Rare factory nickel registered magnum- or at least it was
This old gun generated some interest when I mentioned it in the thread about my pair of transitional post war magnums so I thought I would give it it`s own thread and see what kind of suggestions I get about what to do with it now. I`ve been going through some guns I`ve had sitting around as future project pieces and thinking it`s time to finally get some work done on them or sell some of them to help pay for the work I get done on the rest.
I bought this Registered Magnum #1661 3-4 years ago off an online auction knowing that it was an aftermarket refinish with a post war 3 1/2" barrel and sights thinking it would at least make a good shooter/carry piece. I could see from the posting that I would need to have the hammer and trigger stripped and recolored to make it look less Bubba-ish and figured I could live with that unless I could ever manage to find a prewar adjustable rear sight for it.
Once I got it in my hands I saw that the barrel was factory numbered to the gun and looked like factory nickel with the correct blue front sight for the 12.52 rework date that was stamped on the frame. The rest of the gun looks to be a more silvery chrome finish that doesn`t match the nickel barrel. The "N" stamp on the right side of the frame told me that it might have originally been one of the scant few nickel registered magnums which was confirmed by the factory letter I finally got around to sending off for.
Mr. Jinks wrote that it shipped Dec 1st 1936 to an F.L Gastavas in Memphis, TN with a 5.5" barrel, nickel finish, and McGivern gold bead front sight. It must`ve been refinished in chrome before going back to the factory in 1952 for the rebarrel otherwise the new barrel would surely have been chromed as well if it refinished later. It must have seen a lot of use early on in it`s life for someone to think a cheap non-factory refinish in chrome was going to be an improvement over the factory nickel. What I can`t for the life of me understand though is if someone later bothered to send the gun back to the factory for a rebarrel, why not have it refinished to match the new barrel while it was there???
At any rate, "it is what it is" as they say and will never again be the awesome original nickel gun that Mr. Gastavas received in 1936. My dilemma now is whether to put more money in it and fix it up to my liking as a using gun (which is going to necessitate a refinish to get rid of the 2 tone effect) or just see if I can get the going rate for a refinished and modified reg mag back out of it and go buy something else. I do have a few other prewar magnum "shooters." If I decide to have it refinished and keep it I also have the option of putting a prewar 5.5" barrel back on it first as I have one of those in my extra parts stash with a King reflector/gold bead sight. Decisions, decisions...
Last edited by lawman445; 01-26-2017 at 01:27 PM.
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