Actually it was last Saturday but I needed to put them on hold and came back today to take another look. I know the owner of the shop pretty well so he put them away so I didn't lose them

I am not experienced with these, as my collection so far has been mostly N frames and 686s, so these are my first K frames.

The one on the left is the 17-3 and the one on the right is a 14-3. I haven't looked up the serials yet, but I believe they are both early 70s.

Here's the pics:





They just came in the shop Saturday so they just barely started the 30 day (edit: used gun) hold, so I won't be playing with them for quite a while

Sweet shooters. A perfect pair. Congratulations.

Nice stumble. Good luck.

Nice couple I' guns! K-frames have always fit my hands better than N-frames. Hope you can take them home soon.

Hope you weren't hurt too badly when you stumbled!
If a man were to try and settle on just two revolvers to enjoy for most purposes, he could do a lot worse than that pair, and as part of a larger battery, I dare say you will be going to them often... they should become favorites very quickly! If you reload for the 38, the old midrange target load of a HBWC over a pipsqueak load of Bullseye or a similar powder will be super fun (and cheap) to shoot, and you'll probably find that with the right ammo the 22 will give gilt-edge accuracy, but about anything you put in it will provide "minute-of-tincan" accuracy for fun plinking. You done good there, my friend!

Froggie

Wow! What a great pair of K frames!

However, my only fear for you is that they are redeemed by the owner. I would be miserable if that happened to me. The pawn shops I frequent never put out anything (at least in guns) that cannot be bought and taken home today. Good luck!

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I'm gonna grow fins.

Nice! I hope they become yours!

I bought a 17-3 a couple years ago. It was my first K-Frame .22 LR, and it didn't take too long before it was my favorite .22 handgun I've ever owned. It goes to the range every time!

Beautiful pair.
The 17-3 with the 3-T's is the cat's meow.
You will fall in love with both.
I think I understand your tongue-in-cheek location. 30 days? I didn't understand if that was because the original owner might claim them or that's just the typical wait?

FYI.
17-3 was made circa 1967-1977. Assuming the stocks are original we can narrow the date down a bit. Diamond centered grips were discontinued after 1968 and the full speed load cut out wasn't introduced until maybe about the early 1970's (?) so yours if probably from the early to mid 1970's.

14-3 was also made circa 1967-1977 and with similar reasoning likely dates to the early to mid 1970's.

Below are very rough guidelines for dates of some of the K-frames:
1-2 K prefixes circa 1971
2-3 K prefixes circa 1972
4-5 K prefixes circa 1973
9 K prefixes circa 1977

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Scoundrel & Ne'er-Do-Well

That is a nice brace of Masterpieces that you have your eyes on!

I have a Model 14-4 and a Model 17-3, all 3Ts, that I have used for NRA 2700 3 gun bullseye matches since the early 1980s. I find that these two can be the most economical handguns that I have. The Model 17 is as inexpensive as the 22s that you can locate. The Model 14, if you are content on shooting wadcutters, will shoot almost forever with a pound of Bullseye. .. about 2500 rounds!

I sincerely hope that you are the new owner of these fine handguns, you'll never regret the purchase!

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Judge control not gun control!

K frames rule!!,.............buy them ASAP!!

I probably shouldn't have used the word pawn. What I meant is these came in used so they have to enter them into a thing called FDAS (firearm dealer acquisition system) and hold them 30 days to make sure they aren't stolen. They have to have a pawn license to even buy used guns, so that was why i referred to it. Some stores don't even put them on display until the 30 days is up. These guys put them out right away and now i have to wait

All of their price tags show the date they can be transferred like "ok after 4/25/16".

I've used it to my advantage when negotiating sometimes... as i've seen old rifles in there with a 2014 date and made a fairly low offer based on how long its been sitting there.

I have the S&W catalog, i was just too tired to walk out to the car and get the receipts with the serial numbers

This is going to be hard to wait!

Beautiful revolvers and I know you cannot wait to get your hands on them for good.
If the grips are both original. I agree they should be mid-'70's guns but, until a serial number is posted, I am unsure.

Hard to go wrong with those two guns. Great stumble.

Now you must get the Model 48 with the three T's to complete a perfect trio.

I'm curious what they're asking. I privately bought the same set except mine are both -4's a year or two ago for $1k. Seemed like a deal at the time. Kind of bummed though as I shoot my $275 15-7 better than the 14-4. The 17-4 chambers are very tight and won't even chamber most of the types of ammo I have. They do look nice though.

They had them priced at $900 for the 17-3 and $700 for the 14-3. I got a little discount off that price but not much. Seeing as how these fetch a premium here in the PRK, there was not too much room for negotiation.

The part where I saved is my form of payment- I brought in a few SKS & Mosin rifles and made a trade. When you figure what i paid for those many years ago, I pretty much stole these Smiths

Yeah. I kick myself every so often for not having bought any SKS or AK-types long ago when they were "cheap".

A fine pair of K frames.

With all due respect to my colleague g8rb8 I doubt very seriously if either of those revolvers is wearing its original target stocks. I've been collecting and shooting K-38 and K-22 revolvers for a long time and have never seen targets with the speedloader cutout on a -3 revolver that could be confirmed as original. If I'm not mistaken that style appeared in the late 1970s on K frame revolvers, not the early 1970s. They began to ship as standard on the 14-4 and 17-4.

Hence, I think both of your "new" revolvers are wearing replacement stocks. Now, to be clear, that is not a big ding by any means. The stocks look nice and are perfectly appropriate for use as is. I'm sure you will greatly enjoy having both of these fine revolvers.

If you look at the bottom two revolvers in this picture, you will see two Model 14-4 revolvers. The one on the bottom dates to 1980 and has the speed loader cut. The one just above that dates to 1977 - a very early 14-4. You can't see the left side in the photo, but those stocks have the football cut and are original.

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Jack
SWCA #2475, SWHF #318

Nice pair of Masterpieces,
I agree with Jack, stocks are newer than the guns and an original 17-3 / 14-3 would have either had Magnas or football relieved targets.

Enjoy them !

Ok, I finally got the serial info. Turns out the 17 is a 17-4, not sure how I screwed that up. Serial is 75K94XX

14-3 is 16K44XX

In my opinion you stumbled across a pair of the finest target revolvers ever produced. They look to be in fine shape, use and enjoy them!

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John. SWCA #1586

Okay. That one dates to 1979 (SCSW 3d is incorrect on this number group), which means the stocks could very well be original. Nice!

1977. I strongly suspect the stocks on that one are a later addition, but I can't say that with certainty.

As stated earlier, you picked up some fine revolvers there!!!

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Jack
SWCA #2475, SWHF #318

The trifecta would be a 16-whatever. The quadfecta would add the 48. Good luck in your search!

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Even older, even crankier....