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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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  #101  
Old 07-26-2007, 09:31 AM
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"When I enlisted in the Marines, I swapped Wallace Cox a nice Luger for a Colt .45 auto, it occurring to me for the first time in my life that it might become necessary for me to shoot a human being with a handgun. I don't recall the reason now, but when I boarded the troopship to go overseas, i was wearing a pair of S&W Military and Police .38 Specials instead of the .45. I was also armed with an issue Browning Automatic Rifle(BAR).

One day at sea, the young lieutenant of my thrown-together platoon summoned me,informed me he knew of the nonissue revolvers, and ordered me to dispose of them. I sold them to a sailor.

They let me keep the BAR."

Skeeter Skelton, April 1976

Exception proves the rule?

RHIP.

Good shooting.
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  #102  
Old 07-26-2007, 10:00 AM
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Canīt forget the image of William Shatner intoning "Rank Hath It's Privileges" on Star Trek when I see RHIP, but yes, perhaps that's right. Most if not all of the people mentioned in prior posts that were carrying unofficial sidearms were officers.
People with more working knowledge of the U.S.M.C. will have to comment here because I am certainly not qualified to do so.
Cheers!
Cal
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  #103  
Old 07-26-2007, 10:23 AM
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Glad to be corrected on the 1917 mis-identification. All manner of troops inhabited Guadalcanal 1942-1946, so it's anyone's guess what the origin of this copy might be.

My father, a WWII vet who retired from the USMC as a Lt. Col., served on the MLR in Korea in 1952-53. He told me in a recent conversation that his company possessed all manner of non-issued arms in their forward positions, ranging from sawed off shotguns, to big bore handguns and jerry-rigged incendiaries. These they routinely wrapped and buried during front-line inspections--so there must have been some restrictions on their use. I'll ask him next time I talk to him. Just for the fun of it, Dad's on the right in this photo--made on the MLR some time in the fall of '52, I believe:

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  #104  
Old 07-26-2007, 10:34 AM
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Yes, ask him what the policy was during his time in service. I would be most interesting to know what he says.
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  #105  
Old 07-26-2007, 08:37 PM
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I hate to see a good topic die too soon so here's a picture of the 1948 US Olympic team that shot in London. (BTW, photo credit goes to P.C. Roettinger.)
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  #106  
Old 07-26-2007, 09:05 PM
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Yep, that's Phil standing back there. Except for the fact that he isn't wearing his Marine Corps soft cover, he didn't change much as he got older.
Sooner or later I will dig up that original email I sent off when I first got the M27. It's just right now is my Super Busy Season, so I can't take much time to go dig it up. It also appears that most of the people I originally sent it out to no longer have it.
But I will dig as soon as I get the chance.
Thanks for the photo!
Cheers!
Cal
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  #107  
Old 07-30-2007, 02:26 PM
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Quote:
Originally posted by Clyde from Carolina:
This has been a great thread.

At least one other Marine carried a personally owned Registered Magnum into combat in the Pacific that I know of...

Walter Walsh was a competitive shooter and FBI agent before the war as well as being a reserve officer in the Marine Corps. His most famous arrest was probably Doc Barker, the son of the notorious "Ma" Barker. Walsh won the Dupont Trophy in 1939 for the best overall aggregate score at the National Matches at Camp Perry, which I believe involved High Power rifle, centerfire pistol, and small bore rifle.

Colonel Walsh was interviewed by Skeeter Skelton, and I have the interview in Skeeter's book "Good Friends, Good Guns, Good Whiskey". Walsh said he resigned from the FBI to go into the Marines full time during the war. He took two pistols overseas, a custom Colt M1911 .45 automatic he had been presented for winning a shooting tournament, and his Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum from his FBI days. He said he only had one box of ammo for the .357 so he didn't shoot it much.

On Okinawa Walsh used his shooting skills and the .45 to kill a Japanese sniper at 90 yards, a heckuva shot in anybody's book! He was interviewed for the American Rifleman's 2003 article on the National Match 1903 Springfield. Colonel Walsh was still going strong at that time at the age of 95. He remembered the NM '03 as a fine rifle, and obviously he knew how to shoot one.

