I’ve commented on others but neglected to take a picture of mine until today. Shipped April 5, 1928

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Very nice complete set. One I've never had.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Nice. The box was made by Stanley. I'm sure the tools were as well. Too bad the clips are broken.

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Don Mundell

I was at a friends home yesterday that has a large collection of Straight Lines.
He has 3 with a single digit serial number. It is an incredible collection.

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Don Mundell

Don, have any of the straightlines ever lettered as shipped to a well known person or shooter?

Serial # 3 went to Harold Wesson, S&W Treasurer, on June 24, 1925. I found the gun in a small gun store in Virginia a couple days before the S&WCA Symposium in Richmond several yrs. ago. It is now in the collection of the friend that Don mentioned. Serial # 4 went to Col. Roy D. Jones, of the USRA Assoc. Serial # 1 was in the S&W display in the Rotunda of the factory and is now in the Springfield Historical Museum. Ed.

Another box fact regarding Straightlines: Early boxes up to around serial number 25, or so, had small elastic loops to retain the tools. S&W soon learned that the elastic failed and became to loose to safely retain the tools. Later boxes had the spring clips, as seen on the poster's case, however they can fail if the tools are not correctly removed and replaced, also as seen in the poster's case. Ed.

Wow!! I would even trade this early sixties Mdl 29 w/Cokes for that one. What a beauty.

And that's the great thing about this hive. While brother J. R. WEEMS here says he'd trade this .44 Magnum for the Straight Line, there are others who wouldn't carry this monster home if you gave it to them----never mind "w/Cokes".

"God bless us all---every one!"

Ralph Tremaine

Yes
More than a dozen do.

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Don Mundell

No such luck on mine. Shipment was for one unit to Morley Brothers Co., Saginaw, MI and billed at the wholesale price of $21.40. It's too bad a couple of the spring clips are broken but I'm more than happy with the overall condition. I have shot it and found it to be accurate beyond my skill level.

My first Straight Line lettered as shipped to "G. Ward Hasner"--address unknown. Now this was way back when I knew just enough to be exceedingly dangerous, but I knew for sure G. Ward must have been a famous target shooter. I didn't know beans from apple butter about how to go about researching something like this, so it wasn't all that surprising that I never found out anything about G. Ward and his exploits at the range.

Time passed---then one day I was looking up something else----nothing to do with famous target shooters, and here's mention of Geller, Ward, & Hasner-----a St.Louis sporting goods distributor (even had their own line of shotguns) who eventually was snarfed up by Shapleigh Hardware. It was right about then I decided I was a victim of what I came to call "Shipping Clerk Shorthand"---an expedient discipline of record keeping; and if you ever need to know any particulars about anything, all you have to do is ask the shipping clerk.

Ralph Tremaine

You Think?? Well, I have heard there are shooters, then there are others.

The Straightline has an interesting history. It came about by S&W circulating questionairres among top target shooters of the day, asking what they wanted in a single shot pistol, as sales of the 3rd model sinsle shot were falling off although pistol shooting was still a top sport. From the replies various "one off" experiential or concept guns were built, such as a single shot American model with a slab side cylinder similar to the Colt "Camp Perry" target pistol. Two of those were made, one of which resided in my collection in the past. Another concept was a Model 1913 auto with a 9 in. barrel. The Straightline was constantly being revised during it's production life with various engineering changes. You can spend a lifetime studying this pistol! Ed.