Only recently did it dawn on me how unusual the design of the Model of 1950 .45 target was in the context of what had preceded it. While Smith & Wesson had been making .45 caliber revolvers in significant numbers since the mid-'teens, with rare exceptions these were fixed-sight guns built for military service. The .455 Hand Ejector, built mostly for Commonwealth countries but sold in small numbers in the United States, along with the Model of 1917 that chambered .45 ACP and .45 Auto Rim, were the most-produced N-frame models before WWII. About 75,000 .455s were produced and nearly 200,000 1917s. All other N-frames produced commercially before WWII totaled barely 60,000 guns.

What is significant about the Model of 1950 is that it introduced to the regular catalog a .45 caliber model with adjustable sights. It was S&W's first production .45 revolver designed for serious precision shooters. It is probably no accident that the model was introduced on the new 1950 short-action design, which featured a reduced lock time that could only have been an attraction to the professional target shooters of the day.

Within five years, experience had shown that the Model of 1950 might benefit in competition from the presence of a heavier untapered barrel. S&W then introduced the Model of 1955, which was simply a 1950 with more steel wrapped around the rifling. Both guns continued in simultaneous production for a while, but the 1955 (which in 1957 became known as Model 25) showed greater commercial potential than the Model of 1950 (which after 1957 was called the Model 26 and continued in production only until 1961). In the decades since, the descendants of the Model 25 have become highly regarded specimens within the company's large-bore revolver line-up.

The Model of 1950 .45 Target can be considered a modified 1917, produced in a configuration that added one inch to the 1917 barrel length, topped it with a barrel rib, and installed adjustable sights on a frame that housed the new short-throw hammer design. The gun also has the standard N-frame ejector rod shroud in place of the exposed ejector rod on the 1917.

Fewer than 2800 Pre-26 and Model 26 revolvers were assembled in the course of the 11 years they were in production. Almost all are non-model-marked. Five screw specimens predominate; four screw or model marked specimens are hard to find.

This is S96906, a five-screw Pre-26 that shipped in July 1953. Condition is about 98% on a standard (not high polish) finish. Target hammer, narrow trigger. The box numbers to the gun. On the gun, all numbers match. I haven't shot it yet, but plan to. Maybe a lot.



The Model 1950 should not be considered a truly rare gun, but you won't see one too often. For comparison, the total number of Pre-26 and Model 26 revolvers is about 800 fewer than the number of K-32 Masterpieces, a common benchmark for scarcity among postwar models. If you come across a Pre-26 and can afford it, you should consider buying it.

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David Wilson

Thanks again David. A very interesting and informative read.
P.S. I have your gun's older sibling - S 93995, sadly no box

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Living a dream - S&WCA #2364

You're a fine teacher, David. I invariably learn from your posts, and I have an awful lot to learn.

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Oh well, what the hell.

When I did NRA Bullseye shooting in the late '60's & '70's the "old" guys all shot the 1950 or 1955 S&W revolvers.
Me? A 1911 guy, shot a Colt Gold Cup, but lost out to the "old" guys most of the time......
Some guys could really shoot a .45 ACP revolver even with a shaky hand.....
And that's no easy task one handed in rapid fire.

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Only difference Fool/Mule-ears

the Model 26-1, Georgia State Patrol Commemorative, circa 1989, 45LC, 5" barrel, smooth Magna's, & a lanyard ring.

Don't know the numbers. My older book just says there were 40 available over the contract.

Ned

S193601, 4-screw, stamped MOD-26 in the yoke cut and shipped in 1960 with a target hammer and trigger (also listed in SCSW, page 194).

Bill

Hi:
I shot "Bullseye" matches in the 1960-1970 era. All the "Hotshot" shooters used custom modified .22, .38, .45 autos. (Giles)

I used a Smith and Wesson Model 17 .22, a Model K-38, and a Model 1950 .45acp. Revovers.

Later to give myself a further handicap I changed to a S&W Model 18 .22 4", A S&W Model 15 .38 4", and a S&W Model 25 .45acp 4" (barrel cut back).

I was not in the "Top" but I made the "Hotshots" sweat with my "Wheel Guns".

is this Bowen Conversion of a Model 28, to 45ACP.


Barrel was cut to 5"

It has an outstanding action job

Shoots like this at 20 yards

I added a 45LC cylinder to it last year

I'm makin' do with it for now.