I'm posting a link to an article by John Taffin for GUNS magazine where he discusses Colonel Walsh and several other old time shooters and gun "characters." I wonder how many other pre-war .357 Magnums were carried into combat during the war?

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...9/ai_103381607
Is this the same Walsh in the center of the pic above?
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  #108  
Old 07-30-2007, 02:33 PM
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Yes, it is. Karl T. Frederick is right behind him. He was captain of the team, a well-known S&W shooter and later president of the NRA. The notable 1911 gunsmith Bob Chow is on the far right.

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Kevin
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  #109  
Old 07-30-2007, 08:15 PM
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All this is just amazing to me. I knew Phil, in fact, I think I knew him well. According to his ex-wife and his daughter, they never KNEW of anyone he talked to as much as he talked to me. As I have stated earlier, I used to actually THINK to myself at night "what am I going to ask Phil about tomorrow?"
Yet all this neat, neat stuff keeps suddenly coming up about his past that I knew nothing about. Phil didn't "toot his own horn" too much, and probably didn't think I'd find a lot of this stuff interesting because I wasn't specifically asking about it. Who knows? Too late to ask now.

Take a lesson here; if you know someone who might have done something neat or interesting that you would be fascinated to know about, go ask them now while they are still alive. It's easier to get the answers that way. (And I had thought I WAS doing pretty good at asking questions when Phil was still alive!)

I still have not dug up my original email I sent off in the excitement of getting the M27. I have dug around a bit, gone through all the backup disks in the store with no result. I keep hoping one of my old friends that I originally sent the email to will send it BACK to me, but as time passes I fear it may no longer exist on current hard-drives.

I've got one more good "Phil story" to add, about his being wounded on Bouganville, which I will type up when I can get some more time. It's still quite hectic at work, with everything going wrong that can go wrong and everything breaking down that can break down -- typical when things are really busy.

Here is a potentially stupid question, but in general opinion, do you all think it would be worth the while to send off for a factory letter on this gun? I mean, does anyone believe it will tell us much we don't already know, or not? I'd be willing to do it -- I mean, what is it, thirty bucks? -- if the general opinion was that it would tell us something more than we already know and would be useful. (As simply something to have to further the provenence of the gun, I don't worry about that too much. I KNOW where I got it and whom I got it from, I don't need to prove it to myself.) I'd like to know what you all have to say on this question.
Thanks!
Cal
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  #110  
Old 07-31-2007, 07:40 AM
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I'm far from the authority on S&W collecting, but it would seem to me that when an object is known to be historically significant - and this one is, due to ownership, use, production order, etc. - you can't have too much provenance. Maybe a "Phil Scrapbook" to go with the revolver. A Jinks letter would be a logical addition, while they are still available.
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  #111  
Old 07-31-2007, 08:02 AM
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Quote:
Originally posted by calmex: ...do you all think it would be worth the while to send off for a factory letter on this gun? Thanks! Cal
Yes, absolutely!!
A letter will give positive, original documentation of this gun and form a basis for the history that follows. Every piece of documentation you gather will only enhance the value of this pistol.
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  #112  
Old 07-31-2007, 08:53 AM
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Alright then, here's another potentially dumb question; how do I go about writing and sending off this factory letter? I realize I could probably go "look this up" somewhere, but there are undoubtedly people here who know all this off the tops of their heads.
I asssume I write to Roy Jinks? Address Smith & Wesson? Or is there a particular address? Enclosing a 30.00 dollar bank cheque would be cool? (There are no Postal Money Orders here in Mexico, I don't have a U.S. Bank checking account, etc., etc. . Paying for stuff from down here can be a real hassle. Mexico really is -- still -- it's own little backward World.) I suppose I send the Serial Number and model of the revolver of course but is there anything else I need to include in the letter?
This probably sounds like real stupidity on my part to ask such dumb questions -- especially to serious collectors who probably do this as a matter of course -- but remember I didn't even entertain the notion until last night.
I guess I will go ahead and do this because it seems to be a good idea. Please fill me in on any particulars I should know so I do it right the first time.
Thanks
Cal
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  #113  
Old 07-31-2007, 09:01 AM
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Smith & Wesson History Letter

If I were you I'd include as many quality photos in the letter to Mr. Jinks as I could.
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  #114  
Old 07-31-2007, 09:30 AM
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Cal, as John suggested, photos of the gun are very helpful but I'd also include a brief narrative of the gun's history. Roy is very interested in these things (and he's in the process of writing a new book on them) so he may very well be able to fill in a lot of blanks or you may be able to do the same for him. You might even want to include some of the pertinent comments and data from this forum thread.

