Of course it's been refinished but despite how it looks in the pics, the markings are all fairly sharp. All numbers match except the stocks, serial puts it to 1913 I believe. Bore is about a 8 on scale of 10, strong rifling with some minor freckles. It may not be a collector's dream come true but I'm happy cause I'm the only feller I know with ANY kind of 4" TL

Beautiful grain on the stocks. I have to say, that Tebow isn't to offensive. If it were mine I'd be tempted to take the hammer and trigger off and have them case colored.

600 is a steal for such a great shooter.

That is an awesome deal! The refinish looks very well done other than the Hammer and Trigger being Blued.I agree with Sixgun about having them case hardened.Do you want to double your money?

Thanks for the offer, but I plan on hanging on to this at least until I find a 4" 3rd Model. I've been looking for one of those for several years so I don't expect this one to go anywhere soon. As far as re-case coloring goes, I already have a plan for that. If I'm not mistaken, the third lock should be case hardened too.

The barrel has the patent date roll markings on the right side, which is how the
4" K-frames were marked from about 1903 to about 1916. I would presume that
the barrel is original to the gun, except for the handiwork to the front sight blade.
I think the gun would be worth lettering. With that barrel length, it may well have
been a special order.

Mike Priwer

What a beauty. Those grips are out of the park. If you re-case pls. show an after pic. I have found that case hardening is an art form like buffing and bluing. Good hunting, Mike 2796

Widetrack, that is so cool. You have a small piece of Smith and Wesson history, that is nice enough to show off, but no so perfect you would be afraid to shoot it from time to time.

Great buy!

Very nice find. Let us know how it does at the range, complete with pictures of the target! Depending on how much work you want to do with this one, rebuilding the original front sight is also an option. I have seen some very nice restoration work done where a small dovetail was machined lengthwise into the base of the front sight and a replacement half-moon insert was installed. Hardly noticeable if done by a good tool & die maker/machinist.

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Gary
SWCA 2515

Widetrack,

That's a fabulous find alright. Like Gary said above, since it's been refinished anyway, I'd consider restoring the original front sight blade. But I'd mill it off and mill a mortise and pin in a new factory shaped blade. This is the factory prewar method for front blade replacements.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

You should be very happy. I'm sure jealous.

While we're talking about restoring case colored parts, I have a question for the experts. What finish should be on the bolt lock (I think that is correct terminology, if not, the rectangular jingabob at the end of ejector shroud)? Thanks for all the kind remarks, Jeff

I think you are referring ejector rod knob. Most of the large ones I see have a unblued ring at the bevel in front of the knob, but your rod has the smaller head to fit into the shroud. I have seen them in the white on the front end but also blued, so not sure which is right . . . maybe both are correct. Most everythnig on a S&W HE is blued or plated except for the trigger and hammer.

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Gary
SWCA 2515

I think you mean the front lock bolt which is the end of a double bolt (front & middle) or fork. The rectangular shaped end that sticks out front is like the end of a wishbone. It and the middle lock cam plate that sticks thru the frame at the yoke should be color case hardened. Because they are such small parts, they never retain many colors and are usually just grey.

If you polish the blue off the parts, they will look....well...polished. For an immediate expedient, touch a little Naval Jelly to the blued parts that should be CCH. It will take the blue right off and leave a grey identical to the grey in between the colors of CCH. Take the hammer and trigger parts out of the gun though! If the Naval Jelly touches the frame the bluing is instantly gone.

A shade tree method to resemble case colors on hammer and trigger is to oil them after using the NJ, then take cold blue on a Q-Tip and touch it here and there and you'll get spots of blue in different shades and a swirl affect. After all, the parts are still hardened, you just want the coloring.

Just some ideas if you want to try them since it's refinished anyway. Re-color casing them will not be cheap.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Yeah you clearly overpaid.

Since I'm just down I35 from you near Fort Worth, I'll take it off your hands for $600:-)

You'd be hard pressed to find any decent N-frame for $600 these days, much less a TL.

That gun would be wearing at least a $1000 price tag at any Cowtown LGS.

Nice, nice, nice!!!

Nice, Nice, Nice!!!