Ned

I once owned a pre-26 but sold it after being disgusted at poor accuracy with lead .45 Auto Rim ammo. The rifling is designed for jacketed bullets, and I didn't want to fool with half moon clips.

If I had handloaded with hard-cast lead bullets in Auto-Rim cases, it might have done well. I've seen published loads for those with Keith bullets that'd make the 26 a very effective revolver.

Frankly, I think the M-1950 .44 Spcl. is a more versatile gun, and the bulk of a .44 Magnum isn't really a whole lot more, in the right holster.

David:

Well researched, well written, well photographed, very informative...Life as usual in this part of the forum. Thanks for taking the time to share with the rest of us.

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Richard
Engraved S&W fan

I also have a M28-2 converted to 45 Colt & 45 ACP.


It shoots the .45 ACP rounds better then the .45 Colt loads.
Must be because the barrel is a 1955 model.

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Only difference Fool/Mule-ears

I agree about the versatility of the Pre-24 in .44 Special. The Pre-26 and Pre-25 have seemed to me niche guns whose appeal expanded in later decades as shorter barrels were introduced that allowed their adoption as personal defense handguns or trail guns. But the Pre-25 and in particular the Pre-26 strike me as pretty much single-purpose models: they were competition revolvers.

Baseball is a game of inches, and competition shooting is a game of thousandths of an inch. A hole .454" in diameter will kiss the next ring more often than a hole that is .429" in diameter, and each time it happens it means one more point. The extra .025" in diameter has a small but quantifiable advantage, and over time scores will be higher with the larger round.

I don't mind moon or half-moon clips, and I imagine I would shoot whatever ammo I had to in order to produce the requisite accuracy. Jacketed? Harder cast bullets? Whatever works.

I have to admit I am not completely dispassionate about the question. I have a crush on the M1950 .45 Target as a fine example of firearm design. I'm willing to put some time into working with it in order to be able to use it effectively.

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David Wilson

Just to add to the conversation, the 25-2 had a real resurgence after its use for Bullseye shooting waned. Jovino's gun shop in NYC bought 25-2s direct from the factory and turned them into round butt snubbies. These guns still trade in the aftermarket and have a 'cult' following. I've always wondered if the popularity of Jovino snubbies encouraged Lew Horton to commission all those N-frame snubs made in the 80s.

The 25-2 also sees some use by USPSA revolver shooters such as Carmoney and Sweeney but 625s tend to dominate.

When pin shooting was in its heyday, some people ran 25-2s.

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Bob.
SWCA 1821

Great write up and revolver David. I like your comparison to the k-32 for scarcity. Puts it in a different outlook. They are seldom seen. Thanks

I have a new 1950 .45 target barrel stashed away, waiting for that donor gun (and the funds to do the conversion ) to show up.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

I really enjoy my old chopped and reblued Pre-M-26, .453 throats and 5inch Tube.

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

Wonderful post, thanks David!

A question regarding the lineage: why consider it a descendant of the 1917 with the various external modification; why not consider it a descendant of the Registered Magnum with just the one main modification, that being the caliber?

Great post. I too have the older mdl 22 fixed sights 1950 with box & Jinks letter.
Also a 38/44 Bowen converted 45 ACP....a fine shooter.
Beruisis

Dave, thanks, very interesting and informative, as always... You have shown an example of one I seek as a "birthdate" revolver, one from 1953. I'm still looking
Jim

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Halfway and one more step

That's a good question, and I knew when I made the assertion that you could claim a different origin for the .45 Target if you started with a different frame of reference. I suppose you could consider any short-action (Model of 1950) N-frame target revolver in any caliber a descendant of the Registered Magnum, but I just wasn't looking at the question that way. I think I was stuck on the bore diameter as the defining characteristic of the relevant predecessor models. S&W was the .44 caliber company, and Colt was making its name with .45s. Yet in the first 42 years of the N-frame Smiths, the company made over four times the number of .45 revolvers as it made of all other calibers combined -- .44, .38, .357 and the few oddballs. And if you leave out the .455 as a "foreign" chambering, the number of 1917s will still outpace the non-.45 production by more than three to one. If you suddenly see a target .45 in the product line-up, it just feels right to view it as a development from the non-target .45 that the company had made for years.

