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S&W Revolvers: 1961 to 1980 3-Screw PINNED Barrel SWING-OUT Cylinder Hand Ejectors WITH Model Numbers


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Old 03-24-2013, 04:40 PM
Filbird Filbird is offline
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Default Model 40 grip safety... why?

I often check the Fugate Firearms site (I believe a member here told me about them) because they sell NIB (or nearly NIB) S&W revolvers all the way back to the 1950's, and other guns. It's a fun site to browse...

They have a 1970's model 40 .38 for sale, it's a hammerless .38 snubby (the grandfather of the model 442 that I carry every day), and the darned thing has a grip safety.

I believe most if not all of the old S&W lemon squeezers had grip safeties, and looking at this gun, made in the 1970's, I have to ask - WHY? Why would a snubby without a hammer need a grip safety, when all of the snubbies at that time, and before, WITH hammers, did not have grip safeties?
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Old 03-24-2013, 05:26 PM
ImprovedModel56Fan ImprovedModel56Fan is offline
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IMO, with proper handling a Centennial does not need a grip safety. However, people sometimes make mistakes, like putting a gun in a pocket that contains other things, or forcing a gun into a holster without being 100% absolutely sure that nothing can push against the trigger without being stopped. The grip safety may, in some cases, protect against those situations. Of course, you also have to be sure that the grip safety will disengage when it supposed to. Since I have no problem with that, I like the grip safety. Others DO sometimes have a problem with that, so, of course, they are correct to avoid or pin back grip safeties.

BTW, I believe that the original purpose of the grip safety was to protect against discharge of the weapon by small children. It didn't work.
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Old 03-24-2013, 07:58 PM
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Mod 40's are one of the "neat" niche guns S&W made. They are well thought of by anyone that has ever handled one. Ironically, I bought mine from Fugate several years ago.
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Old 03-24-2013, 09:09 PM
Muley Gil Muley Gil is online now
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Rex Applegate suggested that the old topbreak lemon squeezer in .38 S&W be updated to a J frame .38 special. The M40s came drilled with a hole in the grip safety and in the frame so that it could be pinned in the disabled mode.
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Old 03-25-2013, 12:48 AM
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I seem to remember a story about Daniel Wesson. In the 1880's A child was playing with a Smith and Wesson revolver and shot and killed himself. Daniel Wesson was so disturbed by this that he designed a revolver with a grip safety designed so it can't be fired with a childs hand. The result was the "lemon squeezer" revolver.
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