Let's take a trip to the bargain basement!

Over the last six I've been finding cheap...errrr inexpensive S&W revolvers and snapping them up. Everyone has their safe queens, their "widow gave me Keith's NIB Pre 29 for a box of shoveling her driveway this winter" steals, but I want to see your cheap revolvers that were cheap for a reason.




First, I'll disregard the purpose of my own thread. My first smith, a 3" Round Butt Model 36-1. It came with all the papers, the box, holster, and half of the box of ammo purchased with the gun. Pristine, 99% easily. Traded an SKS for it, felt bad about even using the thing, so I sold it. Then the madness followed.



This little guy came next. Well worn Model 10-5. Pinned barrel, pitting on the frame, horrible rubber grips, and reparked to boot. $195, and a stupid light single action trigger.



Almost a move in a the right direction: A decent Model 442 I bought from my buddy pretty cheap. I realized I was utter **** with it even if it did carry great.





Choo choo! Back on the **** train! A S&W 66-1, pinned and recessed. Horrible pitting, but had a factory action job, has the lovely target hammer, and super tight, nay, perfect lockup. $275 from a local shop, and now certainly my go to shooter revolver.



This one is borderline. Lots of holster wear, grips dont seem to quiiiite match up with the frame, but on the other hand there's no pitting, and $275 for a flat-latch 36 no dash is pretty cheap no matter how you slice it.







This is one I consider a fairly meh deal. The Bud's Aussie Model 10-11 round butt. Finish is well worn (though better than many of the other Bud's 10s), lockup isn't perfect, trigger is solidly ok. Still though, everybody needs a Model 10, and $279 is a small price to pay to pretend to be an oldschool lawman at the range.

(Also curious if anybody knows who those grips on the Model 10 are from)

Here's mine. 1946 K-22 Masterpiece Pre-Model 17. Looked like this when I bought it for $250 "OTD" from a pawn shop. Tried to talk 'em down to $150 at first but they countered it was worth more than that in parts. Perhaps. Settled at $250 including tax and transfer fee.





Soaked in Kroil for a few weeks and used a real copper penny and bronze wool to remove as much rust as I could. Opened it up and cleaned out what gunk was left. Found a set of worn out Herrett's Shooting Star K frame grips for $5, sanded the rest of the worn checkering off and resealed them. Now it looks like this:





Surprisingly this has become one of my all-around favorite handguns. It is a joy to shoot and is far more accurate than my abilities. Everyone loves to shoot this gun. I have been offered a like-new SS Ruger Single-Six convertible as an even trade for it. Nope. Not gonna happen. Love this old "bargain basement beauty"!

Here's a 10-5 that I got for way less than $200.
Nobody else bid, and I didn't have a single Mod 10
in the house. It has such a sweet action on it, that
I don't Care if it doesn't fit my hand. A retired armorer
said the action had been worked on, and I believe him.
If my "J"s were that smooth, i'd be in heaven.
Came with Pach's, replaced with grips from here on the
Forum. Can it get any better?
TACC1

I bought a stainless Ruger ranch rifle from an older guy and when we were wrapping up the deal he casually mentioned that he had a couple of handguns that he wanted to sell, as well. One was a short barreled 9 shot H&R double action revolver that was like new. The other was this 103 year old Colt Army Special in .38 special. He wanted a c note for the pair.
I sold the H&R for $200 about 2 months later, so that made the Army Special free, plus $100 to take it.

Kindred souls. I do have many safe queens BUT I snap every 'cosmetically challenged' S&W I can find. Best range/truck/house/garage/training guns going. Can't hurt them and if they get a scratch, or rust bubble just smile buff it off.

I'm supremely jealous of that K22.

10-5 with some holster wear and a little surface rust. Cleaned up decent, my buddy did a little touch up bluing. I made this set of wooden stocks, but put a new Hogue on it for comfort while shooting. Oh, BTW, it shoots extremely well. Very smooth trigger, and very accurate. $250 from LGS.

waffles said:

Over the last six I've been finding cheap...errrr inexpensive S&W revolvers and snapping them up. Everyone has their safe queens, their "widow gave me Keith's NIB Pre 29 for a box of shoveling her driveway this winter" steals, but I want to see your cheap revolvers that were cheap for a reason.

