A local offered to sell me a 5 screw ,44sw ,61/2 bbl SN is S 145061 Blue Patridge front Just want to know if the SN is correct for a 44 special no box no documentation about 70% I have 800 cash on the table plus all Calif. Fees, Good or Bad deal my friends Thanks for any input Hoss

My 1950 .44 Spl. 6.5" Target S14745X lettered to December, 1955.

__________________
Only difference Fool/Mule-ears

Yes it's correct for that gun. #S144228 near yours shipped July 1956.

And $800 is a good price for it if it's 70% of the original finish, not a re-finish.

__________________
Jim
S&WCA #819

Buy it. You won't see another one in Kali. Good price for Kali.

Welcome to the Forum.

Yes, as stated, if the finish is original, that's a good price. And BTW, the term is Patridge, who was an early shooter, not a bird.

__________________
John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

That would be a Fourth Model 44 Target or a 1950 target 44 Special as you prefer. Yes, Patridge not partridge. That price would be a steal. Usually around 2K these days.

__________________
No life story has happy end.

Thank You , My 1st Handgun was a M-27 8 3/8 with a Patridge front sight. 37 years never have I heard the Shooter vs Bird re that sight. The depth of knowledge on this Forum is stunning. Thank You All I'm going all in to get this because this will never happen again. Hoss

Well I did buy that .44Spc. cost me a Grand. I am thrilled to add it to my Big Old Smith Collection I need to figure out how to post pixs, I got some decent shots . Also the Grips are stamped with S/N on one panel the Grips are so small, following the frame. I am use to the oversize type but these are original so they stay. Do these get shot or have they moved to Safe Queen Status ?

Unless you're running a museum, go shoot it.

Bravo! Good buy.

Safe Queen status is a matter of personal preference. To me, they get shot, fondled and even taken to the nightstand by some!

__________________
Jim
S&WCA #819

If it has already been shot and has visible wear, shooting it some more with reasonable ammunition will not affect it at all. Most wear on guns is inflicted by holster use (some people store their guns in their holsters) and bad storage conditions where they rust or get dinged up by other hard items stored with it.

Congrats on your find. There were only 5,050 of them (.44 Special 1950 Targets) made, from 1950 to 1966.

Great find, lets see some pics of it as soon as you can

I have 14 great pictures in my photo folder but as a Cyber Doofus unable to get them moved here.

My New .44 Target looks just like the one in photos, except the Grips yours are really nice and balance the gun beautifully. Mine are nice with the diamond and checkering , were yours a upgrade option ? What are the proper terms to describe my frame size grip compared to your larger type?

If your grips are the same size as the steel grip frame of your gun, they are called "Magnas." Up until about 1968, Magnas had a diamond-shaped area of un-checkering around the screw hole on each stock half, so yours would be called "diamond Magnas." The grips on the gun pictured above are an optional, larger stock called a "Target" stock, and these also had a diamond of uncheckered area around the screw holes, thus "diamond Targets."

Your .44 Special is built on the N frame and has a square butt, so you would want to look for a pair of N frame, checkered Target stocks. These generally didn't need to be fitted to an individual frame like early Magnas did and generally won't have a serial number on them from the gun they may have come from, and they were also a popular item to buy from S&W for customers who wanted to "upgrade" a gun they already have.

Like your gun itself, S&W no longer sells the exact same stocks as they did in the 1950-66 era, the current Target stocks don't look much like what the old ones did. The older stocks are available from individuals and you can find them here in our Marketplace section or the usual sites like fleabay.

There is also an industry making aftermarket grips of all kinds, from individuals to fairly good-sized companies like Hogue.