I have a couple of project guns underway. This M65 is one of them:
It was originally a Lubbock, Texas, police department gun:
The above pix are the condition in which I received it, maybe three years ago or so. If memory serves, she is a dash 1 from the mid '70s, maybe '76. Anyway, I think the 4" M65 is just about the perfect, all around handgun. I have an M10 from the 60s, also a heavy bbl 4", that I like a lot, but I think adding the .357 capability, and rendering it in stainless, really perfected the platform. Not much that gun can't do. It's an easy gun to carry, open or concealed. Defend yourself, of course, but have fun at the range, too, or just plinking. Or even hunt, in a pinch, if ya had to.
But it's also kind of plain Jane. Ya know?
Not that there's anything wrong with that per se, but… I got to thinking. What about if I decided to blow a bunch of bux on Plain Jane and gussy her up like no one in his right mind has ever done before to an M65?! "Whale hail, let's do it," sez I, with my customary insouciance when it comes to impractical projects of this nature. But…. Jane needed to be worthy of this foolhardy and certainly costly endeavor, and she was not ready.
So I decided to send her first to Mr. Grant Cunningham's charm school for beat up old ladies to give her a thorough checking out and then spiff up her innards into a lean, mean, fighting machine with a trigger pull just as smooth as butter and etcetera. Which I did. I.e., ladies and gents, his "super action job." http://www.grantcunningham.com/smith-wesson-gunsmithing.html Asked him to smooth the trigger face, too.
And I asked Dan Love, who engraved my Bowen gun, to put thin bands of gold around the cylinder and rear of the bbl, and a thin line of gold on the front sight blade. Meanwhile, I asked Dan Collins to make Jane (who at this stage was increasingly no longer plain) some gold medallioned, elephant ivory magnas. And I ordered and received a Mitch Rosen light brown, boned leather holster for her! Yep. Easy on the eyes!
Now I know you are eager to see the pics, right?! Whelp, unfortunately I can't find 'em. Sorry about that. Maybe I never even took 'em at that stage. Which would be too bad. But, I do have some more pix 'cause, ya see, I still wasn't done!!! No, I am not kiddin'.
Read on:
After fooling around with Jane – actually it was a pretty torrid summer romance on Oahu, July-August '09 – I decided Jane oughta be spiffed up a tad more. I had decided I liked the polished steel look on her so did not want to engrave this gal, but I wanted, well, a bit more gold on her. Since I was also planning another engraving project (for a Dick Special), this time with the engraver Weldon Lister, Jr., I asked Weldon if I could send along Jane for a little gold work. He agreed. Specifically, what I wanted was to have the bbl lettering and the S&W logo in gold. Here are some pix of the work in progress Weldon sent along recently:
He's also been polishing out some of the old dings and scratches and stuff. Here's another pic:
I've further asked that he do the Made in USA in gold, too. I expect Jane is gonna be pretty darn voluptuous when next we meet under the moonlight and stars of Hawaii….
TO BE CONTINUED….
(Now y'all go have a cold shower and keep them impure thoughts to yourselves.)
It was originally a Lubbock, Texas, police department gun:
The above pix are the condition in which I received it, maybe three years ago or so. If memory serves, she is a dash 1 from the mid '70s, maybe '76. Anyway, I think the 4" M65 is just about the perfect, all around handgun. I have an M10 from the 60s, also a heavy bbl 4", that I like a lot, but I think adding the .357 capability, and rendering it in stainless, really perfected the platform. Not much that gun can't do. It's an easy gun to carry, open or concealed. Defend yourself, of course, but have fun at the range, too, or just plinking. Or even hunt, in a pinch, if ya had to.
But it's also kind of plain Jane. Ya know?
Not that there's anything wrong with that per se, but… I got to thinking. What about if I decided to blow a bunch of bux on Plain Jane and gussy her up like no one in his right mind has ever done before to an M65?! "Whale hail, let's do it," sez I, with my customary insouciance when it comes to impractical projects of this nature. But…. Jane needed to be worthy of this foolhardy and certainly costly endeavor, and she was not ready.
So I decided to send her first to Mr. Grant Cunningham's charm school for beat up old ladies to give her a thorough checking out and then spiff up her innards into a lean, mean, fighting machine with a trigger pull just as smooth as butter and etcetera. Which I did. I.e., ladies and gents, his "super action job." http://www.grantcunningham.com/smith-wesson-gunsmithing.html Asked him to smooth the trigger face, too.
And I asked Dan Love, who engraved my Bowen gun, to put thin bands of gold around the cylinder and rear of the bbl, and a thin line of gold on the front sight blade. Meanwhile, I asked Dan Collins to make Jane (who at this stage was increasingly no longer plain) some gold medallioned, elephant ivory magnas. And I ordered and received a Mitch Rosen light brown, boned leather holster for her! Yep. Easy on the eyes!
Now I know you are eager to see the pics, right?! Whelp, unfortunately I can't find 'em. Sorry about that. Maybe I never even took 'em at that stage. Which would be too bad. But, I do have some more pix 'cause, ya see, I still wasn't done!!! No, I am not kiddin'.
Read on:
After fooling around with Jane – actually it was a pretty torrid summer romance on Oahu, July-August '09 – I decided Jane oughta be spiffed up a tad more. I had decided I liked the polished steel look on her so did not want to engrave this gal, but I wanted, well, a bit more gold on her. Since I was also planning another engraving project (for a Dick Special), this time with the engraver Weldon Lister, Jr., I asked Weldon if I could send along Jane for a little gold work. He agreed. Specifically, what I wanted was to have the bbl lettering and the S&W logo in gold. Here are some pix of the work in progress Weldon sent along recently:
He's also been polishing out some of the old dings and scratches and stuff. Here's another pic:
I've further asked that he do the Made in USA in gold, too. I expect Jane is gonna be pretty darn voluptuous when next we meet under the moonlight and stars of Hawaii….
TO BE CONTINUED….
(Now y'all go have a cold shower and keep them impure thoughts to yourselves.)
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