I got this one off GB a few weeks ago. Its a shooter and affordable on my meger retirement. The barrel is 5" and it has the longstroke hammer (I think). Patent dates on the top of the barrel are clear although it has been refinished, the half moon front sight was my first clue that this was a transition model followed by the serial number, S 681XX. I may be wrong about it being transition! Bore and cylinders are bright and shinny. The Sambar Stag grips were a find at the Louisiville Show last weekend. Seems I can never find a 38-44 with origional grips.

Messed up on the transfer of the photo. Hope this fixes it!

Congrats on a very nice revolver. I had a 5" transition model once and foolishly sold it.

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otis

Actually, the long action hammer and the patent date roll mark are the real signs of a transition gun. All HD's had the half-moon front sights.

Nice find. The stag grips just look 'right' on older fixed sighted wheelguns.

Mark

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S&W Forum Member #721

Congratulations on your acquisition. That looks very nice.

Transitional HDs make my heart beat a little faster. Hope you don't mind if I borrow your thread to show a picture of the only one I have at the moment:

S66842, shipped July 18, 1946



Only four holes because that's how much ammo I had left. This was my last target of the day, and it turned out to be my best one.

HDs are great guns. Just absolutely perfect.

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David Wilson

Please allow me to put forth a couple of reasons as I see them. The transition guns often had overlength frames. The correct transition grips have been in short supply for a long time now. Quite a few of the guns saw service work. That translates into them getting a little beat up.

Then along comes the low price N frame magnums. Because of the similar pricing, everyone wants the boomer. Its just been the last few years that the HD has become popular. Probably more popular than when they were in production. But everyone wanted the grips with the high sharp shoulder. The guns weren't selling for much, but the art of harvesting wood was booming.

So what seems to have occurred is when grips were wanted by others, or beat up, they were replaced by someone. To get grips that fit the long frame, the owners went aftermarket.

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Dick Burg

DC that is a nice HD and the grips are in good shape to boot. Out of the 4 HDs I have, only 1 has the origional grips. I belive rburg is right on about the grips being used up in service and swapped out as needed. Several grip guys have told me that for awhile everybody wanted fancy aftermarket grips and the "good stuff" ended up in a box beside the gunsmith's bench. One old smith was reported to have burned a box of that wood on a cold day!!!!! I hope its only a story.

Nice HD and I just picked up S68104, so yours must be close to mine. Dick is right in that it is hard to find transition guns with the original grips,. It is a transition as it has a long action with pre war style hammer and trigger, and large ejector knob and barrel with the address and patent info on top of the barrel, and a single line address on the right side of the frame. I would agree with your assessment that it has been refinished as the hammer and trigger look blued in the picture. Nice one too Dave!
Bill

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