Visited a LGS today I hadn't been in for a year or two. There was little on the shelves of their gun cases and not all that many long guns displayed either. Said most of what they're doing these days is gun smithing and AR builds. Chatted with the owner awhile and as I was leaving said they should call me if they got any interesting S&Ws in. He said "we had a couple last week, too bad you weren't here then." His partner pipes up and says "there's two in that box by your feet." They pull out a 8 3/8 inch 17-2 and a 8 3/8 14-3 both with 3Ts in what I'd call close to 98% condition. Looked the 14-3 over closely and the 17-2 less so as it appeared to be in equally great shape. Bought them both and they tossed in the Starlight hard case.

We've admired here a time or two that there often isn't much difference between an original S&W factory finish and a S&W factory refinish. It wasn't until I got home and pulled the stocks that I found that one had been back to the mothership for a refinish. The one with the diamond targets is the 17-2 of course; and 2nd and 3rd pictures. The last two are the 14-3. Can you tell which is refinished?

What appears to be blue wear/loss in places is just light reflection. No blue loss or wear anywhere.

Jeff
SWCA #1457