Two questions.. Average age and what got you started?

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Model29-26.5

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Is this forum mostly over 50’s? Older? Younger?
How old are you guys and what got you started collecting/accumulating?
I figure the older the forum era, the older the collectors are, due to $$ value and what they grew up seeing?
Just an assumption but I had to ask.
How long have you been collecting and how many S&W do you own?
What is the main allure of the revolver for you?
 
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Model29-26.5 said:
Is this forum mostly over 50’s? Older? Younger?
How old are you guys and what got you started collecting/accumulating?
I figure the older the forum era, the older the collectors are, due to $$ value and what they grew up seeing?
Just an assumption but I had to ask.
How long have you been collecting and how many S&W do you own?
What is the main allure of the revolver for you?
Click to expand...

1) 45 yrs, more than a few
2) CCW: reliability, collecting: aesthetics of steel and wood
Bonus: i have more plastic than ill ever use. and they work fine.
 
Early 50s. I acquired my first gun about 5 years ago when I got a job in a firearms-adjacent industry. I wanted to learn more about guns so I could understand the business better.

As most here can understand, it quickly became a hobby, then a passion. I developed a love of pre lock revolvers and started a collection that is now upwards of 30 guns.

I enjoy shooting. And I love the engineering, history, feel, aesthetics of these guns.
 
For me it started before age 5. My dad went to work at Trico as an armed guard. At that age I already had my own .22 and handled all my dads long guns. Proper handling and safety was drilled into my head. But dad didn’t have any handguns until he got that 4” 10-5. I was completely enamored with it. Buy the time I was 10 or 12 he bought a Heritage Rough Rider .22/.22mag for me to shoot on my grandfather’s farm. Although back then it was FIE not Heritage. As soon as I turned 21 I got my NY permit and my first purchase was a 6” 629. Killed a bunch of deer with it and a 170lb boar. I’ve always liked mechanical things. And to me a fine revolver is a mechanical work of art. I still have dads model 10 and shoot it often…… I’m 55.
 
I'm 48. I bought my first in 2012, a plain jane 686-6, and quickly started uncovering all the details and variations. I realized that, unlike Colts and Winchesters, there was a lack of widespread knowledge among gun people, and deals could be had if one were patient and kept their eyes open.

I seem to gravitate toward pre-WWII target guns, 60s/70s N frame magnums, and newer PC revolvers. If the deal is right, I'll buy outside of those categories, but they tend to become trade fodder.

I have no idea the # but it's not very large, maybe 15 right now.
 
Just turned 40. Started buying guns in my late 20s. Briefly owned a small gun shop in my 30s which provided ample purchasing opportunities. Picked up my 1st S&W revolver (19-4, 4”) maybe 6 years ago, and fell in love. Although my “collecting” really took off the last 2 years with a steadier job/income. As far as guns go, I’ve always liked and appreciated wood and steel. Vintage S&Ws fit the bill perfectly. I rarely carry any of them, occasionally shoot some. I just LIKE them, and figure I can pry get my money back, if not more, if I ever decide I like something else better.
 
I'm old.

The first revolver I shot was my Dad's Heavy Duty. Been in love with handguns ever since, S&Ws in particular. My first was a Single Six when I was 15. Still have that one.

First handgun I bought was a Colt Commander. First S&W I bought was an S serial number 4" HP. That one is long gone but I've had many HPs since then.

How many do I own? One less than I want....
 
I’m in my early-40s. Grew up shooting but really took a nose dive into it when I was in HS in the late-90s when I started buying milsurp and reloading. Still have my single-stage RCBS- now it’s everything from C&Rs, pre-bans, some S&Ws and others. No rhyme or reason to what I accumulate, just buy what I like.
 
I've owned guns since I was 16 years old. My first firearm was a Ruger 10/22 that my Dad bought for me in 1966. In my late 20's I acquired a few handguns and long guns mainly for hunting. I didn't have a S&W revolver until 1980 when I bought a S&W Model 15 .38 Combat Masterpiece. This was the same revolver I shot for qualification in the Air Force during the 70's. That revolver (I still have it) had such a nice finish and fit that it got me interested in S&W revolvers. Since then I have accumulated a small collection of S&W including a 24-3, 10-5, 31-1, 65-5, 28-2 and a 638-3. I own lots of other guns, because I got interested in "Cold War" milsurp pistols and rifles of that time-frame. Russian and Bulgarian Makarovs, CZ-52, CZ-70, CZ-82, CZ-83, Polish TTC, Romanian TT-33, and a Russian Capture P08 Luger, just to name a few. I think I'm done now, because I'm in my early 70's and the time has come to just enjoy shooting what I have. I don't have any "safe queens." Every piece I own has been fired and well cared for.
 
Bought my first gun at 14 years old, bought a model 19 in 77 and a model 63 in 81...in about 2007, in my early 50s, i started accumulating.. disposable income was up, debts down.... Started buying guns. I probably had over a hundred pass through my hands since then. I still have about 80 or 90 total. Most of the handguns are Smith& Wesson's. I am 69

Robert
 
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Age 30

Dad showed me his S&W mod 65-3 when I was younger during my first gun safety lesson. We shot it a couple years later with some 357 Super Vel ammo and I’ve been hooked ever since. My love for top breaks came from the ease of getting into the market when I was younger. You could get a decent quality shooter for $150.
 
