My conscience nets me a 4 screw 29 UPDATED WITH PICS

Jack Flash,

Thanks for the info! The sn is S 1738xx. What does that tell you?

The way it works in NYS, I have to wait for an ammendment to my permit to clear and get signed by the judge before I can pick up my gun. The good news is, my county is one of the more gun friendly ones, so they tend to get things processed quickly, usually within a week or so. Generally the only things they care about is "How much did you pay, and how does she shoot for ya?" if you know what I mean.

Pics will be posted as soon as I get her.
 
Your gun probably shipped in 1957, but hard to say when in 1957. I base this on a few I have or had. I think there was approximately as many non model marked 4 screw guns as model marked ones and both were made only a short time before the 4th screw was dropped.
 
Thank you for the mfr date! Just out of curiosity, where do you guys get this information? Is it in some of the Jinks books?

BTW, I'm not nominating myself for sainthood or anything, but the story gets better. The widow was so happy, she said that it was not necessary for me to kick in the $500, just take the M29 and she would be happy with the $800 the dealer paid. I refused, but we did compromise, as I was going to give her $50 for the one remaining .22 rifle (about what its worth, really) and she said ABSOLUTELY NOT! just keep the .22.
 
You did a great thing, and should have extreme pride knowing that you are a fair and good person, something that seems to be rarer and rarer these days. Take pride in knowing you are one of the good guys.

I would have done the same thing, I could never live with myself if I had just taken a $1500 rifle from a lady who knows nothing about guns. I hear about these unscrupulous losers who buy mint M1 Carbines and $4,000 trap guns from widows for $100 and I hope these people get what they deserve. An older guy offered me a 1940's era Browing Hi-Power for $100 one time, he said someone gave it to him to pay a debt and he had no clue what it was, I couldn't afford to give him the real value of it which would be in excess of $500 or so, and couldn't really live with giving him that kind of low price so I just told him to take it to a local reputable gun shop where I know the owner wouldn't screw him over. Many people would have paid him $100 in cash and then bragged to their freinds about getting over on "some old guy", that's not me, could never do it. I could tell the guy didn't have much, and was probably selling the gun to pay his water bill or something, so it's not like he was a millionaire who just wanted to dump a gun he didn't want.

I am a strong believer in karma and the forces of good and evil in the universe and many people would not have acted so fairly, and at some point the bad karma would have caught up to them. You have netted yourself lots of good karma.

When I was in the Army a guy who I had been nothing but nice and generous with, stole my credit card number and used it to pay for $500 worth of crap, shortly afterwards he failed a drug test, was discharged from the Army and last I heard he was a heroin junkie living in a shack in Mississippi.........karma? I think so......bad people get sorted out in the end.
 
Patrick L said:
... The sn is S 1738xx. What does that tell you? ...
Just out of curiosity, where do you guys get this information? Is it in some of the Jinks books?
Click to expand...
With that serial number, yours should be a four-screw frame and (of course) four-screw sideplate.

The main reference most of us use is the Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson by Jim Supica. It's a nice book to have. I think the Jinks books are out of print, but you can usually find them for a hefty price on Amazon or whatever.
 
Patrick L said:
The sn is S 1738xx. What does that tell you?
Click to expand...
Maybe this will help some, though there were far less nickel guns than blue, and yours and mine could have shipped quite a ways apart chronologically.

This is my nickel pre-29 4 screw that shipped March '58. Serial # S1768XX

100_1036.jpg
 
Jack Flash,

That's good to know.

I have "125 years With Smith & Wesson" from 1977. It was given to me back in the early 90s by a fellow who worked for S&W. I belonged to the Castleton Rod & Gun Club at the time and shot their bullseye league. The club had a relationship with this fellow. He worked in S&W in PR or something (I'm not sure if I should post his name) and he was always bringing us goodies. If I remember correctly I got this as some sort of prize at the awards banquet for winning my class or some such thing. He autographed the book for me (the guy, not Roy Jinks.)
 