But that's just me. I take your point, and I certainly don't object if anyone wants to assert a different basis of development for any S&W model. In my first post in this thread I just wanted to pound on how unusual a model the 1950 .45 Target was in the context of what had gone before.

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David Wilson

1950 Target 45 with a 5-inch barrel and target stocks. One of eight shipped to H. H. Harris in Chicago in 1960 and one of nine known.

Bill

As for where the concept of the 1950 45 target originated, consider the post war K22. Aside from caliber differences (between the RM and 1950), the 1950, with the "new" short action, had the post war micrometer sight and a standard (non-checkered) barrel rib. The K22/40 was the first S&W revolver to have the short action, and the first S&W revolver to have the micrometer rear sight, which was standard for nearly all adjustable sight post war guns (except for the transitional 22/32 kit guns). In the post war period, the K22 had the new post war style barrel rib, coupled with the short action and micrometer rear sight first, by 1946. I would have to think that the King rib was round before the RM, and likely influenced the concept of a factory rib from S&W on a target revolver. In conclusion, it makes a lot of sense to call the 1950 targets enlarged versions of the post war K22. Of course, 1950 45 target, since its an N frame, was given the shrouded ejector rod treatment, as a continuation of the RM and model of 1926 44 spl.

The 1950 targets certainly borrowed many concepts from previous thoughts and designs, to add up to one great S&W revolver. Congrats David on a very fine gun.

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}-----Jim----->
~SWCA #2732~

I was six months old when that revolver was shipped. I wonder if I could have had a holster made so I could carry it then!

Very educational post and succeeding pictures of other M1950s.

One of these days I want to go to Doc44's house and play with his guns!

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Have guns...will shoot'em.

Bill, I hate you. Really. You have all of these fine 5" N frames that are one of few/one of one. Would you adopt me? I want that 1950, and I think you have posted a 5" 629 that cranks me up, too.

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NHI, 10-8.

Hi
Here is a Model 25 made for Skeeter Skelton by S&W it has the 1950 barrel cut to 4 inch and a 1950 45 Colt Cyl. the frame is a 4 screw frame but when they shipped it in 1963 they marked it 25-2.
Jim



Orginal Invoice

Hi
Here is the brother to Bill's 1950 5 inch. We know of 3 of the 8 that were shipped.
Bills, mine, and one more that is owned by a SWCA Member.
Jim Fisher

Jim,
Do you know what the twist is on the M25 .45 Colt?
Same as the M25 .45 ACP?

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Only difference Fool/Mule-ears

Hi
STCM
I don't know but the barrel is from a 1950 45 colt from the 50,s
but here is a Target it shoots 275 grain keith bullets better than I can hold.
Jim

I dunno, Jim, looks to me as though you did your part of making that nice target.

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NHI, 10-8.

Nice write up and beautiful sixgun.

As I don't have the equipment that will measure how "shallow" the rifling is in barrel I won't comment on their rumored lack of depth.

However, I have pulled some lead bullets from Remington/Peters 45 Auto Rim ammo and measured them. All were right at .448 in diameter. No wonder they lead badly and or shot poorly.

My "1950" 45 is a Franken gun with parts from three different guns. But it shoots very well and doesn't require bullets cast hard to do so.


Cat

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Think for yourself.

I don't know about the twist but there are some differences in the rifling of the 45ACP barrels and of the 14 45 Colts that were shipped around June 1959. The usual Pre-Model 25 45ACP barrel has 6 narrow grooves while the 45 Colt barrel utilizes 5 wide grooves.

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Dick

Thanks Dick, as I posted the converted M28-2 with a 1955 45 barrel shoots the ACP FMJ round better then a .45 Colt 255 gr KSWC.

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Only difference Fool/Mule-ears

Excellent write up David.. Searched out the post because I just purchased one of the younger siblings S94XXX....

Attached Images

S&W 45 (1).jpg (109.9 KB, 129 views)

That's a beautiful pair.

It's interesting to me that when S&W produced their "Classic" line of old model reproductions, they produced a version of the Model 1917 Military Model with a shrouded barrel which was never made.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

What is that non shrouded n frame, model 22? Are those stocks original to it?

Yes Model 22. Never came with PC Magnas, only N frame PCs came on the model 58 IIRC.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

David,

Thanks for the informative thread. I am envious of your M1950 and the other fine examples posted here.

