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S&W Hand Ejectors: 1896 to 1961 All 5-Screw & Vintage 4-Screw SWING-OUT Cylinder REVOLVERS, and the 35 Autos and 32 Autos


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Old 04-20-2018, 09:44 PM
EarlB EarlB is offline
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Default S&W PreWar .44 3rd Model HE Wolf & Klars

I know enough about S&W revolvers to get myself in trouble. I don't have any prewar's yet though. A local fellow has these 2 3rd model .44 Hand Ejector "Wolf & Klar's". One blue, the other nickel - both 5 inch. I think from the pics that they are both probably refinished? Is refinishing common on the older prewar guns and how much does it effect values? What would the value of these guns be? I know that there were just under 5000 made so pretty uncommon. Which of the two would be more desirable?

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[img]https://s31.postimg.cc/3k5xdbo**/nickel7.jpg[/img]
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Old 04-20-2018, 10:16 PM
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I can't help with the value, but it appears to me that both have been refinished.
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Old 04-20-2018, 10:43 PM
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I think they are too JayCee. That is normally a deal killer for me, just don't know how hard it is to find one of these that isn't refinished and what the values of these are or if they are worth it. The blued is $1750, the nickel $1350. As I indicated I don't know much about these, probably should stick with the post war N frames I know more about.
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Old 04-20-2018, 10:56 PM
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Two decent shooter only examples.

Your right, both refinished and neither by the factory. The nickel gun will have more resale appeal but the underlying polish is not quite as good as the blue gun. But the blue gun is such a dull finish with blued hammer and trigger (a no-no) it screams "refinished".

Are either of the grips matching serial # to the guns on the backside of the right grip?

Is there a B or N in front of the barrel # or on the rear face of the cylinder on either one?

Does your seller recognize the detriment of nullified collector value due to the non-original finishes? If not, I'm afraid he's likely asking too much. Did he quote prices?

These are hard to price and depend a lot on the value as shooters in the eye of the potential buyer. The 5" barrels are a plus. I'm in the $5-800 ball park depending on if the original finish was the same as currently.
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Old 04-20-2018, 11:15 PM
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Both are refinished.
The blue gun quite likely has original grips. At least they are correct for a round top.
The nickel has what I think are grips from the very recent "classic" line. Whatever they are, they cannot be correct.
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Old 04-20-2018, 11:16 PM
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I'm kind of with you Hondo. No, the owner has the SCSW book, sees the prices listed there and so is asking what he's asking. I will just keep looking.
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Old 04-20-2018, 11:18 PM
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Also-
The 5" barrel is the most common on 3rd Models.
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Old 04-20-2018, 11:21 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hondo44 View Post
.... Is there a B or N in front of the barrel # or on the rear face of the cylinder on either one?
The nickeled one has an 'N' on the right side of the grip frame - as do both of my original (non-refinished) nickeled 1926's.

The stocks shown with the nickeled gun look curious to me. The medallions are set deeper into the wood than what we see on stocks from that period, and the screw has more threads than we see on factory stock screws. The stocks don't look to be 1930's vintage to me.

As for value, there was a re-nickeled 3rd Model with a four inch barrel that sold for right at $1400 a couple months ago - and it didn't look as good as the 5" gun pictured here. But, it was a four incher, and they do tend to bring more money.

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Old 04-20-2018, 11:37 PM
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Thanks Mark. I had him take the grips off because I was hoping if they were refinished at least it was a factory job but as we can see neither were. I would maybe feel comfortable paying $800 for the nickel one but that's too far off of what he's asking to offer so think I'll pass.
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Old 04-21-2018, 12:39 AM
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He may have them awhile if overpriced, and decide to come down in the future.
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Old 04-21-2018, 08:41 AM
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In my non-expert opinion the prices he's asking are somewhere between the sun, the moon and the stars. Like, over the rainbow. I'd say $600-$800 for refinished shooter grade 1926s. The W&K guns are not that hard to find.
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Old 04-21-2018, 05:44 PM
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I’ve picked up three in the last couple months and I thought I had the market figured out (not so much after all). I just grabbed a non-factory nickel refinish with a bit of overbuffering here and there out of the classifieds for $725 that I thought was an excellent deal considering what I’ve seen 38/44’s and 2nd model 44’s go for.

I also grabbed a factory refinished PPD 1926 for more than twice the price of the nickel one. That one now seems way too expensive except it wasn’t shipped to W&K and it’s a blued gun where most were nickel. If you look on GB you’ll see that badly re-nickeled 4” that went for $1400 and ones that won’t sell for over $2k.

They ain’t making them anymore, they aren’t all that common and everyone wants a prewar 44.
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Old 04-21-2018, 10:11 PM
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He ended up selling them both today. I don't know what for, I know he reduced his prices though. I ended up going freakin nuts at the gun show today so they didn't go to me.
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Old 04-21-2018, 10:31 PM
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Are these not the two that have been listed in the for sale section here ?
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Old 04-21-2018, 10:39 PM
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I don't know, it's possible but if so I hadn't seen them. They were on a local board here in the D/FW area.
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Old 04-22-2018, 10:50 AM
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They are the same . He was down in the $900's on the nickle one when I checked early Saturday morning . I went back and checked when I saw this post and he had deleted all the content of his post and it was marked locked . Would have loved to have bought one of them but my play cash is usually at 0 level this time of year .

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Old 04-22-2018, 10:56 AM
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I would have probably gotten the nickel one then. We were in contact yesterday but I was at a show and there were revolvers everywhere and I spent all my mad money. Earl
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