My Daughter’s First!
As some of you may recall, knowing me from other forums and all, I wrote a piece on
My Son’s First! which detailed a beautiful Star Modelo B Super that Sam Damewood of
Wildcat Traders LLC customized for Matt.
Well now, my middle one, Jennifer, was in dire need of a trusty gat herself and lo and behold, Sam came through with advice and a pistol yet once again. After several phone calls and E-mails between Jenny, Sam, and I it was determined that, a S&W M65 would fill the bill perfectly, and Jenny and I left the project is Sam’s trusted hands.
Here is what the maestro built for my little girl…
It started life as a stock 4-inch, square butt, M65-5. Sam, knowing that this would be a self-defense pistol, completed the following customization:
- Shortened the barrel to a 3-inch tube.
- Added a gold bead front sight, dovetailed into place.
- Converted the butt to the rounded configuration.
- Semi-bobbed and dehorned the hammer.
- Fitted a .400” wide trigger, smooth face, for solid DA work.
- Polished the entire action (it is smooth as silk yet 100% reliable).
- Chamfered the chambers and cylinder leading edge.
- Finished the revolver using a fine bead blast (the results are obvious).
- Added Uncle Mike’s finger groove stocks.
Owning and adoring a 3-inch RB M65-5 myself, I can state honestly, that I am jealous of my daughter and actually considered switching them, except she would clobber me. You do not know “The Jenn-inator”…she would!
Here are more views of the finished product:
Shooting the “Sam Special” was, to say the least, a true pleasure. We assembled over 350 rounds of assorted .38 Special, +P, and .357 magnum, ammunition. For the record, Jenny will be using Remington 158 grain LSWCHP+P’s as her self-defense load of choice.
Since Jen needed the training and it is her gun, she fired approximately 90% of the shots to include the magnum rounds. The pistol functioned flawlessly and definitely liked the heavy magnum loads. I would like to quote group sizes, which I am sure would be tight and such, except we are not setup for formal shooting here, yet. Perhaps Sam can state what his groups were as he tested the pistol extensively prior to shipping. Sam cares about people and it shows in his artisanship.
The targets ranged from “assault paper-plates” to “terrorist 2-liter pop bottles” with the odd “suicide beer can” thrown in for good measure. All her shots were fired two-handed, sighted, and with a “modified” isosceles. In other words, just like FSA two-handed sighted fire dictates.
Jenny, after a few warm up shots, was able to dance the cans with 5 out of 6 rounds and easily fired COM bursts of two and three with her revolver (I feel Sam’s choice of stocks helped her greatly). Distances varied from three to nine yards, keeping it close for her combat training work.
Matt and I slaughtered the suicide beer cans, using CCI .357’s, starting at twelve yards, and ending at roughly twenty. Note please that all distances were paced measured but close enough. This was at the end of the session and we had twelve magnums left.
Gina, my oldest and Jen’s big sister, fell in love with the “Sam Special”. So much so that she made me go and e-mail Sam to order one for her…and I hadn’t even fired the thing yet!
Overall, one cannot go wrong with a Smith and Wesson K-frame…especially if Sam Damewood has checked it out and slicked it up. We cannot recommend his work enough and he is a hell of a man to know and do business with; Sam, thank you from a concerned and now happy father.
Linear Mode