Bob
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  #115  
Old 07-31-2007, 09:44 AM
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As I don't have a camera, Roy might have to actually go into this forum to see pictures of the gun. I was never much into photography but now am starting to see -- by reading this forum -- that a good camera might be a plus if for nothing else than to take pictures of my modest little collection and try to make the rest of you lot jealous. I doubt, however, that anything I have -- other than perhaps Phil's gun -- would raise many eyebrows.
I will write Roy in the next few weeks. Kids go back to school here on the 20th so I get my life back more or less at that time. I'll be broker financially, of course, but I'll get some TIME.
Anyway, I would appreciate someone filling me in on WHERE to write, and then I suppose I'll start putting a letter together to send off.
Cheers!
Cal
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Old 07-31-2007, 10:00 AM
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Cal,
Click on the "Smith & Wessson History Letter" link at the top of John's last post. That will open a form to fill out with the data on the gun and the address to mail it to.

As far as having Roy read this forum, he has said that he rarely visits here so I'm pretty sure that he won't see this post. You might capture and print some of the more informative pages and include them in your mail to him.

It normally takes up to three months for us to get a response from Roy because of his work load so the sooner you get it off, the quicker you will hear back.

Bob
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Old 07-31-2007, 10:48 AM
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Ah! Excellent! Thanks very much! I'll get on this!
Cheers!
Cal
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  #118  
Old 08-06-2007, 05:48 PM
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I brought this over from the thread on Aircrew sidearms from W.W.II, simply because it concerns Phil Maher who I talked about somewhat during this thread and thought the information contained therein should be posted here as well. That's probably considered cheating, but Moondawg thought it was worthwhile reading so that encourages me.

_____________________________________________

My late friend Col. Phil Maher flew P-51's off of Saipan and Iwo Jima. He was issued a 1911 .45 of Colt manufacture made in 1912 or 1913. We still have the gun, but I don't have it personally and the person who does is out of town so I can't call him up to check the serial number. It is still in excellent shape.
Maher told me once that he stopped carrying the pistol with him after the first few missions. I asked him "Why?" and he replied that he had come to the conclusion that if he didn't make it back in his airplane, then he would have been floating in the ocean.
I remember him saying, "Some guys got rescued, and some guys we never heard from again. I suppose I could take being in the water for a while, but I had nightmares that the only person I would ever shoot with that pistol would be ME because I had lost hope. I stopped carrying the pistol when I flew after that and carried an extra canteen full of water with me instead."
Maher did shoot a Japanese Sapper on Iwo Jima while helping guard the airplanes, but he used an M-97 Trench gun for that shot. As far as I know, he never shot anything with his .45 other than targets and metal plates.

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  #119  
Old 02-28-2008, 07:02 AM
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Good info near the edge of deletion.
Ed
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  #120  
Old 10-17-2008, 06:54 PM
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Great thread! A wealth of facinating information.
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  #121  
Old 10-18-2008, 10:51 PM
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Nice pic... I didn't realize Joe Benner was on the 48 team...

Joe died a few years ago after retiring from the Army as a Sgt. Major.

FWIW

Chuck


Quote:
Originally posted by kwill1911:
I hate to see a good topic die too soon so here's a picture of the 1948 US Olympic team that shot in London. (BTW, photo credit goes to P.C. Roettinger.)
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  #122  
Old 04-10-2009, 06:06 PM
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Geez, it took me a while to find this old post, but I actually took the gun out the other day and shot it. Our little club here has started up shooting the PPC and is really enjoying it. Bullets are scarce, and powder and primers are like hen's teeth.

Military and Police patrols are just all over the damned place. Results of their "drug war", you know. It was probably silly of me to risk taking it out of the house under these circumstances, but I was going with some people who work directly with the State Governor and I figured I'd be pretty safe.