First, I'll disregard the purpose of my own thread. My first smith, a 3" Round Butt Model 36-1. It came with all the papers, the box, holster, and half of the box of ammo purchased with the gun. Pristine, 99% easily. Traded an SKS for it, felt bad about even using the thing, so I sold it. Then the madness followed.

This little guy came next. Well worn Model 10-5. Pinned barrel, pitting on the frame, horrible rubber grips, and reparked to boot. $195, and a stupid light single action trigger.

Almost a move in a the right direction: A decent Model 442 I bought from my buddy pretty cheap. I realized I was utter **** with it even if it did carry great.

Choo choo! Back on the **** train! A S&W 66-1, pinned and recessed. Horrible pitting, but had a factory action job, has the lovely target hammer, and super tight, nay, perfect lockup. $275 from a local shop, and now certainly my go to shooter revolver.

This one is borderline. Lots of holster wear, grips dont seem to quiiiite match up with the frame, but on the other hand there's no pitting, and $275 for a flat-latch 36 no dash is pretty cheap no matter how you slice it.

This is one I consider a fairly meh deal. The Bud's Aussie Model 10-11 round butt. Finish is well worn (though better than many of the other Bud's 10s), lockup isn't perfect, trigger is solidly ok. Still though, everybody needs a Model 10, and $279 is a small price to pay to pretend to be an oldschool lawman at the range.

(Also curious if anybody knows who those grips on the Model 10 are from)

Click to expand...

I have a set of grips marked in the same way. I would like to know more about them.

Check out this link for the grips.

Ace Grips

Well I don't know if these were "bargains", but they have been well used over the years ...

An over polished and re-blued Mod 17 for $300.


My often carried Mod 28-2, I bought it for $300 and it has the best trigger of any S&W I own.


Here's a $350 Buds Guns Mod 10 that's a good shooter.


I never turn down a gun with honest wear on it for a good price.

GF

I posted this before as "Engraved by Mother Nature." I gave $27.50 OTD at local pawn eporium for this "beauty". Soaked her in Kroil, hummingbird earlobs juice, amp, and anything else I could find for her. Look at the grips (brand new), must be repos!. Took them off and had a set of "goodyears". I have shot this 1905 2nd many times. It resides permanently behind the console on the floor of my truck. It is all orignial #'s, butt, cylinder, Bbl. flat, etc. I would, and do, bet my life on her every day (if needed). Very accurate for over 100 years old. 1906-1909. Now, that was a bargain basement buy.

I have several revolvers that fit this thread.

I bought a 1917 barreled frame that was in the white. I had to add the cylinder, hammer, trigger, yoke, grips and all of the guts. Here is how it turned out. It shoots, too.



This is a M544 Texas Wagon Train, chambered in .44-40. Looks like Hades, but the bore and cylinder are great.



This one is kinda rare. It is a .32-20 target model. Again, poor finish, but mint barrel and chambers.




Same story on this K-22, shipped in December 1947. Great bore, poor finish. One of my best shooters.

Military & Police ~1946

Payed less than $100 dollars for it, extractor nut was loose, cylinder wouldn't turn, trigger and hammer were gummed up with dried lube. It had spent enough years in a sock in the back of a closet that the oil had evaporated and it was covered in surface rust with a few pitted areas.

Barrel and cylinder were bright and shiny, so I soaked it in Marvell's Mystery oil for a couple of days, took it apart and cleaned it all up.

Best trigger of any of my wheel guns, it's a great shooter and everyone I've let shoot it has offered to buy it.

It's my truck/house gun, & did I say I love the trigger

My first revolver... A S&W model 10-5 in my LGS for $199... This is one of the "family favorite" guns I own... This is everyone's favorite shooter!

Thinking about one of these for my first revolver......

Any thoughts?

Used S&W Police Model 10 38sp Square Butt $279.00 SHIPS FREE

Every time they have a sale like that, I'm not
prepared. For that money, I'd gladly take a flyer on
a round-butt. Those don't seem to stay in-stock long
enough for me to take the jump. Can't beat the price!
TACC1

Well, I consider this a bargain at $315 OTD. I believe just because they didn't know what they had. From LGS about 6 months ago. It looks brand new, I added the Grashorns. A Model 15-3 from around 1969.

some neat ones!

This old 1905 M&P .32-20 was my super cheap find at a garage sale parts gun price. When I opened it to check if it was loaded the cylinder and crane fell into my hand because it was missing a screw.