Patrick:
You must be living right. The book you have is hard to find and very pricey (hundreds of dollars, IIRC) if you can find it.

The SCS&W is a comparative bargain at $40-ish. You can get it from Amazon or Jim Supica's website. I like to think the author gets a little more for his work if you buy directly. (I can't find his website right now. Maybe someone else has it bookmarked.)

I bought the History of Smith & Wesson by Roy Jinks from Amazon's out of print selections for about $125 several years ago. I have no idea if they still list it, but it's a good one to have too.
 
The SCSW 3rd edition is an excellent reference book for S&W collectors. There are also several books by Roy Jinks that are a must have if you are into S&W's.

I think that you have to remember that this widow was going to turn these in to the police and they either would have been cut up or gone home with some of the officers. Any money that she recieved was a bonus however, you went one step higher on the karma ladder. You had no prior knowledge of what the gun was worth so there was no attempt to deceive, even if you had sold the gun and kept all of the money. Even offering to split the proceeds was more than many would do.

I would suggest that you buy some lottery tickets as you have much positive karma in your life account now.:D


PS: You can get the SCSW from the S&W store for $39.95 and you can find copies of the History of S&W by Roy Jinks on eBay for anywhere from $50 to $120.
 
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JSR III,

Funny you should mention lottery tickets. I did win $55 on Friday morning on some scratch offs, but I didn't make the connection to my "gun karma."

I'm actually not much of a lottery guy, just do scratch offs that we all stick in each others' birthday cards, father's day cards, etc. I wonder what even possessed me to buy a ticket on Friday morning? I guess now we know!
 
You did the right thing. When you do the right thing you feel much better about yourself. I know one guy who was given a SAA Colt by an old widow, a 1900 era 45 Colt. He took it eveywhere showing folks. He did not offer her a dime or try to help her sell it. There was a deacon in a local church who used to hit up farm widows at the funeral and in weeks he had bought a farm for pennies on the dollar. One was my great Aunt. The family did the right thing by not coming in like vultures, didn't bother him. His son lived on the farm and was busted for raising weed. By the time they paid all the leagal fees they lost this and another farm they cheated a widow out of. Then all of us who have a consciense smiled. My dad and I were moving from one deer hunting spot to another, I saw a glint in the sun where some fellows had camped opening weekend. The Glint was a like new BAR 30-06 with a 3x9 Leupold scope. One fellow had set it against a stump and left it after they broke camp. I had talked to them and knew the next camp down was friends of the 1st camp. There wasn't enough room for all to camp in one location. I sat the gun between my dad and I. Dad said what are you going to do with it? I said the right thing. I did not know none of them by last name nor exactly where they lived. I stopped at the next camp, they were packing up. I shot a little breeze with them and casually asked the name of the fellow that had the new BAR, they gave me his name and home town. I asked them if there was an honest man in their group, I got funny looks but was told they were all good friends, I asked if they would like to do their buddy a favor, but they could make him suffer a little up front for leaving the BAR behind. They bought in and gave him some grief before they handed it over. I stopped by next year. He was thankful, he said they discussed it, most said before me returning his gun they would have kept it if they found it, now they say they would do all to get one back. As we drove away when I dropped off the gun my Dad said what if they keep it or sell it and don't tell their buddy? I told Dad it doesn't matter, I'm driving away with a clean conscience, what ever they do is on them. They did the right thing and I'm sure the story was told to many more. Hopefully it was one to grow on many people. OH! Another one, one guy in a group that camps close to us showed up with a like new Weatherby MArk V 300 WBY MAG with a Weatherby Scope. He was proud of it, he was prouder of his acquisition story. His life long friend passed, they were about 40 years old, and the widow called him to help fix a hole in the sheetrock so she could get her $200.00 deposit back. She said she'd give him one of her late husbands guns to fix it. For an short drive and 2 hours of labor he chose the Weatherby. I asked why he did not work with his friends widow to get her the money the gun was worth? He said that's her problem. The following year he fell out of a tree stand and landed on the Weatherby breaking the Lazermark stock in many places and ruining the Weatherby scope. He showed up at deer camp with it, a $19.00 Wally world scope and HE HAD GLUED THE STOCK WITH ELMERS GLUE! I looked at it and offered to buy it. He said no, it's his only deer rifle. He had also hurt his back in the fall and had been off work for a while. I mentioned the fact that if he had helped sell the rifle and split the money with the widow this might not have happened. He said he would have fallen with a cheap rifle, I said no, the angel who booted you out of your tree stand would have done the right thing if you had also done the right thing.
 
