K-38 Target Masterpiece is greatness in steel and walnut

I have beheld greatness, held it in my hands and shot it. And lo and behold, I bow at the altar of Smith & Wesson.

At the gun shop where I work, they have a counter full of classic handguns, Smith & Wessons mostly, and I liberated one of the unsung stars of that collection for a test run at the range Saturday. It really needed no test run, being a classic Smith, but if any doubt remained as to whether I'd be plunking down cash on the counter come Monday, all doubts disappeared with the first six shots.

I stood at 100 feet and lined up on a paper plate on a post, took aim offhand and let fly six shots. I figured if I hit the plate at all, it would be a good start. All six rounds of .38 Special +Ps went into the pie plate. I tacked up a bullseye target over the plate and three friends and I proceeded to burn up a box of 50 CCI JHPs. And the barrel was barely warm when the ammo was long gone. That target in the photo is the last six shots fired rapid fire offhand at 50 feet.
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I forgot my real camera and I had to make do with my cellphone camera, so the real beauty of this S&W Model 14-3 doesn't shine through in the second photo. More to come later.
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It's not a beauty queen, like some classic Smiths are that have been babied and pampered and spent their days resting in a gun safe with nary a blemish on their blue steel and walnut. This old warrior was made sometime between 1957 and 1981, when the Model 14 ceased production, and I strongly suspect it attended and maybe even won many of a bullseye competition during its working life.

It was sold to us in its present condition, most of the bluing gone but still sound as a hammer. (Sound as a dollar doesn't measure up to the standards of this classic Smith.) The cylinder locks up tighter than Dick's hatband and even when in the unlocked position with the hammer down, there is less wobble in it that almost every brand-spanking-new Smith I've ever handled.

It's got a Bomar target rear sight, Patridge front sight and Magna target grips that fill your hand. But that's not the good part. The double-action trigger is so smooth it's to die for, just to stroke it through its appointed path. And the single-action trigger? Well you cock it, you point it at the target and you think "Shoot!" and away she goes. Maybe 2 lbs., probably less. My digital trigger-weight gauge went Tango Uniform, so I can't verify that.

I can say this. Two fellow gun nuts of my generation handled this old Smith before we got to the range and both of them tried to buy it off me before we ever fired the first shot.

And both of them said the first single-action shot snuck up on them when they fired it off. I've got a Smith 29 with a 1 lb. 4 oz. single-action trigger, so I was ready for a light release. The Smith 14-3 isn't that light, but it isn't awfully far from it either.

Back in the pre-1957 days before S&W pistols got numbers, this Model 14 was called the K-38 Target Masterpiece and from the year of its manufacture in 1946, it dominated the bulls-eye target competition scene. In the postwar years up through the 60s, if you showed up at a bullseye match without a K-38, you might as well have stayed home.

It's indeed a target masterpiece in steel and walnut and I shall be proud to call it my own.

No argument here. Those are sweet revolvers. I got my K-38 (a Pre-14 that was shipped in 1950) a few months back. Barring a couple of localized surface blemishes, it's in pretty good shape.

I haven't shot groups as tight as yours but that's me -- not the gun. I need to put in some range time from a rest to see what the gun is capable of doing.

Gotta' love those Model 14s. My 14-4 shoots them all in one ragged hole from a rest, they open up a bit (ok a lot) when I hold it, but they stay in the black for the most part. I was playing around a few weeks ago at 100 yards with a man sized sillouette and of 18 shots fired all but two hit center mass with one in the arm and one in the head.

I find the K-38s just fit my hand, balance and point to perfection for me. I love my 14 so much it is the gun I keep in my nightstand, I have great confidence that it will hit the target every time.

But how do you like it? Don't hold back, just tell us how you feel about it.
Very enjoyable post. Thanks for sharing!

I have a K38 with 6 inch barrel and a 14-4 with 8 3/8 inch barrel that are both like new. I guess I will have to take them out of the safe and take them to the range and shoot them at different distances. The K38/14 and the K22/17 are two of my favorite S&W gun models.

I have a 14-3 that I bought a few years ago and probably didn't appreciate enough. A few months ago, I decided to downsize my collection a little to finance a new project and some accumulating expenses. In a weak moment, I put the 14 up for consignment sale with some other guns. The idea of losing the 14 bothered me for about a week. I went back to the dealer and the 14 (fortunately) hadn't sold, so I took it back. After reading this thread, I'm going to have to take it out soon and really try it out. I don't think I had shot it seriously before, but merely function tested it. Thanks for the appreciative posts.