Anyway, the old gun groups nicely with our Lee Wadcutters tumble-lubed wadcutters and 3 grains of bullseye. Alas I have no photos of our little juant, but I WILL take the gun out again the next time a "safe" opportunity presents itself and get some shots of it in action.

It's mostly a "safe-queen" right now due to the situation here abouts, but the gun got shot just the other day and I thought it worth mentioning. She's back in the safe now, quite safe!

Incidently, that front sight is one of the old King Gunsite Company sights with the little mirror in it. I knew nothing about this sight and the other day sitting on the throne and reading an American Handgunner Magazine I was presented with an article about those sights and I thought "by Golly, that's the sight that's mounted on Phil's gun!" And so it is. I had never noticed the mirror because it was so full of crud down there in the little hole but a Q-tip fixed that problem quick.

Incidently, central Mexico where I live is quite safe at the moment and has been all through-out the current nastiness. It's strange, you know, you hear about **** happening all around you, but here in town things have stayed just like always.

UPDATED IMAGE: A more modern photo of the range in San Miguel de Allende. The gun-club secretary fires from one of the PPC ranges at some of the NRA-style B-18 targets in use by the San Miguel/Queretaro competition group. She is using a longslide 1911 in "380 Cal", essentially a 9mm +P load firing a 140 grain Saeco #383 cast bullet at about 1,100 fps.

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  #123  
Old 04-10-2009, 06:12 PM
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Glad to hear all is well. You are right, I wanted to see Phil's gun.
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  #124  
Old 04-10-2009, 06:38 PM
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Well, you won't have to wait much longer. I'm getting a damned digital camera soon. Cel-phone cameras are not up to snuff, at least around here. I was ready to buy one last fall and then the economy went South.

There was a long downtime -- from September to end of December when it was just awful. I was broke, we made no money, there was no tourism. Then, in January, it started to slowly pick up. Right now (Easter Friday) we are having just a rocking day here in the store!

"I get my camera, I take some shots, and I make you happy pbslinger, I promise you. Just give me a little more time." (Add a Mexican accent to the quoted part to get the full flavor of what I said. I'm not Mexican, but everyone around me is, so I can't help but immitate.)
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  #125  
Old 04-10-2009, 06:49 PM
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Calmex, thanks for bringing this topic alive once again.
This is probably my favorite thread of all time in the S&W Forum.
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Old 04-10-2009, 06:52 PM
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Great to hear from you Calmex. I've wondered how you were and if you were still around.

Seems like with all the smuggling going on across the River there should be some way to get Phil's gun back into McAllen where you could enjoy it at your leisure. If the US media is to be believed, we don't seem to have any trouble sending arms south, ought to be some of those Coyotes who could ship to del Norte.

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Old 04-10-2009, 06:55 PM
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I saw you the other day in the car thread. Good to see you.
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Old 04-10-2009, 07:00 PM
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CalMex,

We'll wait patiently.

I believe the phrase you meant to use was "Maņana".
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Old 04-10-2009, 07:03 PM
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Hey, Calmex! Good to "see" you again, as it were, and know that you are well. When you get your digital camera, you oughta learn to take good close-ups -- my "secret" is take several hundered photos to get a coupla good ones! -- and then combine with the stories you have in this thread, the background of the gun, and publish an article on it.

It is a wonderful story, and a magnificent gun!
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Old 04-15-2009, 11:45 AM
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Wow! My friend Lubbock Louie sent me a link to this thread, which I had previously overlooked, and have I ever enjoyed it! My Uncle Van fought at Bouganville and elsewhere in the Pacific, and was wounded at Bouganville. We lost Uncle Van a couple of years ago, and having read this, I deeply regret not having spent more time talking to him about his service during WW II.

Calmex and everyone else, thank you so very much for all the wonderful information about Real Men and their guns.
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Old 05-07-2009, 05:07 PM
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Old 05-07-2009, 06:46 PM
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My wife, who is Mexican (we got married a year ago, plus one month) and I were watching Magnum Force the other night. Taking a break from me slobbering over Jolene Blalock in Enterprise, you see.

Anyway, we didn't start with Dirty Harry, because she said she saw that one years ago, but had never seen the others. Cruel upbringing.

Early on into the film, she asked me "why don't you have a gun like that?" I told her that in Canada, I had owned a 6 1/2 inch 29-2 from 1977 until I moved down here in 1990/91. I wish I still had it, but they are VERBOTTEN here.

