I woke up friday morning, checked the local gun postings, and noticed a 2.75 inch 25-2. Looked like SS from the pics. I had never heard of that variation. Did some research, mostly on this wonderful forum, and drove an 1 1/2 hours to buy it. Included with the gun was an unmarked S&W blue box, wax paper, and original receipt from Simms Hardware in Sacramento, dated 1983. The original price was $447, indicated it was a 2.75 inch gun and was sold new with a full factory warranty. It is hard chromed and looks new. It has all the features of an Austin Behlert, as far as I can tell. I welcome any comments from those with more knowledge. Thank you.

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Most likely done by Jovino.

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Centennial Every Day

Behlert did them too. Most of the Jovino's were rollmarked "Effector" on the barrel, this one has had all barrel markings removed - I'd believe Behlert, but then, I did buy a bridge in Brooklyn.

Adios,

Pizza Bob

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NRA Benefactor Member

I had a similar one, also hard chrome that I bought from the original owner who stated the work was done by Behlert.

The extent of my knowledge is just what I have gathered over the last two days, and mostly from this site, and whatever pics I could locate. It seems I read that the Behlert conversions were often hard chromed. I recall seeing an identical one as I searched back on this site. I believe the member was WC145.

Well, whoever did the work, it sure is a fine looking gun!

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Centennial Every Day

Yes, I agree with what has been said above. The hard chrome finish is usually the indicator it was more likely done by Behlert. Behlert and Jovino both did high quality work and are sought after for that "it" factor they have... something about how cool big bore snubbies look.

I sure do like it. I think I would have a ball detent added to the yoke though. Well worth the drive in my book.

Congratulations on a great find.

Thank you all for the comments. Some additional information: there is a ball detent on the yoke, the frame has been very nicely converted to a round butt K, the trigger has been smoothed, the hammer has been reshaped to a rounded/teardrop, and it has the two-piece Pachmayr Compac grip. The lockup is the tightest of all my Smiths. This came from the estate of the original owner. Is was just sold to a LGS before I purchased it. I talked to a lot of fellow S&W enthusiasts at a regional gun show over the weekend (lots of guys with gray hair!) and none were familiar with this type of conversion.

I worked at Behlert Custom Guns at 725 Lehigh Avenue in Union, New Jersey for many years. As far as I can recall all N frame snub conversions done at Behlert's shop were stamped with Austin Behlert's signature. If this particular gun is not stamped I would guess it is not done by The Custom Gunshop. Hope this helps. I had a Model 25 in .45 ACP done there but foolishly sold it to pay college expenses.

Good looking gun, looks like you got yourself a nice one. I bought my Behlert 25-2 from MikeR90S who, as he posted bought it from the original owner who had Behlert do the work. Your gun certainly has all of the mods done in the fashion of the time. I've spent a lot of time researching these conversions and the problem is that Behlert and the Jovino Gun Shop weren't the only ones building large frame/large bore snubbies, it was a popular conversion and many 'smiths were doing similar conversions and almost no one was marking their work. I have never seen one of these shorter snubs marked in any way by the Jovino Gun Shop. I have seen a couple that were signed by Behlert but I have seen more Behlert guns with decent provenance that were not. I have never seen a hard chromed Jovino conversion. Obviously no one can say for sure that your gun is a Behlert or a Jovino or was built by someone else but I would say that there is a far greater chance of it being a Behlert gun than a Jovino because of the hard chrome.


Like I said, lots of people were doing similar conversions back in the day, many N frame snubby conversions are credited to the Jovino Gun Shop simply because they're the most well known and probably did more than anyone else since they built guns on spec to sell through the store in addition to doing conversions for individuals where guys like Behlert pretty much only built them to order.

The Jovino Effector line of conversions were made/sold with S&W blessing according to ads I've seen and many had a longer 3" barrel that retained the ejector rod latch in the barrel lug. They also offered L frame Effectors in .357, a big change from the N frame snubby conversions.

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Don't kiss smiling dogs!

HA! to funny! I saw that gun for sale to at the gun shop in florence on Saturday and called to buy it but it was sold already obviously to you. I was thinking the exact thing that it was a Behlert and way under priced. Nice find and a smoking price congratulation.

Another Smith who did similar conversions was Andy Cannon. What makes me bring it up is he did the ball detent lock on his. He was out in Montana in the early 80's. NO idea where he could be now.

The hard chrome finish....Armalloy would add to the Behlert evidence though. Seems they did a lot of their customs in Armalloy. Austin did a steel Colt Commander for me in the early 1970's and IIRC Armalloy was either the only finish offered, or it was automatically part of the work package. Again...it was a long time ago.

You did VERY well in my opinion...What a piece of history!

FYI Andy Cannon passed away, I believe in 2005. To get back to this revolver if it shoots as good as it looks I would consider myself very very fortunate to find it in a local shop!

I know two guys that years ago had Behlert customized guns and they both were finished in Armaloy. That was in 1978.