Recent content by wordsmith

My buddy Frank is quite alive and well, just talked to him a few minutes ago. He's doing a more limited work schedule these days, spending less time at the bench which is easier on his 80-year old back and legs. David

Definitely 'Nimschke style' New York engraved..... a classic pattern in heavy coverage. Congrats!! I would clean the powder residue carefully and leave the finish as is, the patina aging is part of the gun's life and history. Don't change the originality. DC

There was a group of 10 prewar serial-number 2" round-butt nickel M&P's shipped to Sports Inc., Chicago IL, on Sept. 23, 1946. As far as is known, they had been sorted into parts ready to build complete guns, but were not assembled and finished until the war had ended, and thus have the postwar...

There was a group of 10 prewar serial-number 2" round-butt nickel M&P's shipped to Sports Inc., Chicago IL, on Sept. 23, 1946. As far as is known, they had been sorted into parts ready to build complete guns, but were not assembled and finished until the war had ended, and thus have the postwar...

One thing sticks out to me where this Pre-26's barrel length originality is concerned, and that is the length of the front sight base. The 'long' base was generally most often used on barrel's 6" and longer. In the mfg. time period of this gun, most 5" and shorter barrels had short sight bases...

I'll take it, Hugh, per our phone conversation. Funds & FFL in today's mail. Thanks! David

There were a handful of special 3rd Change Target models in the 150,000 serial numbers, made for an international shooting competition. You should get a letter on this one..... it might be one of them! David

Re: the .44 Target - as a couple of members have already mentioned, S&W did not nickel plate the sights, front or rear, in this time period. Nickel target front sight blades first appeared in 1958 on a few of the K-frame models. It's a very cool gun but has been reworked, at least partially at...

He was also a good friend of the late Bill Orr, one of the S&WCA's founding members. Bill was the owner of GT Distributors, they were among S&W's largest law-enforcement distributors from 1972 until 7-8 years ago. We've sold a number of Charlie Baron guns over the years. DC

Having the correct photos changes everything..... the gun is obviously a NM#3 Frontier chambered in .44 Russian. Given that so many of this model (practically unsaleable in .44-40 throughout the period of production) are recorded as actually shipped in .44 Russian, it's as possible the...

My total bad..... I didn't even look at the cylinder number. If the butt number is different, it's definitely an 'as assembled' gun. DC

Meant to mention when posting previously, a blue NM#3 trigger guard is almost always patent evidence of it's being refinished. 99.9% of all blue examples had case-colored guards. On original nickel examples there were a small few produced with plated guards, a number of which were also engraved...

S&W wouldn't have 'affixed' a spur to an existing trigger guard in that manner, especially considering they had a ready supply of the solid one-piece 'finger spur' guards in stock well into the early 1900's. It was a special order option that was offered throughout the New Model # 3's...

It's a .44 Hand Ejector, 1st Model...... also know as a .44 Triple Lock. David

Mac McMillan had a legitimate lettered two-tone when we sold his collection several years ago. I don't recall now whether it's a 39 or 39-2, or who the purchaser was. Maybe one of our fellow S&WCA members has it.... David