I sincerely believe that had S&W chambered the M-58 in .45 Colt it would have been a lot more popular and stayed in police service longer. Or, .44 Special if the ammo companies had loaded an improved round, with a 250 grain SWC at 850 fps instead of the traditional loading of a 246 grain RNL bullet at what usually chronos at about 700 fps.

Skelton wrote that S&W wanted to make a brand new police round that had no preconceived opinions about it. Backers of a new gun and caliber imagined that the new revolver should be a frame size in between the K and N frames, but Skelton thought, later, the boosters of a new gun and cartridge underestimated how much it would cost S&W to tool up for a whole new size frame, especially for a brand new cartridge that might not be as popular as they hoped.

Ferguson wrote that what helped doom the M-58 was the poor quality of Winchester's lead bullet, which was undersized and caused severe leading problems as mentioned above, and the lack of overall quality possibly caused by a sudden demand for the cartridge before they had thoroughly developed it.

I must say that, with the M-58's solid construction and lack of fragile parts, it probably made an excellent cudgel.

A friend of mine has a M-58 that was fitted with the .45ACP cylinder and shortened (4") barrel from a M25-2. That in my opinion, would have been a perfect service revolver.

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Retired Dep Sheriff & Armorer

I bought mine new in 1978. From it's serial number, it may have been manufactured a few years earlier than that but sat around at the factory for a while, as by 1978 it had lost what popularity it had and demand for them was probably low.

Shooting it does indeed make you feel like, "Now THIS is a GUN!"

Saxon Pig, that was generous of you, the way you traded into your new -58.