I picked this up from a friend of mine who picked it up from a retired police officer. It is a .38 special caliber. It has a six inch barrel. The frame and yoke have ID number 73444 their is a letter J stamped on frame at the yoke closure. No model number. The serial number of the gun is K231948. Something I hae never seen before is the serial number stamped on a flat spot on the bottom of the barrel. It is a five screw gun. It came with the scope and mount and the grips the way they are. I removed the scope and mount to check things out and have never seen the top of a Smith built like this. Do you think Smith built thi as a custom gun for a mount? What model do you think it i? And please ball park me as what you think it's worth? I might throw it up on the sale block. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

1955 serial number

You have a K-38 Masterpiece . . . a fine target grade revolver.

What you see on the top strap is standard factory milling for an adjustable rear target sight . . . which was removed to mount the scope base. If you want to return it to original you'll need to find a complete rear sight assembly . . . like this:




It appears to have been put together by a serious target shooter. I would try it first with the scope and see how it shoots before deciding to sell it.

Russ

1. I'm not an expert.
2. Don't believe what I say.

Until a more experience member chimes in here's my guess.

My best guess is a K-38 Masterpiece, i.e. a pre-model 14, missing the rear sight. The Serial # might date it to roughly 1955, the last year for the fifth upper sideplate screw in K-38's.

Value? I'm guesstimating $350 - $400?????
Since I'm really not too sure on value let me consult Dr. Evil.
Dr. Evil: "One Million dollars."

If you don't want to keep them, the scope & stocks have some value by themselves. The gun, with a restored rear sight and correct stocks would easily be worth 450.00 - 550.00. That's a fun gun to shoot, and very accurate. Hang on to it for a while, and shoot a few boxes of cheap ammo through it. You can always sell it for a good price.

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Why, I aughta.....

Very interesting. This K-38 Masterpiece Heavy Barrel, dating from about 1955, had the rear sight removed and a scope mount installed without drilling and tapping any new holes in the top strap. This is indeed fortunate. It would appear to me that it can be restored to its original configuration without any significant degradation. Very cool!
I wonder who made those stocks? They remind me a little bit of Steve Herrett's early work, but I don't think I've ever seen any quite like that.

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Jack
SWCA #2475, SWHF #318

mtmag
Correct stocks for that gun would look like these:

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Jack
SWCA #2475, SWHF #318

Those stocks look like "Fitz" brand to me.

At least one K-38 with a very close SN is known to have shipped in mid-1956, although this one was made in 1955. It should not be too difficult to find a replacement rear sight. As noted, the scope and mount do have some value. As it stands now, the $450-$550 value seems proper.

Check on ebay. There is a seller with at least 6 rear sight assemblies for sale. Count your serrations and try to match.

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Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629