I did not know that this existed. It states that only 1,067 were manufactured.
Does anybody have an idea of what this is worth and why did they stop production?

IIRC 1940-41 mfg- they don’t change hands much so it’s difficult to pin a value but I’d say 3500-5500 is a decent place to start, although it’s a wide window. It’s my S&W grail gun.

__________________
Some Might Say.

It's posting an ongoing auction that gets deleted. Closed auctions are ok. Remove the link and the auction # you might be ok. The
k22 2nds are neat guns! Production was stopped for WW2

__________________
PTLAPTA!

Will do, thanks

They stopped production when S&W suspended civilian production to concentrate on the war effort in 1940.

__________________
David Reynolds

Yes, only 1067 were manufactured in 1940.

Masterpiece, the new moniker for S&W's premium target .22 revolver.

It was newly introduced in 1940 then S&W shut down production to concentrate their manufacturing on war time products.

After the war end S&W introduced their 'newer' Masterpiece in 1946. Very few shipped in'46, but the gates opened up to a flow of guns shipped in 1947.

The gun in that condition without the shiny red box and tools should fetch $3,800 - $4,200. If any special provenance can be rightfully documented, double that.

They were called the Masterpiece for a very good reason.

bdGreen

Right now there are three or four of these for sale coming up in a few weeks.

I would save these auctions then look at completed sale prices to see what they bring.
I
Boxed 22/40s normally bring a greater premium.

I lucked into one a while ago.

enjoy,

bdGreen

Here's one of mine - that shipped April 9, 1940 in a K-22-40 marked Outdoorsman box...







With the micrometer rear sight (tang contoured to the frame) and the short action, they are probably the finest 22 revolver to ever roll off of ANY factory line.



They are just beautiful!!!

__________________
Richard
Engraved S&W fan

Those are stunning revolvers.

Man that top strap is just the best! Micrometer click with prewar setting... drool ��

Here's mine along with a couple Outdoorsmen. It's finish challenged, but scarce enough that I don't care.

__________________
Chris
SWCA #2243 SWHF #292

It is amazing to m that when some of certain type of Smith’s come up for sell that these posts start ahead of time and drive the price above what anyone would have given weeks before. I remember when a member here bought a bunch of Registered Magnum of all conditions, some re-blued multiple times started posting about them multiple times before he dumped them driving him the price was to 5 or 10 times what they were worth so he could make money off when he dumped them on auction sites. A few years later he did the same with K22s. I know this because I paid too much for a 4 digit K22 that is like new. This was well over 10 years ago and maybe close to 20 years ago. So it just could be that I am out of touch and too. But I don’t want to see anyone waiting for years for the real value to catch up to what they paid! Good news is that I still have a like new LERK K22 that is worth more now than what I paid for it. Just thoughts from an old guy that wants to pass along a little wisdom.

I disagree. This is a website that contains mostly very knowledgeable people who specialize in S&Ws and are well aware of what they are worth. I doubt that hardly anyone here will spike the prices above what any particular gun is worth just to own it. It is the bidder with more money than smarts who is most likely overpaying for a gun and I am sure that they are typically not members of this Forum. You can find them every day on Gunbroker trying to hawk a $1000 gun for $3000 because they paid too much and it NEVER sells.

Most here do not buy solely for investment, but many are of the age that it does make sense to pass on the overpriced guns in the market and look for more safe purchases than speculations.

__________________
Gary
SWCA 2515

I don't know if that is accurate or not, but that thought has crossed my mind a time or two. I will tell you that if someone is interested in purchasing either of my K-22-40s, they will most likely have to deal with my children... after I'm dead. And if I'm dead and you're dealing with my children, there may be a lot of great deals, as none of my children are very interested in my Collection. Although all of them are fairly financially savvy... so maybe not the great "look what I stole..." kind of deals.

__________________
Richard
Engraved S&W fan

That's not true, Dad!......Ben

__________________
Cogito, ergo BOOM!...

This thread has been a lot of fun for me and I'd love to see photos of a few more pre-war K-22 Masterpieces (K-22-40), so here are some photos of my other one that shipped May 16, 1940. It has been shot and it not quite as nice as the one I shared above, but still a great gun:





Notice that the rear sight tang on this later shipped gun now has the patent number on it rather than "patent pending" like the one above...



... and some photos of the brochure:







Note the different print dates:



Once again - these are one of S&W's finest creations.

Thanks for letting me share,

__________________
Richard
Engraved S&W fan

Richard,
The number 2 gun shown with a patent number was an education for me.
Thanks for sharing.
The picture box is the finest example I have ever seen, it looks brand new
Especially considering it’s 85 years old. Wow!

Wow! Thank y'all very much for sharing these "Masterpieces."

Pages from the 1941 S&W Catalog and the 1941 AMC.

Attached Images

	20250423_180034.jpg (144.4 KB, 128 views)
	20250423_180130.jpg (107.3 KB, 129 views)

__________________
David Reynolds

The Twins.

Consecutively serial numbered.

enjoy,

bdGreen

From the posts, it looks like a decent percentage of the survivors are owned by us!

__________________
Chris
SWCA #2243 SWHF #292

this is a great and informative thread many photos of this rare model. I got mine out to see what the rear sight had on it. mine is stamped "Patents pending". I would imagine that makes it an earlier model.
anybody have any idea of the number with this this stamping verses the ones with the patent number. unfortunately mine is open on the books.

__________________
Ken

I don't have a large enough sample to determine. I think Bruce has at least 4-5 of them. Perhaps he could look at each of his and see if he sees a cutoff pattern. What is your SN?

For mine:

684735 (4/9/1940) has the Patent Pending
687594 (5/16/1940) has the Pat. Number

Thanks,

__________________
Richard
Engraved S&W fan

These are the grips I am shooting with now.
Also my Masterpiece has the silver call bead. Wonder what most shipped with. Shipped 3-13-40




A couple years back I held a regular K22 OD that someone had put a 22/40 short action hammer on.

Richard,
mine is #684746

__________________
Ken

What a gem. Absolutely beautiful. 👍👍 Where do you find these things, not that I could afford them anyway. 😂

Delete duplicate

I purchased the first one almost 15 years ago from a private collection and paid almost $4.5K for it. That was a lot of money then and is a lot of money today. The package (box, SAT, brochure and gun) is one of the nicest pre-war K-22 Masterpiece original packages I have ever seen. I do have to note that the grips on the first one in the photo above are some KB beauties that I purchased from Keith at a Symposium a few years ago. I have the original magnas, but they are a bit more boring... Here is a photo with the original magnas:



... and with the KB magnas (for comparison):



The second one I purchased at auction over 13 years ago for $2.4K (gun only with non matching standard grips). At a later date, I purchased (i) an almost perfect K-22 Masterpiece box (I paid $1K for the box if I recall correctly) and (ii) the set of modified pre-war magnas that it is wearing for approx. $200. So I have a little over $3.6K into that one.

Both of my guns are worth more today than I paid for them... at least to me.

Thanks for letting me share,

__________________
Richard
Engraved S&W fan

I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned in this thread that the SCSW 5th shows the value tables of the K22-40 to be significantly less than the K22-OD. I mentioned this here and on the SWCA forum when I received my copy. Posts didn't get a lot of traffic. I assume the charts got swapped prior to printing???

__________________
Chris
SWCA #2243 SWHF #292

I remember your posts. I don’t remember anyone in the know posting to an error. It did seem odd that the values for the K22-40 had declined when it had been much higher than the first K22 it seemed forever. Sometimes things don’t make sense.
Larry

__________________
Miss Buddies crsides & fat tom