Its a very good gun. And as usual, I've got a story to tell.
About 15 or so years ago I had way too many guns. They owned me, not the other way around. So I pulled about 50 or 75 of them out and declared them to be surplus. One was a Lew Horton 44, as this thread covers.
My buddy Murphy decided he needed it, so I sold it to him, fairly cheap. I even gave him a large ziplock full of my finest handloads. Can't send an idiot off with a new gun but no ammo, and I had to keep my reputation as a good guy. So Murphy has a stable (where you keep cattle, or maybe a kennel where you keep dogs) full of pretty scroungy guns. His preferences kind of run to guns you might see in a movie. He loved junk like Desert Eagles, Baby Eagles and other faddish but not well constructed things. It even shocked me he wanted a revolver (so old fashioned) and especially in a caliber like 44 Special. But who am I to judge taste.
So he packed the nice ole gun off to the dog pound.
Shooting with Murph was an experience. He always took along another of our buddys, and the other guy is pretty darn trustworthy. You'd trust him with just about anything, and he's a fair mechanic with just about anything, vehicle or gun related. And Murph had this bad habit of shooting the off brand semi-autos and having them jam on him. I rate it 50-50 between the guns fault and his shooting skills. A couple of years passed and I heard nothing else about the Horton 44.
But then our CCW law came into play. He wanted a CCW, and decided his best gun for that was the 44. So he went to the range (the same gun shop that organized the classes had an attached range.) We worried that ole Murph would have some trouble passing the course. After all, it used a man sized target at 21 feet, and he had to hit the man portion 11 out of 20 shots. I know, most of us would be in the game blindfolded if you pointed us the right direction, but with Murphy, its not a given. I had such little confidence in his ability with the semi-autos he loved I understood his wanting to practice. Remember, we're not all born shooters.
And as it turned out, he'd not fired the 44. So he came over for a little lesson on how to load and shoot the thing, his first old fashioned wheel gun. I enjoyed that part.
So off to the range he goes to burn up the bag of ammo. He went straight home, and couldn't contain himself. He had to call, then call our buddy. He actually was using the same type of target the qualifications required. And not only did he hit the center of mass, he actually produced a respectable group. He fired the entire bag of ammo, probably 100 rounds, give or take, and they were all in the black. Not even a single miss. Had he been shooting one of his semi-autos, he'd be lucky to hit 25 out of 100 in the black.
So he wanted to know what it was with the old style guns that made them so darn accurate. Of course I just told him it had been my gun, and my ownership and prior shooting skill had imparted magic to the gun.
And yes, he took the course, and passed. I never got to see the target he shot to qualify. I assume he did a respectable job.
It even made me sorry I sold him the gun. But then an amazing thing happened a couple of years ago. He was convinced Obama was going to outlaw guns, and he wanted to get his money's worth back out of all of them. When I heard that and saw his list of for sale guns, I told him I wanted the Horton back. So I gave him a $100 profit over the price from the 1990s, and its now resting peacefully in my meager pile of N frames. I even have a set of Don Collins elephant ivory grips I plan on installing on it.
Remember, these guns were made before the round butt guns became standard. Finding S&W grips was nearly impossible. So at one of the gun shows where Don Collins had his tables next to ours, I asked him if he could make a set. He said sure, but that he'd never seen a round butt N frame gun before. It was the first day of a 3 day show, so the next day I brought along a PC 627 (hoping the outline would be the same.) It was, and Don produced a very nice set of grips for his always fair price. I've put in a set of medallions, as I think elephant ivory just looks better with S&W medallions in place.
At the present time I have finger groove combats installed. For whatever reason, and not true to form, S&W made some spectacular grips out of Goncolo Alves. They used select pieces and the varnish allows the iridescent properties to show through.
I never got the original grips Lew Horton supplied. Mine came to me with some very ugly (as they all are) rubbers/Goodyears.
To the OP, good luck with your find. The guns shoot really well and are pleasant to fire. You've made a good selection. If I see another at a fair price, I'll own it, too.
Found a "Shooter grade" 24-3 3"! Pics inside
Congrats
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