I went to a gun show today and spotted a Triple Lock, priced at $375! Rough nickel, finish maybe 30-40% with rusty patchs, 4" barrel. The nickel looked original, and the hammer and trigger were not nickel, nor was the third lock. But any case coloring left was muted. The grips were pretty rough and ill fitting. Four digit serial number on the butt, I think around the 1400 range. However, no serial number on the cylinder, or the barrel, or underside of the extractor star. Hmm.
I tried cocking it to check timing, and boy was it loose!. Lots of rotational play, lots of fore-aft play. Jeez, the barrel-cylinder gap is like .030! And the crane is loose, the whole cylinder assembly kind of wobbles around. I'm not sure if even Chicoine could salvage this mechanism. And the caliber marking on the left side of the barrel (?) is - "FOR 44 SPECIAL AND US SERVICE CARTRIDGES". ???
And the logo on the left side - well, it's some kind intertwined letters I think, with TRADE at the top and MARK at the bottom. Now I see it's some kind of Spanish knock-off of a First Model Hand Ejector. But it IS a triple lock and had me fooled until I looked it over pretty close. Usually on the Spanish copies the shape doesn't look quite right - the hammer is the wrong profile, or the trigger guard is weird or something. But this one looked just like a Smith. If it had been devoid of markings I might not have realized it was not from S&W.
Anyway, I was interested in it only for the novelty value. As loosey goosey as it was I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to shoot it. I didn't want to pay over $300 for it and he only would come down to $350, so I left it for someone else. Interesting though.
I tried cocking it to check timing, and boy was it loose!. Lots of rotational play, lots of fore-aft play. Jeez, the barrel-cylinder gap is like .030! And the crane is loose, the whole cylinder assembly kind of wobbles around. I'm not sure if even Chicoine could salvage this mechanism. And the caliber marking on the left side of the barrel (?) is - "FOR 44 SPECIAL AND US SERVICE CARTRIDGES". ???
And the logo on the left side - well, it's some kind intertwined letters I think, with TRADE at the top and MARK at the bottom. Now I see it's some kind of Spanish knock-off of a First Model Hand Ejector. But it IS a triple lock and had me fooled until I looked it over pretty close. Usually on the Spanish copies the shape doesn't look quite right - the hammer is the wrong profile, or the trigger guard is weird or something. But this one looked just like a Smith. If it had been devoid of markings I might not have realized it was not from S&W.
Anyway, I was interested in it only for the novelty value. As loosey goosey as it was I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to shoot it. I didn't want to pay over $300 for it and he only would come down to $350, so I left it for someone else. Interesting though.
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