This gun was found at Kansas City show this weekend. The gun appears to be unfired and is reported to be a KCPD gun .
Serial K939XXX.

Nice. Fairly rare.

Had given up going to the various KC shows, due to cost of gas, time and admission. Judging from that beauty I should reconsider - nice catch. I've got a long tube 14-3.

do you know who had it? i was there all weekend and didn't see it.maybe was sold before i got to where it was.

I love those 4" 14's...Very nice,
Wondering if you can post a pic of the top of the barrel rib as I would like to compare to see if its identicle to the 14-2 or if it has grooves?
I see the dash 3 has flat bottom grips compared to the PC's on the dash 2 are they serialed to the gun?

In answer to yesterdays questions the grips number to the gun. I communicated by email with the gentleman who compiled the info on the Missouri Highway Patrol guns and he feels the serial number is to high for a gun shipped directly to KCPD, only a letter will tell and I mailed for one today. The gun was brought into the show by a person attending the show and offered for sale to a table holder at the show.
Here is a photo of the top showing the grooves

Very nice !!!!!!!

There is just something so visually appealing about the four inch K frame guns with no ejector shroud like this or the M15 or M18. They have the most beautiful, perfectly proportioned lines.

What makes that gun not a Model 15, other than the stamping?

The barrel is not tapered like a 15 is it a straight heavy tube.

I figured the 14-3 would have a grooved barrel rib as the next generation 15 did,

BTW, when the 14-5 went to a full underlug barrel available in both 4" and 6" length
the 15-5 changed from a tapered barrel to the HB with no underlug and was available in 4" or 6" length as well, So the 14 did kinda become the 15 in the 5th generation models.

If you look at this 15-6 it looks the same as the 14-3 but has an unpinned barrel and L side trademark.


On a side note the tapered barrel Model 18 was dropped after the 18-4 and was replaced by a 4" version of the 17-5 and early 17-6 which have the exact same HB profile.
The later production 17-6 had the full underlug.

One other difference . . . on the 15-6 the sight ramp is forged as an integral part of the barrel . . . whereas the 14-3 the ramp and blade are pinned to the barrel rib. This leads me to believe the 14-3 was still a cut-down 6" K38 barrel whereas the 15-5 and -6 was made to be a 4" heavy barrel.

Here is a picture comparing the two with the 14-3 in the rear



Russ

Russ, If your 14-3 has a serial lower than 1K I have noticed the Model 19's up to the 1970 ish 19-3's all have pinned front site ramps as well which carried over from the 19-2 and older guns,
Apparently they stopped pinning the FS ramp near the 1K serial range as it is gone by 2K.
Also not sure if the newer method machined them from the same barrel stock or actually joined the ramp to the barrel after it was turned but before the grooving and finishing process.

I received the letter today and this 14-3 was shipped to KCPD

Whoa! nice find. Looks like it was never issued.

"Special barrel length variation"

Congratulations as that's one great catch