While I've not owned a pre-26, I have had a good number of N frames in the 1950 Target configuration, including numerous M27s and pre-27s, several M28s, and a few pre-24s. The pre-24s would be most similar to the pre-26 in shooting, balance, and handling. I must say that in comparison, I truly love my Model 1955 Target pre-25. Over the years, the pre-25 has become my favorite N frame for shooting. The extra weight out front really helps me, and I do need help. S&W got it right with the M1955 Target!

Don't forget the model 520 NYSP guns. They came with PC magnas too.

The little brother...

Attached Images

	pre-26.jpg (65.1 KB, 127 views)
	pre-26a.jpg (58.3 KB, 101 views)

I totally agree with this. I sold a 1950 Target .45 (and have regretted it ever since) about six years ago to finance a different gun. At the time I owned a Model 624 and had the opportunity to shoot them back to back. I didn't find the .45 any more accurate than the .44, and the .44 was much more pleasant to shoot. On the other hand, the 1950 Target .45 is a very collectible gun, as only 2,768 of them were manufactured (the reason for my regret). You won't run into them very often! I eventually sold the M624 but recently purchased a 1950 Target .44 to satisfy my .44 Special addiction. BTW: Great article, David!

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Peter #2091

The plain clothes magna stocks, though numbered, do not belong to that pre-M-22. However, in the collection there is an early M-58 (stamped model 58 with an "S" serial number) with non-matching grips. I'm hoping that these modified magna grips number to the model 58. I'll let you know.

As usual, IDRC, (I Didn't Recall Correctly). :-)

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Jim
S&WCA #819

You are right far, far more often than not my friend. A valuable source of info here on the forum, and I'm not alone in that feeling.


Besides, the 520 is relatively new compared to most of the guns we talk about, and is easy to overlook.

It still makes a good holster gun. It now wears the original magnas with a brass Tyler T-grip......

Attached Images

1950 holster gun 001.jpg (67.9 KB, 111 views)

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

That is a beautiful sixgun. I have a 25 no dash with a 6 1/2 inch barrel. I would love to find a 4 inch version for a daily carry piece.

After getting some help from the forum members on trying to identify whether my .45 acp/auto rim Model 1950 Target with factory swivel (S85XXX) was an early 'military' 1950 Target or a factory ordered Pre-model 26, I read your 2013 article...learned a lot. Was wondering if you might be able to add some info on the question.
Thanks

Hello David
Excellent write up here on the Model of 1950 hand eject .45. I came onto this Model of 1955 the heavy barrel later made version about six Year's ago in one of the local gun shop's here in Knoxville. I Paid $600.00 for it out the door and have no regrets as these do not pop up often in my area. It is a non model stamped gun that left S&W in December of 1959 which is real late for a five screw non model stamped gun. MR Jinks shared with me that S&W had a surplus of five screw frames on hand to build for the Fierce Pre-29's that did not move quickly so that is where this frame came from. This gun is deadly accurate and one of my favorite range shooters as shown with it's six shot target shot @ The 25 yard range off of a sand bag rest. I hope someday to add a Model of 1950 as yours shown. Regards, Hammerdown

A few years back I was looking for a model of 1955 and had to settle for this model of 1950 ,45 cal. It has turned into my favorite S&W. I need to get serious and get it lettered. It appears to me that it is bright blue and I don't believe it has been redone.



I have got some flack about my flowery picture, but I think beauty compliments beauty.

I am less concerned about the flowers and more concerned about the "Bordello Red" velvet sheets.

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Dave

Interesting. The lowest serial number I know on a Pre-26 is S78950, lower than what you report. The lowest serial number I know on a Pre-M22 is around S85750 -- near your gun's number. If yours has the 6.5 inch barrel, I would consider it a Pre-26 with a lanyard loop, which S&W was always willing to add if somebody would send them a few dollars more for a specially configured revolver. If it has a 5.5 inch barrel, I would consider if a .45 Army with adjustable sights. It would probably take a letter to get a reading on what it was called when it was shipped. But I'm not sure that what it says on the invoice would be a term on which there would have been agreement in the building where it was made. Odd ducks probably got described in different ways depending on who was filling out the shipping paperwork on the day it left Springfield. Collectors love categories, and they also love disagreements when a gun shows up that sort of lives in the DMZ between two clearly different models.

Can you show some pics? I read your description here and on the other thread, and I am not sure I am correctly visualizing what you have.

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David Wilson