Mystery Gunsmith Fixed Target Sights/Hammers

Modified · Oct 25, 2014

I know some of you guys have seen these guns, I have a few of them now. Up until this gun and the one that Texnekkid put in the Roper thread I had never seen the hammer (which is King-ish, but not quite king) and the sights together.

Here's my new gun, S/N 260183:

The man I bought this gun from said that he had purchased it to compete in local military revolver matches, but that he had to sell it after they decided that a modified gun, even if it had fixed sights, was still against the rules.

My understanding is that most of these guns were modified for just such a purpose. The other 2 I have that are exactly the same to this one are:

It was suggested to me that Mershon may have done the work, but the Mershon catalog I acquired doesn't list anything like this. It does however list S&Ws for sale, it seems Mershon was a dealer of them before being bought by Pachmayr.

Can anyone tell me who did this work to these guns? Whoever they were they did a great job, these guns shoot very very well. A little too well for the prior owner of my newest one.

410bore · Oct 25, 2014

I have a K-38 Masterpiece with the a very similar hammer as the first gun you listed. Yours is offset to the left where mine is offset on both sides. The checkering style and pattern are identical. I posted about it some time ago;

http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-ha...ece-vintage-custom-target-hammer-ivories.html

I think either my gun had an older custom long action hammer modified to short-action and installed or the modification on your guns were done much later. It would be nice to know who did the work and what time period they were doing it.

Modified · Jun 23, 2015

Found a little more information on the topic. I'm pretty certain now that this shop/gunsmith was at least national.

The first gun in this thread letters to having gone to New York.

April 7, 1917
Kirtland Brothers Co.
New York City, N.Y.

410bore also spotted another gun which I talked to the owner about which letters to the E.K.Tryon Company, Philadelphia Pa in July 1946

This one appears to have at least the same front sight and certainly the same hammer.

Anyone else spotted these in the wild or maybe have anything to add? I'm intensely curious to find out who did this. About the only thing I am sure about is that they were at work in the Post War period and knew what they were doing. I figure I'm going to have to try to find a big pile of American Rifleman copies and just start poring through them.

gmborkovic · Jun 23, 2015

Back in the 1950s were these refereed to as "spoon hammers?"
I remember seeing these at gun shows and old time gun shops.
Due to my age, my memory may be fleeting a bit. Mike 2796

RKmesa · Jun 23, 2015

SixgunStrumpet said:

Not sure who did the work, But I love that M&P Snubbie. It screams "LOOK AT ME!!! I'M OPEN FOR BUSINESS!!"

H Richard · Jun 23, 2015

That snubby is a knock out! These are all professionally done semi-target guns and very desirable. these modifications do not detract from the value of the firearms, but enhance it.

mikepriwer · Jun 24, 2015

Caleb

Nice meeting you in Spokane. You're on the road to cornering the market in these
guns ! Another hundred or so, and I think you'll have it. Then, since H Richard is
such a fan, you can send them on to him, and start up another collection.

Curiously, I've not met, nor know, anybody who has any definitive insight, let alone
information, on who might have done this work. There are opinions, but they seem to
be just that - opinions.

Hopefully, one of these days you'll acquire one that has an invoice from the gunsmith
who did the work.

Regards, Mike Priwer

Modified · Jun 24, 2015

Indeed Mike, it's a lot of fun digging around for an answer. I'm sure it will surface eventually. In my opinion there's too many examples of them popping up for the smith/shop to not have advertised the work in some fashion. It's one of the interesting things about the internet and all the old books and magazines being digitized, more and more accessibility to even old info.

H Richard said:
That snubby is a knock out! These are all professionally done semi-target guns and very desirable. these modifications do not detract from the value of the firearms, but enhance it.

Honestly that snubby was what drew me in in the first place. I just wanted that gun. I sort of ended up falling into this niche of fixed sight targets, I didn't set out to collect them.

lebomm · Jul 3, 2017

Strumpet;
Lovin' that M&P bullseye gun ! Now I gotta disassemble my keyboard to mop out all the drool ! Mazel tov !

Larry

Mystery Gunsmith Fixed Target Sights/Hammers

Modified

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410bore

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Modified

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gmborkovic

RKmesa

H Richard

US Veteran

mikepriwer

Modified

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lebomm

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