I have this pre 14 that is about 98+ % that has a hiding spot in the back of the safe .

Benchrest 14-3 shooting to come

The test run, as if the 14-3 really needed one, was all casual shooting offhand and that box of 50 rounds disappeared way too quickly. I'll be going back to the range Saturday for some benchrest shooting to get the sights set properly. As is, they were shooting about 6" low at 100 feet.

I'm also curious about the BoMar target sight on the rear of this 14-3. Was that standard from Smith, or is this something the previous owner added?

I've never used a BoMar sight before so I'm looking forward to that, too.

For sure, this classic Smith is a real keeper.

BTW, here's a full-size photo of this old warrior that's still fighting fit.

In the current rush to buy the "biggest and baddest" revolvers (some that are almost unshootable by mere mortals) the pleasures of a fine, precision, TARGET SHOOTING MACHINE have seemingly been forgotten.

The S&W Model 14 is a "Classic" in the fullest sense of this much overused word. It is totally pleasurable to shoot. I cast my own bullets and reload, so I can produce precision match ammo (less than 3/4" at 25 yards off a Ransom Rest) that is SO pleasurable to shoot for less than the cost of good .22 ammo.

To paraphrase an old ad slogan, "For a treat instead of a treatment, try an S&W Model 14 with match wadcutters". If you have any soul AT ALL, you will appreciate this BIG TIME.

Mine was bought new, in the box, from a good friend who won it in a pistol match long ago and far away (cost me a hard to come by, $100.00). I added a Bo-Mar rib and a set of custom walnut Rainey & Thompson grips and shot it in PPC competition for several years.

Netfotoj;
Thanks for the trip down memory lane...

My gun will not excite a collector due to the modifications, but needless to say it is a treasured piece of a shooter. It'll be with me until I get too feeble to shoot.

Dale53

netfotoj said:

I have beheld greatness, held it in my hands and shot it.

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Fo' a fack, dat be so. All dat whatchu said.

Several years ago, I decided to try to get the wife into shooting. I found a fairly nice 14-2 with a 4" barrel and paid the princely sum of $350.00 for it. I had a local smith go over it just to smooth out the DA trigger a bit for the wife. That was enough to get her hooked.

Unfortunately, I sent off for the "letter" what with the 4" 14's being somewhat rare. Alas, it was shipped to the LAPD as a 6 incher. Whoever swapped the barrels knew what he was doing. Of all the handguns I own or have owned, that 14 is still the one by which the others are judged. And it will be the last to go.

Dale53 said:

I added a Bo-Mar rib and a set of custom walnut Rainey & Thompson grips and shot it in PPC competition for several years.

Netfotoj;
Thanks for the trip down memory lane...Dale53

Click to expand...

I'm wondering if the rib and the BoMar sight on my new-to-me 14-3 is original or added.

The photo of the pre-14 earlier in the thread doesn't have the rib and BoMar sight, so I'm guessing this is an add-on. Whatever, I love it.

I've got a 6" 1956 K-38, a 4" 14-3 (it lettered as a 4") and recently aquired a 14-5 6" full lug barrel. I ain't about to sell any of them!

It's been a deep torrid love affair since summer 1958', the first time I shot my Uncles K-38, in Kittery Maine.

Revolver Day: S&W K-38, Ruger LCR and 2 Charter .327 Magnums

Turns out I put this thread in the wrong forum. Sorry. A friend with info on serial numbers tells me my 14-3 was made in 1975. But it's a genuine Target Masterpiece, as I proved once again when I went back to the range Saturday.

Something new vs. something old. Which one wins? Usually it's the new and improved and supposedly better. But sometimes it ain't.

Case in point is the latest and greatest .38 Special revolver, the Ruger LCR with Crimson Trace Laser Grips, which went to the range with me today along with a pair of Charter Arms .327 Magnums, both equipped with CT Laser Grips. All needed zeroing and it's a dirty job but somebody's got to do it. That would be me.

I really like the .327 Federal Magnum cartridge, the NRA Ammo of the Year. It has ballistics that are almost identical to .357 Magnum, but without the punishing recoil in a lightweight revolver. The Charter .327 is one of the new breed that IMHO is better than a standard .38 snubby. Six shots vs. 5, better ballistics than .38 Special or even .38 +P. What's not to like?

