Duty has come to light. I received an email in October 2009 from one of our members, telling me he had what appeared to be a Heavy Duty with an unusual barrel. He attached pictures and the gun had no ejector rod shroud and yet the barrel was serial numbered to the gun.

I didn’t think a Model 10 barrel could be fitted to an N-Frame gun, but I’m not a gunsmith....

4” NICKEL PRE WAR HEAVY DUTY
By Bill Patteson
One of the most elusive variations of pre-war Heavy Duties is the 4 inch Nickel variation. I am not in possession of how many 4 inch Heavy Duties were made with a Nickel finish, but based on some rough calculations I would put the estimated number of 4 inch Nickel Pre-War Heavy Duties manufactured at 12. We do know that the factory manufactured 100 ea 4 inch Heavy Duty barrels and that nickel Heavy Duties made up about 12% of all Heavy...

The S.D. Myres Co. made holsters & other leather goods up into the 1980's;
a former employee is still using the S.D. Myres name today. A little known offshoot was the Dale Myres Co.
Dale,known as Ted, was Tio Sam's first born son. Although his younger brother Bill ran the S.D. Myres saddlery with their cousin Dace, Ted received a minority interest in the saddlery after Tio Sam died in 1953.
He worked there for a short while in a minor position;in 1956 he struck out on his...