In three months, I will be three quarters of a century old.

My S&W saga started in about 1960, when an uncle gave a K-22 Masterpiece to my brother and me. It became a regular feature of our desert visits with our dad. Later we were shooting .38 Special and .357 S&Ws as well as an armory rebuilt 1911A1 of my dad's. Later, I qualified with and carried a Model 15 for two years in SE Asia with USAF.

When I got back to the World, I bought two S&W revolvers for myself (an HP 4" and a K-22 Masterpiece) and one for my wife (a Model 64 2"). Then my dad gave me Grandfather's .38 M&P target model - a 6 1/2" example that shipped in 1908.

It was Grandfather's gun that made me decide to actually collect S&W revolvers. Unfortunately, serious collecting had to wait until I was back on my feet financially, since I had gone back to college and grad school on the GI Bill, supplemented by working various jobs while raising a family. Other than picking up a few along the way, my collecting activity didn't become serious until the mid-1980s.

My initial collecting goal was to acquire at least one high grade example of every major variant of the K-38 Masterpiece (1947-1982). It took a few years, but I got there. Next, I got interested in researching the immediate postwar Military & Police models. I now have more than 15,000 units in a database and about two dozen examples in my safe.

While I have a few I, J and N frames, my main interest lies with the K frame. My oldest one left the factory in 1902. I believe I have only one that is newer than 1982, and it was bought on a whim.
 
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I'm 69 yo. I bought my first handgun, a S&W Mod 36 when I graduated from high school in 1973. Still have it and it is in mint condition. I wish I still had the box but it got away from me through the years. When I retired in 2020, I began to search for the nickel version and purchased it as a companion for my old 36. I then started looking at the different barrel lengths (my first two were "snub nose") then decided to try and find all the variants of the 36. After that, well, my passion got the best of me. I started target shooting so I bought a couple of semi-autos. One thing let to another and now I have 90+ handguns, mostly smiths of many different models. I joined a range and started training with both the revolvers and semi-autos, got my CCW then studied and got my USCCA certified CCW and Home defense instructor cert.

I love the challenge of searching out and finding the old smiths and "filling in the gaps" in my collection. I don't know where this will end. One friend said to me the other day "if you know how many guns you own, you don't have enough". Anyway, I'm hooked now.
 
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I just turned 35. I've been going to gun shows and shops with my Dad my whole life. I remember my Dad buying a used model 19 at a gun show when I was a kid. It probably wasn't his first, and it definitely wasn't his last! I started accumulating Smiths, along with other guns, as soon as I got old enough to buy. I can't explain it, but revolvers have always held a special place in my heart. My Grandpa is also a retired LEO who carried S&W revolvers for most of his career, so that may be partially to blame.
 
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60 years old

Always had a fondness for revolvers since early childhood.My dad had volumes of gun mags and gun digest on a shelf. For many years I accumulated a few S&W with no real focus. Maybe except to have a blue and nickel matching variants. More recently I focus on pre war N frames and especially those with LE provenance.
 
Graduated HS 1976. I Think I was 4 in this photo. Living on an Air Force base in Nebraska. Cap gun Colts! :)
First real gun I shot was my Dads 4” USAF branded model 15-2 with S&W target grips wide hammer wide trigger. Shot my first 50’ foot cloverleaf with that gun. That was before I knew how “collectible” it was. Still is my gold standard for top gun.
My Dad's dad taught me how to miss with a shotgun. When he died (far too young) I got the Double Auto Browning, The H&R Sportsman and the fancy wood gun rack. Still got em and use them.
Guns have always been part of my life.
When I was twelve I built one that used shotgun primers for power and anything you could stuff down the .24 caliber ish smooth barrel for projectile.
Lead sinkers worked well.shot birds with shot macaroni.
Had BB gun fights with the neighborhood friends. Closest without hitting wins. Imagine.. I still have both eyes. :) Must just be dumb lucky.
 

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I expect that many of us are Boomers born 1945 to 1965. But when I had my intro to pistol shooting is was the ex-WW2 men who were driving the sport that became combat shooting then renamed action shooting. Especially Marines who had seen it all and wanted to be prepared for an equally bleak future; men such as Jeff Cooper and Bill Jordan and Ray Chapman, all of whom I knew personally. Their experience with the Government model .45 led to a push to improve the pistol for personal defense. Mission accomplished!

Personally I'm 75 with more than a half century's experience as a designer/maker of gunleather for the global industry. My pet peeve is the younger generations who appear to need to shoot themselves in the groin before they'll learn to carry pistols with the muzzle pointed AWAY from them! For which we 'oldies' have always known better.
 
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Added perk of being into S&W revolvers: if you learn to clean / work on / maintain 1, you pretty much can work on all of them. Only other platform I have more familiarity with is 1911s, but that took years. S&Ws did not, they’re relatively simple once you tear one apart
 
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