It turns out the San Francisco 58 was the most difficult to find gun I've ever chased. I still can't believe I finally acquired one.

It didn't take long at all before I decided to start the chase for a San Antonio 58. Hopefully it won't take as long to find as the other one, but eventually I'll have both.

A very close friend bought an SAPD 58 a few months ago after chatting with a stranger at a gun store. They're out there, but I'm confident I won't blindly fall into one like that.

SCSW mentions that "many of these revolvers were shipped to PD's in San Francisco, Texas, and New York", but does not mention specific numbers. Do you know how many were sent to those respective departments? Are they marked with SAPD, SFPD, etc., and what years are these guns?

Mine's just a plain ol' M58 from 1967.

I bought two used 58 while living in San Antonio. Neither marked SAPD. My father did buy a used parkerized 870 Magnum Wingmaster used by the SAPD and gave that to me, its not marked either.

CD

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De Oppresso Liber

I have seen SFPD (San Francisco, CA), SAPD (San Antonio, TX), and LDC (Louisiana Dept of Corrections?). I don't have any numbers for these depts, but a historical letter from Roy Jinks will tell how many were in the shipment related to your serial number.....he might have the total for each dept stashed away somewhere.

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On the Oak Savannah

Yep, these are the only marked ones I'm aware of.

With the demise of the old police load, what factory loads are you guys finding to shoot closest to the sights? My practice handload is fine (and has been for the 30+ years I've been using it), but I try to keep at least a box of factory ammo on hand for each handgun.

So it is finally my turn to post up in this thread. I have long been a fan of the .41 magnum ever since being introduced to it in high school. I loved knowing it was specific built as a police round and as a high schooler I believed it had mythical powers well beyond its ballistic stats. I went on the search for a police marked 58 a few years ago. About two years ago a great member on this site sold me his SFPD model 58. It is in beautiful condition and it does not show any real signs of riding in a holster everyday. I am thinking it was not issued or rode in a detectives drawer.

When I got it it had non descript aftermarket grips on it. Last week I found the right PC Magna grips from another great member here on the site. Tonight the grips met the 58 and the 58 was made right again!

I am a 33 year LEO in the Calif. Bay Area (Contra Costa County). I now have three police specific revolvers (58, 520 and a NY-1 64). The 58 is my most sentimental of the three by a long shot.

I hope you all enjoy the pics!

Attachment 617146Since I posted my question, I had three of my revolvers lettered, my M58 being one of them.

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The 58 and the 65/3" are my two favorite fixed sight S&W revolvers of all time...

There are fewer and fewer 58s listed for sale on the auction sites. Rarely do they go under a grand anymore unless they are well worn and non-original stocks.

Recently there was one on GunBroker that was a documented Target Hammer/Target Trigger special order with letter from the factory...unfortunately it was missing the original box...

Have had ten over the years and still have two...they aren't going anywhere...

Bob

Jim, I have a few boxes of Rem Sivlertips stashed away for a rainy day, and nowadays I mostly shoot my reloads. The closest to the sights for me was the Remington 210gr JSP. They are a hunting round and a handfull, but the hit the X every time for me. Good luck!

Well sir, that is a VERY nice example of a San Francisco 58. It must have belonged to a Captain who never left the office. Very nice indeed

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On the Oak Savannah

My third 58 was purchased last week. Here they are all together. They date from around '65 to '68, and the top one is a San Francisco PD gun.

I haven't given up on finding a San Antonio 58, but I'm growing skeptical.

I had one yrs ago...and foolishly let it go. I believe the 41 and 10mm are the best in their class...dirty Hairy aside a 210 gr swchp..from a 41mag...is a 1 and done deal in the hood I live in!!

Haven't posted on "The Club" for a while, so...

One of those belongs to Scott1970 now!

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Glad to see the "club" back in the line up. Bought this Milt Sparks SS for my 58 on a whim, saw it on ebay for $20, guess not too many people think you can through an N Frame IWB. I didn't think so either but an Milt Sparks for $20? I couldn't pass it up. It's actually alot better than I thought. Wore it on a couple road trips to some back country camping trips.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/attachm...1&d=1699631365

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Nice rig. Who did the stocks?

These are my current 58's. I even have one of the Classic 58-1 models that is actually a very good gun.

That's a fine pile of 58s.

I've owned a good number of guns over the years and a wide variety of them. The 58 was the first gun I owned that I immediately knew I wanted more of them. I can't necessarily explain it, but I've been hooked from day one. Number four is out there somewhere, it's just a matter of time.

Your stash of 58's sure is nice. I have always had large hands and the 58 is just the perfect feel for me. My dad carried a 58 on duty as a police officer, so I got used to shooting these when I was very young. I learned reloading for the .41 from my dad also, still have is old bullet molds too.

My old police lieutenant, who is now deceased, began his career in 1973. He weighed under 140 pounds and toted a Model 57. Early on in my career, before our firearm's policy was updated, I was allowed to qualify on my first 58 and would wear it when I had to attend court in a soft uniform. It was definitely an attention getter.

Nice rig. Who did the stocks?

Ahrends

Just a story, I have been looking to add a 58 to my group of S&W now it has moved to the top of the have to own list. My good friend, a serious Browning collector, has two 58's. He wears one everywhere. The other day he walked out of the garage and was eye to eye with a fair sized black bear. This means about 300 pounds not much bigger than himself. After a short stare down, he said " Move on before you get in real trouble". Bear wisely walked away.

