I was asked by an acquaintance to help him value some guns he had received in payment for a loan one was a 27-2 5” barrel in blue. The gun had been damaged a bit by a fire. It obviously didn’t get super hot, as the stocks are not damaged other than the varnish being sort of rough. There is a spot basically on the side plate area that the finish is damaged, as well as some areas on the cylinder. Other than that, the gun seems pristine. Great lock up etc. I told him that in that condition it was at most a $4-500 gun. That many would proclaim it to be unsafe to shoot and that it should be parted out or destroyed. I suggested it be sent to S&W for evaluation and refinish. Fords might be better. There are some other places surely that can do a nice refinish job. The stocks would need refinish also, but that’s pretty much a matter of soaking off the old finish and applying new.
What’s your thoughts on this gun. It being a 5” makes it a bit more interesting.

He also had a 3” 65-3, a very nice 2” nickel mod 10, and a nickel Official Police in .22. That one looks like original finish to me. Gonna post some pics over on the Colt forum later on to see what the experts think. That may be the most valuable one of the bunch.

Without photographs, there is no way anyone can accurately value a gun that had been in a fire.

Your guess is pretty much on

Based solely on your description and presuming it was mechanically sound, I would consider it a shooter and be looking to buy something like that in the $400 area

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"Acta non verba"

I agree that it has minimal value as is. With a decent refinish I think it might be worth $750 or maybe a little more largely due to the 5” configuration. If I owned it, I’d try to rust blue it with very careful polishing and then shoot the snot out of it.

if the varnish has only been ightly burned, I highly doubt its unsafe to shoot.

That was the point I was trying to make. Many guns that have been in fires have had the metallurgy compromised. I’m pretty sure this one hasn’t. T may well be that the bulk of the finish damage was done by the previous owner in trying to clean it up.

We need pictures!

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Pine_Worker
Ex-LEO, NRA Life

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066BADA5-F859-4223-BC58-B0B8C1894E4F.jpgI didn’t get any pics of the 27. I did take some pictures of the Colt: