The Tucson Gunshow this weekend brought a few Old Timers to Town. Yes Ed that includes you. opoefc was in town and brought a couple Early unusual guns for me to see.

1st is this prototype Single shot 22 Rim fire

Amazing






2nd was this 44 Special Double action probably one of the very 1st 44 specials S&W made




He wanted every one to be sure to see the serial # on the Butt.



He also want to show me his BBQ Gun that he uses as a stash gun



actually it was pretty easy to conceal



Dan M

Nice single shot. Its hard to find a single shot for sale around where I live. Couldn't imagine finding a prototype like that. Nice gun, Larry.

Did the .44 Special Double Action letter as having been sent to him?

Thanks for sharing the pics of some of Ed's treasures.

Are you quite sure that's a .44 Special, not a .44 Russian?

If so, that may explain why S&W loaded the two to the same velocity, although the Special uses a longer case. Maybe they wanted to chamber it in their topbreak guns.

But those were on the way out, and the .44 Russian already gave those ballistics...

Are you SURE that's a .44 Special?! I see the barrel marking, but...

How many were made?

T-Star

Dan likes to see something different ,other than cases full of Registered Magnums on my tables, so I dragged out a couple of real question marks for his perusal. When the 3rd model single shots ended production, Harold Wesson sent out a survey to top shooters asking what they would like to see produced as the 4th model single shot. Some replies wanted a heavier gun, like the American model, but in a single shot version. I know of two of these guns, including the one pictured here from my collection. What I don't know yet, is if they are S&W prototpes or gunsmith specials. They are well made masterpieces of gunsmithing work. Perhaps some futire researcher may find memos in the S&W archives regarding them. As we know, the Straightline was the selected design for the 4th model Single shots. -- The.44DA in calber .44S&W special, with no serial number, is another mystery gun. Personally, I think it's a gun made up from parts by the factory to consider the possibility of producing the gun in more calibers than 44 Russian. Collectors know that another .44DA was made in caliber 45 Frankford (.45 S&W Special) to interest the military and that S&W tried to get the Army to accept the .44S&W`Special as the new miltary caliber for the 1906 Army trials, however the Army insisted on .45 as the caliber for the trials. -- The miniatures are a couple of the few S&W miniatures I've ever seen - acquired several years ago from a lifetime collection of miniatures put up for auction. They are functional guns, however ammo didn't come with them. Caliber is about .005 mm. A well known caliber for defense from rouge fleas. Dan is going to try shooting them as soon as he can find some dies & loading tools to make up some rounds.

opoefc,I missed the show. Maybe next time. On the American singleshot, did it materialize at the 1976 Las Vegas Antique Arms Show? I spoke to Roy Jinks about one for sale and his comment at the time was that it was a gunsmith special as S&W wouldn't modify an existing revolver as a prototype. The "prototype" sold and I always wondered where it went. Mike

Mike, We missed you at the show. I got the SS American out of an ebay post several years ago from a collector in El Paso, TX. I think the one at Las Vegas was the other known example. Roy is incorrect about the factory not modifying an existing gun. There are many known examples of same in various collections, not including the many guns that were altered by S&W to meet a special order, such as a shorter barrel, frame butt reshape, sight changes, nickel plating blue guns to meet a distributors request, caliber changes, etc. That's not to say my gun is a facory alteratio. I haven't been able to verify that as yet, as I don't get to the CVHM that often to search the archives.