Wow, the ammendment to my permit went through fast, so I took a drive to pick up my new treasure. Here are several pics.

Here she is
Pre29012.jpg


Pre29001.jpg


Trigger guard and cylinder blue wear
Pre29003.jpg


Muzzle blue wear
Pre29005.jpg


Diamond Cokes
Pre29009.jpg


Pre29008.jpg


The case, which I knew was in bad shape
Pre29013.jpg


Pre29017.jpg


This is all good news. The condition of the gun makes it a perfect candidate for a shooter, and that's why I was able to get it for the price I did. The throats measure .432, with one just taking a .433 plug gauge. I have not slugged the bore yet. A lot of what I percieved to be finish wear turned out to be dried oil residue, which cleaned off with a bit of solvent.

I knew the case was a mess, but I plan on trying to restore it. I'm pretty handy at such things. I'm embarrassed to admit it , but I thought that "speckeled stripe" down the left side of the lid belonged there until I saw correct pics of one of these boxes on this forum. It looks like a previous owner had set something on top of this box, with the left end sticking out, and then painted something nearby. The stripe is actually dried paint specks.

Pre29020.jpg


They clean off with a needle point and some rubbing alcohol (one at a time!!). I need to replace the satin lining, but the wood/cardboards are in good shape. Of course I need to acquire the correct tools. Does anyone on this board sell them?

The one bad thing (not really bad for a shooter) is that the top strap had been drilled and tapped for a scope mount. I can't believe I didn't notice that before. It doesn't affect the gun's shooter status, but collector value is officially shot. The really ironic thing is, I bought a gun of similar vintage (my pre 25-2 5 screw) from the very same shop about 18 or 19 years ago, and it ALSO had a drilled top strap (I noticed on that one but still bought it. Again, a shooter.) How screwy is that?

The new pre 29
Pre29021.jpg


My pre 25-2
Pre29023.jpg


I hope to have a range report either today or tomorrow.

This is what I am envisioning for my new treasure. My plan is to live with and love this .44. It will be treated primarily as a .44 special, with maybe a few moderate level Magnum handloads just to see what she'll do. It will be fed a strict diet of cast lead only. Since I only have $500 into it so far and it's collector value is already shot, maybe next year I'll have S&W do a reblue and make it pretty. I can refinish the stocks myself. I'm thinking an oil finish, or maybe I'll stick to the high gloss to keep it correct. And I'll be working on restoring the case slowly. Like I said, does anyone here have any expertise on that, or know where I can pick up tools?

Opinions please?
 
Hi Pat - great story, will look for you on the range and expect to see tight groups from you! Work up some light loads and bring it to the next ICORE match... ;-) John
 
If I was going to refinish it anyway, I'd have a good gunsmith properly fill those holes with weld first. I know of another 4 screw 29 that is in nice shape other than being drilled and tapped for a scope. It also has the cokes, but one grip panel has a big chunk knocked out of it. Your 29 will make a first rate hunting and shooting gun.
 
Nice story, nicer gun. You sure did a lot of mind wrangling to get it figured out. It was nice of you to be kind to the widow. My plan is to be buried with all my toys and let the wife avoid such problems. ;)
 
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