I own a small pawnshop and sell guns so I spend a lot of time talking to people about guns. One thing that has always struck me is how much people are attached to Model 10 Smith & Wesson revolvers. Seems like whenever I have a conversation with people about S&W wheel guns, they bring up the Model 10. Now, I'm not talking about serious/knowledgeable collectors. I'm talking just Joe Blow, Bubba-class gun shoppers. Often it's not a Model 10 they own personally (but sometimes so) but usually a Model 10 their father, uncle, brother, brother-in-law or some guy at work owns. Or maybe it's the S&W revolver they say they are determined to own some day. In any case, I hear them talk about the Model 10 in reverent tones, as if it was some sort of Holy Grail gun.

Rarely do I hear the casual gun conversationalist speak in such admiration of a Model 15, , 17, 18, 19, 67, 66 etc. It's almost always a fixed sight gun like a 10 or maybe 64. I might occasionally wax poetic about a Model 36 but that's about the extent of it. Nine times out of 10, a Model 10 is their archetype of a S&W revolver. (BTW, a corollary to this phenomenon is the new gun shopper whose image of a S&W revolver is a J frame.)

What's the deal? How come so few people pontificate about adjustable sight guns?

Is it just that the fixed sight guns are more common so that a person with limited exposure to revolvers is more likely to have encountered a Model 10. Or is it related to sentimentality about a relative with law enforcement experience and that was their duty gun.

Or is there something about fixed sight guns that they know that I'm not getting?

(BTW, I own a couple of Model 10s, as well as a 64 and 65 so I have experience with these guns. I just generally prefer the adjustable sight guns.)

Why is the Model 10 the first thing that so many people think of when the topic of S&W revolvers comes up?