I tried the search function but I couldn't find an answer to my question.

I saw a "Bekeart" 6" barreled, small framed, .22 caliber S&W. It had the oversized grips.

It was called a Bekeart. Where does that name or term come from?

Thanks in advance!

I tried the search function but I couldn't find an answer to my question.

I saw a "Bekeart" 6" barreled, small framed, .22 caliber S&W. It had the oversized grips.

It was called a Bekeart. Where does that name or term come from?

Thanks in advance!

Phil Bekeart ordered the first .22 on a .32 hand ejector frame, with 6" barrel and target grips, back in 1911.

__________________
John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

Phil Bekeart was a member of an old California Gold Rush era gun smithing family that started a gun store in San Francisco and advertized his store as the "Pacific Coast Branch of Smith & Wesson" He sold a full line of firearms and related items. He convinced S&W to chamber their .32 Hand Ejector in .22 cal. and catalog it as the .22/.32 ("I" frame) Heavy Frame Target model in 1911, by saying he would order 1,000 of these. Not all of the first 1,000 were shipped to Bekeart, howerver, as they were slow sellers and it took him several years to complete the purchase and sell the guns. Over the years the gun morphed into the popular "Kit Gun", a 4 in. barreled version and the Model 63, etc.

Thanks! Now I know! Verrrrry interesting!

-Steve