"Well how big are those guns?" she asked. I told her that I happened to have one that was the same basic frame size, although a little shorter in barrel length and smaller in caliber. I went and got Phil's Magnum out of the safe and although she had seen it before -- she's even shot it -- I feel she came away with a greater appreciation of it because of the movie.

I'll say this; Eastwood makes N-frame fans out of people that otherwise might never have considered the idea.

A friend of mine who visited last fall from Canada sent me this photo the other day as well. On "the Day of the Dead" here in Mexico (02 of November) Mexicans put little shrines in their homes commemorating their loved ones who have "passed away". Here in the store, my employees made one up and this friend of mine who was visiting snapped a pic of it. My mother (whom the girls knew) is in the photo, as well as my friend Jim Tufts* who died in 2007 in a car accident. In fact, a piece of Jim's destroyed King Ranch truck appears in the altar. As well, a photo that hangs on my wall of Phil -- it was given to my by his ex-wife Holly after Phil died -- in an "Official Marine Corps Photo" taken 1947 in Quantico, Va. . Phil standing with his 1911 mentioned once or twice in this preceeding thread.

This photo should probably go in here too.


*The photo of Jim Tufts was one I took early in 2007, only months before his death, of him walking along the "Avenue of the Dead" at the Teotihuacan Pyramid site just outside of Mexico City.

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Old 05-07-2009, 08:13 PM
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This thread just has something about it.



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Old 05-07-2009, 08:51 PM
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The picture of the 48 team is great, The guy on the far right is Bob Chow he later had a gun shop in San Francisco where he did gunsmith work and his wife worked the counters and was well known for his 1911's a couple of years before he retired he did a trigger job on my model 17. A really great gentelman.

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Old 05-09-2009, 01:34 AM
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Having only joined this forum recently, I never saw this thread before today. I just spent the last hour and a half pouring over it.

I have to say that the gun and the history contained here is absolutely mind blowing.

This is truly one of the neatest threads I've ever read on any forum.

Cal, you were truly blessed with the Colonel's friendship and again when his wonderful firearm was bestowed to you.

You are one lucky man!
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Old 05-09-2009, 02:08 PM
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by calmex:
Early on into the film, she asked me "why don't you have a gun like that?" I told her that in Canada, I had owned a 6 1/2 inch 29-2 from 1977 until I moved down here in 1990/91. I wish I still had it, but they are VERBOTTEN here.

"Well how big are those guns?" she asked. I

I'll say this; Eastwood makes N-frame fans out of people that otherwise might never have considered the idea.
QUOTE]

One interesting little tidbit about Dirty Harry's Mod 29: In researching the movie I read that he actually used a Mod 57 in the 1st or some of the movies due to logistics of getting a 29!!
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  #137  
Old 05-10-2009, 11:00 AM
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I remember reading that in a Movie Magazine back in the 1970's, just after the film came out. On the other hand, I've also heard that debunked in various other articles, some of them posted on this forum.

I have around here one of the newer versions of the film Dirty Harry, as well as the newer release of Magnum Force which we were watching the other night. Now, on the Magnum Force version, there's actually a "voice over by John Milius" option that I employed the other day when I had nothing to do. Now, I like John Milius because of his politics, and from stuff I've seen him do on the History Channel.

Anyway, there was a wealth of info in the voice over, and at one point he talks about the .44 and the fact that they ended up with a 6.5 inch .44 whereas they had been looking for a 4 inch -- and it didn't matter because Clint was a big enough guy to pull off the 6.5 inch without it looking ridiculous.

I'll have to find some time to try to "check out" the Dirty Harry DVD and see if Milius has a voice-over on it. Maybe he'll say something there that sheds some light on this ongoing "what gun did they really use?" debate. Please understand that the Mexican Government -- in what I personally feel is a drastic over-reaction to reality (although many people beg to differ with me on that) -- has basically closed down a lot of the country for the past couple weeks because of the "swine flu" scare. We weren't forced to close, and it's been just incredibly busy for us. The weather has been super-hot, the kids are out of schools that were closed by Government Order, and a lot of Government Employees have been off work -- for the last two weeks. As I run a high-end Ice Cream Parlor it's been just a fantastic "artificial holiday season" for us. I'm sure someone will accuse me of profiting on misery, but that isn't exactly the case.