At the risk of expulsion from the club I decided to post a picture of a modifications I had done to my 58 (and to keep the thread going). I had a gold bead inserted in the front sight and had the rear sight notch widened. After taking a class with the 58 and struggling with aging eyes I started thinking of ways to make her a better combat gun without breaking the bank or changing the basic gun. Even though it is a first year production gun I figured it is MY GUN and I can do what I want with it. So these are the things I have done to her;

S&W Combats
Narrow smooth trigger
Gold bead inserted into stock front sight
Widened rear sight notch
http://smith-wessonforum.com/attachm...1&d=1700076158

http://smith-wessonforum.com/attachm...1&d=1700076158

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	Gold Bead S&W 58.jpg (50.4 KB, 35 views)

No worries about getting booted, it suits you

I have posted a few of the modified 58's that I own. I only modified 1 so far, the others were done by other folks. My favorite is a 3" that was made as a tribute to Doc44's 29-58

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On the Oak Savannah

That gold bead looks great. I like that. Maybe when I get some more years on me, I'll consider something similar. An Ameriglo Bold orange embedded in that front sight would work wonders.

I always liked the upsized model 10 style of the 58. I had seen and handled a few new ones. I liked the way it pointed and handled. But at the time my growing collection already had a model 27 , a model 29 and a Super Blackhawk. I knew that a .41 would be a reloaders proposition and I just did’nt want to add another caliber.

I was already reloading .45 ACP for my 1917. If the 58 had been offered in .45 ACP I would have bought at least one and would still
be shooting them today with either ACP or Auto Rim cases. It also would have found a good following 44 Special.

The 58 is one of those guns that I would buy if one comes my way. I would no longer mind adding another caliber to my reloading line up.

Today I put together 200 rounds of 215 gr. SWC I cast from an H&G mold sitting on 7.8 gr. of Unique replicating the original police load.

Sadly, the crank on my 17-year-old Dillon 550 broke apart on me in the effort.

The red lead bullets look great.
I still run my old Dillion I bought back in the 1980's. Good thing is, they should warranty it for you for free.

The red powder coat is the cheap stuff I used to buy at Harbor Freight. My wife got so tired of red bullets floating around the house my children ended up "buying" me new powder coat colors for me on a Father's Day.

Call Dillon and tell them. They’ll probably replace it gratis. Mine broke and I called them and they offered to send me the part or I could send them the press and they’d check it over and fix it. I sent it to them and when I got it back the only original part left was the ram, everything else was new…no charge.

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Regards,

Chuck

It looks like he held up the lipstick counter at the Mabeline Store.

I feel like that Britney Spears song "Oops I did it again". I found another model 58 and couldn't leave well enough alone so off it went to Alan Harton along with a model 28 cylinder, a rebored model 520 barrel, a set of Bowens Combat sights and a set of Roy Fishpaw N frame combat grips that he built for someone else's gun in 1997.

Alan rechambered the cylinder to 41 Special, installed the barrel, round butted the grip frame, machined and installed the Bowen sights but he did not want to fit the grips. Since Roy had bedded them originally with Acra-glass Alan was hesitant to try to make them fit so when they got home I figured what the heck and started whittling and sawing. I ended up removing all the bedding compound, cutting off the front of the grips then regluing a section of rosewood, inletting the new piece so the grip frame would fit then reshaped the new pieces to match the contours of the finger ridges Roy had built in the grips years ago. Just a little more final sanding then I will start applying coats of Tung oil and it will be ready to shoot. This is the 4th or 5th Model 58 I have owned and I can not resist tweaking them for some reason.

Hard to tell it's not a M520. I love that tapered barrel with the extractor shroud, S&W should have done it on all the fixed sight revolvers back in the day. The front sight also looks better than the simple blade like the M58 has. Curious why you didn't leave the .41M cylinder on it, but the package is nice; I assume you reload, otherwise the .41Spl would go hungry. I've yet to buy Starline's .41 Spl brass for lighter loads, I just drop my magnums to around 1200 fps and all is good.

I wonder how many M520's have been sacrificed in the name of customization. Makes me feel warm to know my ANIB example is now one of less than 3000 that haven't been touched. I looked long enough to find it.

I would have assumed finding a harvested 520 barrel would be next to impossible.

I bought the base gun without a barrel and cylinder. The seller had spare Model 28 cylinders or 57 cylinders but I am enough of a 41 Special fan I decided to keep it a dedicated Special gun so I went with the shorter cylinder. There is lots of 41 Special brass here since I own three or four guns in that chambering. When I saw a 520 pop up for sale I jumped on it then sent it too Al Siegrist for boring to 41.

I found this one, LNIB, earlier this week for sale on consignment at a pawn shop a couple of hours from my house. N-serial number, built sometime 1972-74. The action (single & double) is simply amazing.

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...a true JEWEL!!!

Anyone else see the the SFPD marked LNIB 58 sell yesterday on GunBroker for $3425!!!

NICE gun Rob...almost did that same project.

Found a barrel on ebay a couple of years ago but decided I like the balance to the standard 58 so much I never did the project...need to send it to a better home...

Bob

I saw a blue one at a lgs yesterday for $799. Has a lot of holster wear and a few scratches. Mechanically feels great with a great looking barrel. No factory stocks or box. Didn’t see any police department marks. Pass and keep looking or price ok for a shooter?

Offer $700 OTD and see what happens.

It never hurts to ask for a cash discount

Around my neck of the woods, that would be a $1000 gun if the mechanics are decent.

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On the Oak Savannah

If it’s still there when I get back there I’ll probably get it. Maybe for a little less. The guy behind the counter said I was the first to ask to see it in over a month. On the plus side it comes with a very nice leather holster, fancy wood grips and two 20 rnd. boxes of ammo.

That deal is getting better and better....

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On the Oak Savannah