I'm just starting to read my copy of the Collector Grade book, "Serious Smith and Wessons, The N- and X-Frame Revolvers" by Timothy J. Mullin.

So far it's been excellent. I've just gotten through the section on the Triple Locks. The pictures are excellent, and the text highly informative.

Based on the quality of this book, I'll have to get the accompanying books on the S&W .357s and the K-Frames.

SW lockwork is on the left side of the frame after you remove the right sideplate by gently tapping the heel of the hand strap. It just pops off and all the lockwork is there installed on the left side inside to see. Take apart a Colt Revolver and your next wish is to die without suffering any further. I've take apart Colt D and Python and King Cobra frames and they are all nightmares to me so nightmaric I never take apart a Colt Revolver to this day. I never attempt it.

The X frame I had in .460 or something underneath the .50 but by this time give me a .30 Carbine M1 and forget the handgun for weight. I hate excess weight. In the N frame the 29 is my gun for sure. No underlug. No nonsense. Just plain recoil to manage in the right grips NOT RUBBER: Goncalo Alves Original from Brazil and no rosewood or cherry wood or balsa wood or rubber. I'll accept some walnuts. But the grip has to be wide instead of THIN like recent 29-10s with that thin ugly grip I always always replace with WIDE CHECKERED GONCALO ALVES from the 50s into the 80's.

These are my only respected grips for the SW N Frame or K Frame or L Frame:



8 3/8" N frame 629-1
6 1/2" N frame 29-10
4" N frame 29-10 Machine Engraved

The internal mechanism of N frames K frames L frames is the same as the X frame and SW had this since the 1920's with the first Magnum called the 27.

Triple locks and older SWs are collectors items and should be cherished.

29-10s are for shooting:





I'll use a rifle before the X frame but that is my owned opinion! SW will forgive me for selling my X frame knowing I am not so magnum bent to go that far in a handgun when the 29 is already able to kill a Kodiak Bear in Alaska or the Aleutions.

1. I buy my guns to shoot, and the targets don't fit my hand at all. All of my Smith revolvers have rubber Pachmayrs or Hogues, or Magnas.
2. All of my Smiths are pre-lock and that's not going to change.
3. I've got two 27-2s (3 1/25" and 6") and two 29-2s (4" and 6"). I've got a 6" 25-2. Those are my N-Frames.
4. I don't have any use for an X-Frame. There's nothing smaller than a Cadillac-Gage wheeled APC here that you couldn't hunt with a 6" 29-2, and I don't hunt here anyway.

I'm a big fan of N-Frame Smiths. Unfortunately, the combination of a MISERABLE employment economy and rising prices severely limit my current opportunities for more N-Frames.