Next week things are supposed to get back to some sort of normality (and there is nobody around HERE dying of swine flu that I know of), and maybe I'll get a chance to check out that DVD. I'll post if there's anything new about the Model 29 debate contained therein.

I have a friend in Queretaro who has an old Hand Ejector and he's a photo-nut. I told him the NEXT TIME I think it's safe to smuggle my gun over there to shoot, we'll get together and take some photos of his and mine (and some extras of mine) to be able to show in this thread.
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  #138  
Old 05-10-2009, 02:33 PM
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Hi Cal, good to hear that business is good. More photos of your RM is somthing I look forward to!
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Old 05-10-2009, 03:50 PM
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Thanks, Onomea.

One of the things I intend to do with my nice unexpected winfall the last two weeks is to finally send off that Factory Letter request. JayCeeNC was kind enough to post a link for me, so I have the form.

Please help me here; what should I put on the form for the Model # or S&W Name? I would like to get this right.

I will send the photos I have -- posted here already on the forum -- and the link to this thread, with the letter request. I would hope to be able to post the reply from S&W and some additional photos together. I realize that the letter may take time, but Mexico is an unstable place (albeit getting better from what I think was an absolute LOW last fall) and I will NOT risk losing Phil's gun in a silly roadblock for no good reason. The next time chance presents itself to take the gun out, I'll have it photographed at the same time. Hopefully, I'll have the factory letter by then and can post everything at once. That may cause some excitement. The idea certainly intrigues me.
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Old 05-10-2009, 07:10 PM
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Calmex

This is one of the coolest threads I have yet to see anywhere.

As I love historical significant things I would be happy to pay for the letter on that gun if you'd send me a copy. email me an address and I'll send you a check
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Old 05-11-2009, 07:40 AM
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Quote:
Originally posted by 29aholic:
Calmex

This is one of the coolest threads I have yet to see anywhere.

As I love historical significant things I would be happy to pay for the letter on that gun if you'd send me a copy. email me an address and I'll send you a check
Sir, you are too kind. However, Karma sort of dictates I should pay for the letter myself. I made a bit of a killing over the last two weeks when almost EVERYONE else was forced to close over panic and Governmental stupidity. To take your money would be unethical.

However; I will send you a copy of the letter when I get it. The offer alone is worth that to me. So, thank-you very much for you most kind offer. I will decline, but not without appreciation.

Now; how do I indicate the Model number or S&W Name? I don't think "Pre-27" is correct and it's not a RM. Is it something like NT-430 or something? I am not an expert on this, but I would believe this forum has people who are. Please help me out with this because I want the information I send off to be accurate to the best of my ability.

And thanks again, 29aholic. I will send you a copy of the letter (my stamp) when I get it. I'll get you to let me know when I've got the letter in hand where to send it. Cheers!
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Old 05-11-2009, 08:24 AM
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Cal

I would describe the gun to Roy as

357 magnum Hand Ejector SN XXXXXX,

No registration number

Blued finish, barrel length, sight type, and current stocks, and obviously the name of the person you got it from. Some good pics will help as well.
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Old 05-11-2009, 09:17 AM
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Also ad the inscription on the side plate
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Old 05-11-2009, 09:55 AM
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Thanks, I shall do it that way.

I will include hard copies of all the photos shown in this thread (which are all I have) of the gun. I will post when I send the letter off. Give me a week or so, I need to get a U.S. Dollar cheque to send and that takes about a day in my non-U.S. bank.

Anyway, I'll probably actually send the letter up to the States WITH someone. Mex Post can be, well...unreliable.
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Old 05-11-2009, 10:23 AM
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Cal
I have been so caught up on this thread I failed to mention the RM in my possesion that probably saw service in WWII.

Here's a link to the thread.
http://smith-wessonforum.com/e...?r=63410416#63410416

I have also failed to mention that my grandfather (on Mom's side) Harold Freeman was in the Army in the Pacific and his first engagement was Okinawa. Even though he was supposed to be a mechanic, he was given a rifle and sent to the front. He later served in the occupational forces in Japan. About the only thing he would ever tell me about the war was how much he liked the BAR
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Old 05-11-2009, 12:47 PM
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Quote:
Originally posted by 29aholic:
Cal
I have been so caught up on this thread I failed to mention the RM in my possesion that probably saw service in WWII.

