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11-22-2010, 10:24 PM
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Can a K-38 stamped 14-2 have a 4 inch barrel?
I'm looking at a 14-2 with a 4 inch barrel. Looks from pictures like a 4 inch model 15 barrel put on a 14-2 stamped frame. The sights are Baughman. What intriqued me was the Standard Catalog of S&W lists 184 14-2's were made with 4 inch barrels. However, the one I'm looking at is not in the serial range listed (K623343-K624495). This isn't one of the Dayton Heavy Barrels either. The other neat item on this 14-2 is it's supposedly Single Action only. The serial number is K5708xx making it 1964. Any chance this gun is original and not dinked with?
Thanks,
Aaron
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11-22-2010, 10:38 PM
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Can you put up a picture of the gun? I have a 14-1 that was cut down to 3 ". The nephew of the original owner found a
4" barrel and sent it to me. I have been trying to find out if it was on this model 14 at one time. Does your barrel look anything like this?
What gun does this barrel belong to?
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11-22-2010, 10:42 PM
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If it helps, a 4" model 15 barrel will be tapered, and a (rare) 4" model 14 barrel will be untapered.
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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220
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11-22-2010, 10:52 PM
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There is a chance, albeit very slim, that it is an armorers gun. I know of at least four 4" 14-2s that were specifically built buy a police armorer who attended armorers school at the S&W factory and then built 4 custom guns for the police shooting team. One of those guns lettered from the factory as such.
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Guy-Harold Smith II
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11-22-2010, 10:56 PM
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Here's a photo. It's not the same barrel as Notredame just posted.
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11-22-2010, 11:01 PM
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It looks to me like a model 15 barrel installed on a model 14 frame.
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11-22-2010, 11:05 PM
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The barrel is tappered, so I'm tending to believe 357larry.
On the topic of "single action only", isn't that something a gunsmith can easily do to a normal gun? Other than a S&W letter, is there any way to tell a true factory job versus aftermarket?
Thanks,
Aaron
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11-22-2010, 11:19 PM
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Except for the barrel there are only two minor differences between a Model 14 and a Model 15 of that time period. The first, and most obvious is the model marking in the yoke cut. The second is there is a small "Nick" cut in the top, front, corners of the frame beside the rib. Your frame has sharp corners so it is a 14 as marked.
It is a Model 14 with a Model 15 barrel, who knows why. Maybe a prior owner ringed the original barrel and replaced it with this Model 15 barrel because that was what found, it was cheap, he wanted a 4"???
SN is too early for a "Dayton", and it the wrong barrel.
It is supposedly too early to be a factory "Single-action" which SCSW attributes to only 1961-62 and therefore should have a SN below K 515+++. Yes, any double-action S&W can be converted to single-action simply by removing the sear, the lever pinned in the front of the hammer that some would refer to as a "fly". A factory original single-action will have a hammer that doesn't have the slot cut for the sear, but those hammers were available as spare parts so this isn't definitive.
Go to the 6th post in this thread, I made several comments on the "Dayton" guns you may, or not, find interesting. What gun does this barrel belong to?
Last edited by Alk8944; 11-22-2010 at 11:34 PM.
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11-22-2010, 11:39 PM
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That is quite a bit of holster wear. It makes me wonder if it could have been a 6" model 14 and the LE agency went to 4" barrels. They may have believed it was cheaper to put 4" model 15 barrels on their model 14s instead of buying new model 15s. Imagine the stories that gun could tell.
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11-23-2010, 08:41 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ars1
On the topic of "single action only", isn't that something a gunsmith can easily do to a normal gun? Other than a S&W letter, is there any way to tell a true factory job versus aftermarket?
Thanks,
Aaron
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Single action only is easily achieved buy one of two means, you can either drop in the single action only hammer, or remove the DA sear from the existing hammer. You can tell which hammer you have buy looking down inside the gun when cocked, if the hammer is solid, it is a SA hammer, if there is a deep channel where the sear would normally go then it is a DA hammer.
If it came from the factory in SA only mode it will have a true SA hammer, but SA hammers were also sold as after market parts, so that is no guarantee that it is a factory gun. If it has a DA hammer without the sear then I can almost guarantee that it was modified by a gunsmith.
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Guy-Harold Smith II
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11-23-2010, 08:12 PM
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Thanks all for the details. I did check out the Dayton barrels. Yes, the dates don't line up. Also, Dayton's are obviously different. Alk8984's comment on the frame nick is a neat identifier. I don't have the gun, but when I see it I'll know now to look at the hammer to identify possible factory SA. Another great pointer.
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11-24-2010, 08:55 AM
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Once upon a time the Kansas City Police Department issued Model 14's with 4" barrels. I owned one around 1980. It was a typical cop gun trade-in with finish in rough condition and excellent barrel and action.
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11-24-2010, 01:05 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BSA
Once upon a time the Kansas City Police Department issued Model 14's with 4" barrels. I owned one around 1980. It was a typical cop gun trade-in with finish in rough condition and excellent barrel and action.
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The Kansas City PD 4" were heavy barrels (like a 6") but not the same the heavy barrel on the Dayton guns. I concur with others that yours appears to be a Model 14 frame with a Model 15 tapered barrel barrel.
Russ
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04-29-2011, 01:14 PM
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i actually have a model 14-6 with a 4 inch barrel i bought new several years back. it was a limited production run of 100. it has a full underlug barrel.
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