Gentlemen:

This little revolver was found in the garage of an elderly collector in town who had gone on to his final reward. He had a remarkable and extensive collection which appears to have been amassed in the 1950s to 1970s time frame. All of it was found in his garage. A good pal, who knows I am a Smith nut, let me know that the estate was going to put it up for sale.



It came in its original, serial numbered box. The box had a paper label on the end, much faded, but no S&W logo of any sort on the top.



Only wrapping paper and the revolver were in the box. As this is an adjustable sighted gun, I am wondering if it should have had a sight adjustment tool with it? As far as an instruction sheet, none was present and there was no cleaning rod either. Perhaps it should have had a "Helpful Hints" brochure and nothing more.



The serial number puts it, I think, around 1956 or so on a ship date. Does anyone have a better estimate than that? The right stock bears the same serial number. It is all matching and appears to have been fired very little.



Although I don't consider myself a Kit Gun collector, I have always admired them and fully understand the appeal they hold to the Kit Gun collectors among us. I feel lucky that my pal thought of me when this neat little revolver became available.

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Charlie Flick
SWCA 729 HF 215

Now that is a thing of beauty. Way to go, congratulations!!

My only question is, where is the rest of that "remarkable and extensive" collection? Surely you didn't stop with just this treasure?

Jeff
SWCA #1457

Well you sure found yourself a screamer!

You have the vintage close, likely early 2nd quarter of 1956. It's still a 4 screw but just late enough to have the bright blue finish.

Yes it should have a SAT with knurled alum handle, cleaning tools, and Helpful Hints; no instruction sheet w/parts list yet, at that time.

Enjoy!

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Charlie is that one of the blue boxes with the red metal corners? I can't understand why anyone would be interested in a .22 built on a .32 frame?????

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James Redfield
LM #497

Nice catch Charlie. Let me know if you tire of it.

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Charlie

You are a funny guy, James!

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Jack
SWCA #2475, SWHF #318

That very configuration is at the top of my wish list. You're a lucky man.

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Living a dream - S&WCA #2364

Hi Jeff:

You are correctomundo. No, I did not stop. How could I resist? I ended up picking up a small pile of guns from this collection.

Here are a couple examples in the bunch which I had posted on a few months ago:

Woodwork Yields Commercial Model 1917 .45 ACP

Woodwork Yields Another - .44 H.E. M1950 Military

The old man certainly had a good eye for great guns. I have a few more that I have not taken pics of yet. When I get them taken I'll post 'em up here.

Thanks again for all the nice comments.

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Charlie Flick
SWCA 729 HF 215

That one just sort of melts your heart...like a puppy. I'm envious...just want to take it home and snuggle. Congrats.

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Randy
Provenance nerd

If you don't know why any one would be interested in one, you haven't handled one. Just fondle one for a few minutes, then shoot one for a while and you wonder why you didn't already have one.

I have resisted one (I have a 34 & 63 4") because of the price always attached. If I could ever find one without an $800+ price tag I would probably grab it.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

H. Richard, not sure if you are referring to my comment but as JP@AK surmised, I WAS kidding. If you click on the photo that I posted you will see my collection of .22/32 HFT's that are .22's on a .32 frame.

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James Redfield
LM #497

Really nice find. Makes me wonder what else your neighbor had.

Walt

Nice find, Charlie!! The older gent must have had a climate controlled garage!! That little beauty is sure in pristine condition. What a charming little treasure. Thanks for sharing with us.

Best Regards, Les

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SWCA 3084, SWHF 495, PGCA 3064

The problem for me with this story is that I used to always look for that little old man with a collection of pristine boxed S&W's that I could go through and pick out a few gems.

Unfortunately, I'm starting to come to the realization that I'm becoming that little old man.......

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James Redfield
LM #497

Charlie, while not as pristine as yours, I too wound up with a Kit Gun (a Prewar 4") and a 1917 from an estate sale. I posted about them last year: Estate sale Smiths - 1917, .22/32 Kit Gun

I also acquired a .32 Bicycle Gun from the same source: .32 S&W Bicycle Gun

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Tom,

Those are nice examples of each.

It's nice to acquire Smiths from good collections.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Charlie that gun is in excellent condition for having spent some 63 years in Florida garage humidity

It sure is. The only reason it and the others came out with their finishes intact is because the old guy had thickly coated the guns with heavy grease, maybe RIG, or something similar. Some without boxes were just wrapped in old socks or newspapers but greased.

There were about 225 guns in this collection. A few long guns but mostly handguns. Lots of Colts (Woodsmans, .45 autos, 1 or 2 SAAs, some .22 and .38 Officers Models), early Rugers and a very few foreign guns. There was one Registered Magnum (sold before I saw it), and at least 5 Triple Locks in there, which I passed on as being too far outside of my area of interest (although I confess that my area of interest was broadened considerably once I saw what was in there.) There were also some nice guns that would have been duplicates for me which I also passed on. Truly, there was no junk in this bunch.

This experience was like opening a treasure chest, waiting to see what popped up next. I passed on many, many more than I picked. Even so, my gun budget was shot to hell and gone with these buys, so I ended up selling a few of my existing guns to partially recharge the budget. I realized that opportunities like this one come along only rarely, so I picked carefully but quickly because of the time pressures involved. I could go to a hundred gun shows and not see half of what was in this estate collection.

I just got lucky, in large part because my pal, who knew this collection was getting ready to be disposed of, let me know about it. I wasn't the first collector to see this stuff, but I was able to see it pretty early in the process. I like to think that the old man would be happy to know that these pieces ended up with someone who genuinely appreciates them.