And then there's a new wrinkle in .38 snubbies. The friend with the other Charter also bought a new Ruger LCR, which stands for Lightweight Compact Revolver. The friend, let's call her Annie Oakley, is a great natural shooter who just took my first NRA Basic Pistol Class. She was previously untrained with handguns, but you'd never know it.

So I also volunteered to zero her new Ruger LCR, which she purchased last week at the gun store where I work.

The LCR is the world's first polymer-grip revolver, with an aluminum frame, steel 5-shot cylinder and steel-lined 1.875" barrel. It came from the factory with the Crimson Trace Laser Grips installed, unlike the two Charter magnums, which had their CT grips installed at the gun shop where I work.

So I expected the Ruger lasergrips to be at least close to zero. Wrong.

The first two shots I fired with the LCR laser were almost in the same hole, but several inches and high and a bit left. (First yellow target, two holes high and left.) So I checked the iron sights. Bam, bam, two holes on each side of the bull. (Same yellow target, holes at bull)

Nothing wrong with those iron sights. So I did the zero the easy way, aligning the zero with the iron sights, then firing a group of five. (Orange target.) Not bad. I'm not all that great at firing a double-action trigger, but this one is pretty good. Better than the average Smith & Wesson double-action .38 snubby, which heretofore has been the standard by which other .38 snubbies are measured.

There's a new snubby in town and it has a pretty good trigger, maybe a great one for somebody who actually knows how to shoot a DA snubby, and that ain't me.

I proved that by setting up a 11x17" little redman target at 21 feet and standing on my hind legs the way you're supposed to shoot a snubby. The five holes in the 8 and 9 rings are .38s from the DA snubby Ruger LCR.

That kinda ticked me off, shooting so lousy at Tueller Drill distance.

So I loaded up my S&W 14-3, which back before Smith got stupid and used model numbers to identify their pistols was known as the K-38 Target Masterpiece. Now which says excellence to you, Model 14-3 or K-38 Target Masterpiece? I rest my case.

Anyway, I loaded up the K-38 and fired a dozen double-action rounds or so at the little redman's head. That lovely Target Masterpiece has such a sweet, smooth double-action trigger that even I can shoot it well. Just because something's "new" don't necessarily mean it's improved.

Now I gotta find me an old Smith snubby that ain't "new and improved" and has a great trigger like my K-38.

I also spent a good part of my range time Saturday zeroing the Bomar sight on my K-38. The last set of targets is the K-38 zeroed up at 50 feet, at left, and then a pair of cylinder loads shot at 100 feet, in the target at right.

Lordy, they really don't make 'em like this K-38 Target Masterpiece anymore. It makes an old fart like me look like I can really shoot, double-action or single-action.

I assume most of the forum members have had a 'good' day at one time or another when it comes to purchasing Smith's. One if my good days was in the late 90's while at a retail gun store. I observed a guy attempting to sell two estate guns to the clerk and they would only give him (SOP) 50% of the Fjestad value at the time. I contacted him at the trunk of his car, perused the guns throughly and offered to buy both. He stated he was unable to sell them at the time in that he was gathering price/value info to provide the estate attorney. He took my name and number and that was it.

To my surprise and luck, roughly one year later he called me and asked if I was still interested. He said that I could have both for $225 each. I met him the next day at his residence, cash in hand, and still retain them today. They are as follows: K-38 Target Masterpiece circa 1949 (serial K 81xxx); and an identical K-22 Masterpiece, third model, circa 1953 (206xxx). Both have a standard trigger but target hammers. The best part, which I didn't discover until I got them home and cleaned them, is that they are in nearly identical 98% plus condition. While they are clearly not registered magnums or five screw 29's, they are treasured none the less. There was some bad luck involved.....he didn't have a matching 32!

As stated early in this thread, there isn't a much better or more pleasurable shooter than a K-38 with target wadcutters!

Here is my K-38 Masterpiece made in 1958:


K-22 Masterpiece made in 1948:


And a pre WWII 1905 Hand Ejector King Super Target 32-20:

GatorB: Those are some classy guns.
John

I've got an old 5 screw, 6 inch K-38 that came to me by way of my granddad. Where can I find a date of manufacture? