My Smith & Wesson collection started in the far 1989.
As soon as I managed to get my concealed carry license I started collecting SW, the first purchase was a 629 4", followed immediately after by a 29-2 with a 6.5" barrel... I soon realized that they were never enough for me and I bought a 629 3"...
I'm a big, massive man and I really liked making a lot of noise shooting to the gas cans (empty of course) at more than a hundred meters in double action and with a full charge, of course.
I've never liked shooting at a sheet of paper, just the first few drums to zeroing the sights with the right reloded ammo, then that's it.
How well carried the 6.5" well with its nice long barrel tucked into the trousers with the nice tight belt keeping it in place... without the holster it was perfect, you couldn't see anything and it never fell over with its 17 centimeter of steel inside the waistband.
It's been 35 years now and I own much more now.
I love them all.
But some are special.
They know how to speak directly to my soul, addressing it on a first-name basis.
Tastes evolve and the essence of some special object is captured, because you understand that it is not just forged steel, but has a history and a soul, the soul of those who built it, conceived it, invented it.
Choose just one, and make the effort to tell me which one is the most beautiful Smith & Wesson ever built.
For me the most beautiful Smith & Wesson ever built is Smith & Wesson 44 Hand Ejector 1st Model New Century blue finish, The Triple Lock.
Say me the yours

(sorry for my English, I think it's not very fluent)

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Ciao from Rome
Marcello

Can any civilian own guns in Italy ?

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V/r,
Markham

According to the latest census there should be around 10 million weapons out of a total of 20 million adult males. Are 58 million inhabitants that Italy has, including minors and women.
If you have not committed crimes of violence, the gun license is easy to obtain, just a little long due to the bureaucracy, about 2 months. The only banned firearms are the full auto and the suppressor.
Small example of how many weapons there are in circulation, look at this site to buy and sell used weapons, there are many other sites like this, I selected Smith & Wesson with 1800 firearms listed today, instead if you select used rifles more than 15000 ads, will be displayed only on this site, think also in the others sites how many legal firearms are on the civil market outside of the gunshops.
Just a moment...

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Ciao from Rome
Marcello

That is a beautiful revolver! Hard to say which S&W revolver would hold the title of most beautiful, but the TL is certainly high on the list.

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

Like asking a father which is his favorite child. Still, if I was forced to choose from among the guns I own, I'd say it's this beautiful 5" nickel .38 M&P 1905 4th Change.
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There's just something about that 5" barrel...

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Ain't This Fun Though?

Hard to argue with that post OP, in fact so hard that it deserves better than a thumbnail…..


But I happen to think that my 1948 vintage 8-1/2” .357 Magnum Transitional is the most beautiful ever built and the pinnacle of .357 Magnum production…..


Photo credits - Salt Lake Collectibles

Having said that I know that RKmesa will post something that will blow all of our socks away.

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Terry Lester

How well I know the feeling, Marcello...Some of them start speaking to me as I walk through the front doors of gun shows and gun stores...At times they are fairly screaming in my ear for attention, leaping into my hands begging to be adopted...

Such was the case with this 3 1/2" Model of 1950 .44 Target when I saw it with some of its 4" and 6 1/2" brothers under glass as an estate display...A sort of homely, yet dignified critter even with its finish-challenged appearance...The thing wouldn't leave me alone as it whined and whimpered on the table, and as I held it in my hand it let out a contented sigh...How could I refuse?...So to make it economically possible, I worked a deal for it, two of its 4" brothers and a 6 1/2", all early fifties vintage...

After sending off to SWHF for its pedigree, I learned it was a single gun order (suggesting someone knew exactly what he wanted), but it left the factory with a 5" barrel and Baughman Quick-Draw sight, after being cut from a 6 1/2" barrel with Patridge sight for an additional charge of $10.50...Strangely enough after being owned in this configuration for two years it was sent back to the factory to be converted to its third barrel length, the present 3 1/2" with the addition of the red sight insert...

At some point in its career, its original square butt Magna grips were altered to the familiar PC (Plain Clothes) contour favored for undercover carry by many detectives...The grips still carry their original stamped serial number same as the gun...This owner apparently liked a wider trigger also, and installed a grooved trigger shoe which I have left on the gun...

My research on this one has left me at a dead end following its delivery to the JT Lloyd Company in Little Rock, as I have not been able to trace its ownership after that...I suspect being a single gun order, it may have gone to a ranking law enforcement officer (maybe a Chief of Detectives?) or maybe a businessman accustomed to carrying large amounts of cash...The research on that continues...

According to input from other more knowledgeable people than me, only 6 other guns of the 1950 .44 Target variety left the factory with 3 1/2" barrels, all of them on one government order...This little fellow is now begging me to start carrying it on me in the holsters I already use for my 3 1/2" .38/44 HD, but I'm a little hesitant as I don't want to start any quarrelling among the safe residents as to who accompanies me on my outings, and not being as strong as I once was, I can't carry all 100+ at once......Ben

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Cogito, ergo BOOM!...

I'm rather partial to the 3 1/2" Pre 27's.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

"My English is not very good looking."
Celia Cruz?

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Have Fun/Stay Safe

Hard to chose one, but there is a difference between beauty and character. So, in the "factory" beauty category, this is mine: a lettered pre 27 pinoto, literally new in the box and shipped to Rex Firearms.

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Randy
Provenance nerd

Your English is fine, you get your point across. Much better than the Italian I learned from Dean Martin.

This is the one that spoke to me!



And this is what I saw it become.



So, yes, I get what you are saying.

Kevin

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Unshared knowledge is wasted.

Neat thread. Probably around the 1992 time frame I owned a “Dirty Harry” S&W .44 magnum. I really liked it and it shot well. I traded it for a Desert Eagle .44 magnum at the time. At the time, I wasn’t a “type collector”, just bought guns to shoot. I figured a semi auto .44 mag with more rounds was a better choice than a revolver. I wished I had never traded that S&W. It was a really cool handgun.

So, I guess my favorite S&W would be that gun. And!, that type of pistol was Dirty Harry’s. Who couldn’t admire that?

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Lots of beautiful guns out there, and I love all the ones posted above. But I agree with several of the above posters, as there is a huge soft spot in my heart, and a lot of S&W steel in my safe that is convincing evidence (to me) that The .357 Magnum, starting with the Registered Magnums of the 1930s through the 27-2s of the 1970s is THE Most Beautiful Revolver ever built. I like all barrel lengths, but the 3.5" and the 8"+ barrel length are my favorites. Here is one of each that shows their beauty.

A 1959 3.5"er Factory Engraved by Siegfried Rentzschke:





... and a 1951 Waffen-Bock Engraved 8 3/8" beauty once owned by famous trick shooter Ernie Lind (just a few photos as I have not officially unveiled her yet):







I am looking forward to the guns that others share.

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Richard
Engraved S&W fan

This is your Triple Lock revolver? Wow!

Condition? Check.
Original box? Check.
Early concave non medallion stocks? Check.

Where did you find it?

I'm partial to the shorter-barrel targets. I have several that I like a lot. The one I'm showing here is a 3" 1899 .38 blue target revolver.





Regards, Mike Priwer

Hard to pick a favorite but I suppose my newest favorite is this 29-2 factory engraved pinto by Russ Smith which originally shipped to England in 1965. At least a couple Forum members will recognize it as they were previous owners.

Jeff
SWCA #1457

Dear mrcvs
no, this Triple Lock is not mine, it is a photo taken on the Web, I own a very nice Triple Lock, in approximately the same condition as the one in the photograph, it is a 455 caliber serial number 3270. I don't have the box.
I'm not capable of taking nice photos with my mobile phone, I'm be able only with a reflex camera on a tripod with auxiliary lights and a limbo backdrop, but it's always too complicated to take a nice photo for a post.
I plan to organize a fixed photographic set soon so I can start publishing my albums with my S&Ws.

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Ciao from Rome
Marcello

Hey Mike,

Are there any roll marks on the top of that barrel?

Thanks,

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Richard
Engraved S&W fan

Marcello -
My 1923 6.5" .44 spl HE. Not the prettiest on the planet, and currently wearing different shoes because I don't want to disturb the factory originals. It turns 101 on 9/12/24. Shoots cowboy loads to POA, fixed sights and all. They knew how to build them back then.

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Heavily armed old man.

I love this group! This is like a beauty pageant! Unfortunately, our contestants can't step up to the mic and tell us all about themselves like a Miss (whatever) does. We've said it before - I wish these guns could talk. Especially those in this pageant.

Well it’s hard to choose but this plain Jane Highway Patrolman is a beauty in my eyes. Now if we leave the revolving cylinder out of the equation then the Third Model Perfected is just sexy as all get out.

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Six men came to kill me one time. And the best of 'em carried this. It's a Callahan full bore auto-lock. Customized trigger, double cartridge thorough gauge. It is my very favorite gun. This is the best gun made by man. It has extreme sentimental value.

I call it Vera.

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This is a doozy of a question …

Triple lock is up there as is the 3.5in N frame .357 mag. I really like the pre war 1905 targets but I think the pre war 38/44 outdoorsman might take the cake?

But also I think the “pre model 10” 1905 fixed sighted 4in guns just look right too.

An argument could be made for any of the pictured revolvers and certainly a case brought forth for your Hand Ejector, Marcello. But my vote for the one that speaks to me, is a five screw .44 Magnum. I really like the storied history of the big Smith & Wesson and the fit and finish are second to none on these early 44's. I just can't choose between these two barrel lengths!


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I don't think even King Solomon with all his wisdom could have chosen between those two outstanding beauties!...Fortunately for you, you've chosen to own both......Ben

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Cogito, ergo BOOM!...

For me it is difficult to pick 'just one'. Two of my favorites are guns that were made to 'work', not win beauty contests. The family association is obvious between them. Here's kind of a father / son portrait, dad being a 1917, and son being a Chiefs Special. Shipped 1918 and 1951 respectively.

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NRA Endowment Member

Marcello: From what I've seen in your many posts, you must own at least half of all of those S&Ws in Italy! And most of yours are very nice! As others have said, it's almost impossible to pick ONE S&W revolver as the finest. I think that you have chosen one of the top picks (.44 HE 1st Model new Century Triplelock), but certainly the Registered Magnums, NRMs, and .38/44 Outdoorsman could be in the Top 5. My modest collection could never compare with the collections of many of our Forum members (e.g. RKmesa, Truckman, Doc44, etc.), but the favorite in my stable is a 6-1/2" bbl. 4-screw .44 Magnum with Coke Bottle stocks (I may even find the correct case for it one of these days!).

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Richard

That is the funniest question that I've had, for a long time! The short answer is 'No' .

The longer answer is that the factory did make the barrel, with the forged front sight base, and the bore and rifling. They just didn't realize that they had done that.

You have to visualize that within a 1950's 38/44 barrel with a rib, there is hidden an 1899 barrel. It's takes a lot of machining, but that is what I had my 1962 machinist-friend grad-school room-mate do. We made it dimensionally-correct for an 1899 barrel.

I appreciate your asking about it.

Regards, Mike

Very Cool.

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Richard
Engraved S&W fan

This is my personally-owned favorite - a 27-2 with all the bells and whistles. Stocks by Curt.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

As much as I like the 29, for beauty I prefer my 8” Anaconda

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For me, It's the S&W Registered Magnum / Pre Model 27 line.
The checkered top strap, blueing so blue it looks wet, and all around beefiness do it for me.

And as far as barrel length, make it 3.5 inches long.




or 4 inches

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Rick
SWCA #2727 , SWHF #435

I assure you that your English is better than most of our
Italian.

I do a lot of work with a Spanish company and my Spanish is pretty good. I use Google Translate to check my grammar and spelling. I type in Spanish then copy and paste it to Google Translate to verify. It helps me minimize grammatical errors. Might not be worth the trouble for your posts here, but just something to think about.

I love your revolvers and look forward to your posts.

Here is my Triple Lock. They are nice to look at.

20180825_170747.jpg

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Robert
SWCA #2906, SWHF #760

I want to add some comments regarding the 3" target 1899 that I presented earlier in this thread.

First, we made up four barrels, in different lengths: 2 1/2", 3", 3 1/2", and 4 1/2". I was experimenting with the overall appearance of shorter-than-4" barrels on a Model of 1899. I concluded that the 3" and the 3 1/2" were the best.

Second, I wanted them to be good shooters. Since I was starting from barrels that were already bored and rifled, and had never been fired, we assumed that the rifled bore was the truest part of the barrel, and we used that to anchor the barrel in the milling machine. In this manner, the machining to form the threaded end would be perfectly concentric with the bore, and the front sight base would align perfectly with the center-line of the bore.

Third, knowing that Jim Fisher is a GOOD shooter (and much better than me), I let Jim test-fire them. The next three pictures are the targets that Jim shot with the 3" gun. The Fishers and I had earlier presented the display "Guns of Famous Shooters" at the Spokane S&WCA Annual Meeting, in which Ed McGivern's record-setting gun, and target, were included. McGivern was always very cognizant of tight groups, and also of details about the shooting of each target. Jim incorporated those ideas on each of the targets that he shot.







As a comparison, this next picture is a target shot with the 3 1/2" revolver.



Regards, Mike Priwer

The prettiest I own is a prewar .38/44 Outdoorsman.

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I’ve always thought the Combat Masterpiece revolvers were functional, well balanced, suitable for a number of uses and beautiful as well.