Here's a link to the thread.
http://smith-wessonforum.com/e...?r=63410416#63410416

I have also failed to mention that my grandfather (on Mom's side) Harold Freeman was in the Army in the Pacific and his first engagement was Okinawa. Even though he was supposed to be a mechanic, he was given a rifle and sent to the front. He later served in the occupational forces in Japan. About the only thing he would ever tell me about the war was how much he liked the BAR
Wow. Nice one. Looks to be in somewhat better shape than mine. Holster wear and climate on Guadalcanal and Bouganville probably left mine the worse for wear that it is...but I still cherish it. And it's actually in pretty darned good shape considering the use it had.
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Old 05-11-2009, 01:18 PM
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Quote:
Originally posted by 29aholic:
...

As I love historical significant things I would be happy to pay for the letter on that gun if you'd send me a copy. email me an address and I'll send you a check
The level of helpful kindness on this site repeatedly astounds me. What an awesome gesture.

This really is one of the greatest forums on the internet!
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Old 05-11-2009, 01:36 PM
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To tell the truth, RM's really dont do it for me but historically significant guns do...especially one like yours. I would a whole lot rather own your gun than one like mine brand new in the box.

Its funny what you mentioned in one of your posts about people wanting to retire down there. I remember an ad in a magazine years ago how you could retire to a nice place in Mexico complete with maid and gardner for $150 a month...I always thought of that.

I had a buddy who moved to Mexico with his 5th wife who did the exact opposite from your advice and got on the wrong side of the government...not to mention his wife (who divorced him) had some pull...he came real close to becoming a permanent guest of the country.
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Old 05-11-2009, 05:24 PM
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I imagine if you spoke decent Spanish you could retire here with a maid and gardiner for about 1,500.00 dollars a month. I know several retirees who live on around that, and they seem to be okay.
Mexico has changed a lot in the 19 years I've been here. I think -- for the most part -- for the better.
Unfortunately, the gun laws still suck. I've got my "historically significant gun" because I was in the right place at the right time. Phil didn't have a lot of people he could talk to -- or wanted to talk to -- and then I innocently popped onto the scene. Right place, right time.
Now that he's gone -- and Maher as well, I don't have a lot of people to talk to...but it IS getting better. The gunclub I belong to now in Queretaro is not only a nice place even by Canadian/U.S. Standards, but there are some younger shooters (younger than me) who are developing keen interests in guns and shooting; and the Internet helps make up for any "Gun Magazine Bans" the Mexican Army/Government might be so proud of.

Phil's gun is without doubt the most historically significant gun I've owned in which I could identify it's past and knew how it had been employed. Back in Canada, I had quite a little collection and some of the guns (M.G.-34, Thompsons, Stens) PROBABLY had seen some action; but one didn't know. One bought them because one was allowed to and was happy to have them for the short time one had them before they were VERBOTTEN again.

I was sure glad that Phil's gun landed in my lap and not the lap of some Mexican lawyer. I'll tell you that.
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Old 05-11-2009, 07:49 PM
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Cal
I'd be proud an honored to talk to you. I made the mistake of missing out on what a friend like this could have told me.
My friend Lee Vandenberg had been there and done it. US geological survey, original UDT (forerunner to the Navy Seals), border patrol with Askins and Jordan, undercover ATF. I had always intended to write a book about him, but never got around to it. We lost touch a few years back, but I often thought about calling him but didnt want to make the mistake of asking his wife if he was home only to find out he'd died.
Two years ago his wife tracked me down to tell me he died...I will put that loss of communication and a friend on the top of my regret list.
I wont do that again.

So I say to you my new friend though email isnt quite the same as in person...mine is always open to you no matter the subject. If you just want to rant that is fine.
I've had the pleasure of knowing a lot of colorful people over the years, and I am passionate about history and that which goes with firearms especially.
Perhaps one day I may have the priveledge of making a trip to your part of the world and seeing Phil's gun in person.
Best regards
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