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Charlie Flick
SWCA 729 HF 215

An update on this 2018 thread. I finally got around to getting a letter from the S&WHF. It revealed that this Kit Gun shipped on January 20, 1956 to W. A. Abel Co., Inc. of Syracuse, NY. It was 1 of 2 identical guns in the shipment. They were sold by S&W at the grand price of $40.26 each.

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Charlie Flick
SWCA 729 HF 215

Just let 'ole Dale know if you ever want to part with that very early S&W Commercial M1917 so you can add more Victory and other K-frame models to the collection.

I too have had to sell a few "lesser" items in a hurry to cover the purchase of suddenly found hard to obtain items. I probably could part with a handful of other items in a hurry if need be...……..but when you get rid of all of the lesser quality items it hurts a lot more to part with anything else!

On a sidenote I just won a third Colt Civilian Model of 1917. (Not so relatively cheap.)

And then, rather unexpectedly and relatively inexpensively, won a 4-digit Army butt number all-correct Colt M1917 with matching s/n grips and correct early style cylinder that requires moonclips to fire due to not having headspacing shoulders in the chambers.

The really good items tend to come out around Christmas time...…….which always seems to hurt more than any other time of the year money wise!

While I didn't already have an early Colt M1917 with original style cylinder, did I really NEED a third Colt Civilian Model of 1917? (Especially at Christmas time?) Well they only made about a thousand of the Colt Civilian models...………..

Sorry for saying the C-word.

Dale

Thanks for posting your .22, I have a similar gun and wasn't ever 100% sure what I had. My serial number is about 750 different than yours. Here are a few pics.

That's another sweetheart!

And it's now the new earliest # sq butt in my database! Sq butts were uncommon in the early years of the Models of 1953.

It's also on the cusp of the elimination of the 4th screw (upper side plate). Does yours have a 4 or 3 screw side plate (one screw is under the top of the grip)?

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Appears to be 3 screw...

These little beauties are priceless in my mind. Great find, congrats!

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Pass it on.
Mark

Those square butt 2 inch Kit Guns are pretty neat looking. I don't collect Kit Guns, but it would be hard to walk away from examples as nice as those shown here.

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Charlie Flick
SWCA 729 HF 215

Jim do you have any observations on why Brians kit gun has the firing pin retaining cross pin polished flush ?
The others posted (as weel as my own) of that era have two proud pins.

Good eye, most never even notice.

I do. I've studied it and here are the results of my observations:

.22/32 Kit Gun and Target Firing pin changes

I could not find this info anywhere so have studied the .22/32 models. The one pin or two pins coincide with two styles of firing pins, round and rectangular respectively at the breech face. With the rectangular style there can be two proud pins, or front pin proud and rear pin flush from the factory.

ROUND FIRING PIN with one retaining pin:
The front single pin retains the firing pin bushing in the recoil shield and the firing pin is a round style including a fully round front striking tip. Used on the Pre war 22/32 Heavy Frame Target, ('30s vintage 22/32 Heavy Target ), 22/32 Kit Guns, and post war transitional Target and Kit Guns. This configuration returned later c. #70000, Oct. 1960 with the J frame introduction; Models 34-1 and 35-1.

RECTANGULAR FRONT TIP, FLATTENED TOP REAR FIRING PIN with two retaining pins:
The Model of 1953 New I frame is the first post war model change for the 22/32 models and introduced a new rectangular shaped firing pin tip with two proud retaining pins at first, front for bushing and rear for firing pin.

This rectangular front striking tip style firing pin can be seen with hammer cocked by looking in the hammer channel from the rear at the top of the firing pin. This rear 2nd pin crosses over the flattened rear top of, and retains the firing pin.

The rectangular firing pin with proud front pin and flush rear pin was used beginning c. #21000 (1956) thru c. # 29000, at which time the two proud pins returned. I have observed that the 'bright' blue finish began on the .22/32 in its serial # range in the early to mid 21,000s (1956) and seems to coincide with the flat polishing of the rear retaining pin.

RETURN OF THE ROUND FIRING PIN:
The Pre-1953 round tipped firing pin w/one front retaining pin, was reintroduced c. #70000 Oct. 1960 with the 22/32 J frame introduction of the Models 34-1 and 35-1.

The rectangular/rear flattened top firing pin was subsequently dropped in an engineering change that re-used the fully round firing pin of the pre war guns and the post war transitional guns with one pin (proud) on the sides of the frame. I have not been able to pinpoint when the change was made and of course like every other S&W change it was a transitional event. However, I have a sense that the return to one single pin (proud) with fully round firing pin coincides approximately with the change from the I frame Mod 34 to the J frame Mod 34 identified with a "-1" in Oct 1960, c. #70000. I have not observed any J frame 22/32 kit guns with two pins, proud or otherwise.

BEWARE OF REFINISHED GUNS one proud & one flush pin or both flush:
Refinished Mod 1953 22/32s originally having two proud pins will often be encountered with the forward pin proud and the smaller rear pin or both pins polished flush. However, the 2nd pin flush can be an original factory variation and will be observed on a non-refinished gun as stated above.

NOT DOCUMENTED ANYWHERE:
This round/rectangular firing pin and 1 pin/2 pin issue will not be found anywhere in the Jink's or SCSW books.

I hope this helps and as usual I am always open to further evidence in the unending pursuit of complete knowledge of S&W firearms.

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Jim
S&WCA #819