Regards,

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turnerriver

I would never argue that any of the guns in this thread are anything other than beautiful.

With that said, to my eyes there is something special about 2” round-butt K-frames, the earlier the better.

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Mark Lathem

I"ve always thought the old K frames with the 6 inch tapered barrels were about as sexy as it gets. Love the looks of a 3.5" .357 Magnum as well, but do not have one of those.

No idea why the one pic is posting upside down.🤔

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I'll agree that for its exquisite mechanicals and detail to fit and finish that the 1st Model H.E. Triple lock is right up there. I prefer the 2nd Model, its only a preference for less is more, to me the shroud gets in the way its handy if your using the piece as a bludgeon. My personal favorite is the 1st Model D.A.

I guess the 1940 K22 Masterpiece is on top for me.

They are a wonderment in themselves.

Just beautiful, and, here are a pair that are consecutively numbered.

Enjoy,

bdGreen

Tap on image to enlarge.

As I said earlier, plain and simple is my preference, but I was in conversation with another member tonight that made me think a bit more. I have a pre-war nickel Terrier that is very plain, but it has history, talks to my soul, and has the beauty of superior craftsmanship that newer offerings, in my eyes, just don't have.
Here is a 1939 rendition of a S&W Terrier with a nickel finish that just makes me smile each time I see it. It letters as being shipped to Lou Eppinger on March 20, 1939. If you do much fishing, you may recognize Lou's name as being a manufacturer of fishing lures.
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NRA Endowment Member

In reference to the title of your thread, “the most beautiful ever built”, well, that’s unlikely to be in private hands, unless really wealthy ones. So, I think what you mean is the most beautiful Smith & Wesson one might own that one has in their collection.

So, a few subjective statements, that might prove controversial.

First, the finish of early Smith & Wesson revolvers, especially those from the mid to late 19th Century cannot be beat. Even Roy Jinks stated this once in a thread a few years ago that he didn’t understand the relative lack of interest in the earlier stuff as the craftsmanship cannot he surpassed.

And, beauty is created by the addition of engraving by a quality engraver, and ivory stocks enhances this. And so, here’s my “most beautiful” Smith & Wesson revolver, shipped September 1866.

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Wow, what a great thread!

Honestly though, I don’t know what to choose. If no one has said it yet, let me be the first, “How do you choose from among the stars in the sky?”

Thanks to everyone for the great photos and write ups.

Roger AKA Mr. Wonderful

That's not really what I meant,
I chose as "the most beautiful ever built", a gun I don't own, but that if I'll be lucky I'll have.
It's not just a question of wallet, in my case it's pure luck, because here in Italy some specimens are very rare.
But the beauty of collecting is precisely this: desiring and searching... searching... and then if fate wants it will be FINDING!

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Ciao from Rome
Marcello

Yes, what you mean is true: The fun is in the thrill of the chase.

For me, the pre-war M&P with a 2" barrel is one of the most aesthetically pleasing guns ever built.

Sent from my SM-G781U1 using Tapatalk

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Regards,
Bruce

My knee-jerk response to the question is the Registered Magnum, but only because of my initial knowledge S&W's top 2 or 3 polishers were assigned to RM production.

Later on, when I had at least one each of all the regularly produced pre-war target grade N frames to sit and stare at side by side, I couldn't tell a dime's worth of difference between any of them.

One exception was a first year, 7 1/2" Triple Lock Target, but it was the most beautiful inside---under the sideplate-----where it's not often seen. (A later example was essentially the same as all the rest, and I decided maybe whoever was working on the first gun had some extra time on his hands---and he was just showing off.)

Ralph Tremaine

Sold my favorite I bought over my head, to buy a Benelli Super Black Eagle II to hunt geese with two of my friends.
It was a K-22 Outdoorsman. It was perfect, looking brand new in the box. Grips were awesome. While I wish I still had it, it was a step above my collection and no regrets. Had some great hunts with my friends, shooting my first eagle head blue goose and my first Specklebelliy geese.

Great thread, Marcello. I just love the look and feel of this heavily optioned Model 16-3 K32.

Rome is my favorite European city, I hope to return there soon.

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My last (and only) visit was over 50 years ago...It is a beautiful city with a lot of history, some good, some bad, but all of great interest...I'd love to return, but my chances are somewhere between zilch and nothing...

Further south in Naples I encountered and somehow survived the worst drivers I've ever seen on public roads...I would hope they've improved a bit since then...North of Naples they were all tolerable......Ben

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Cogito, ergo BOOM!...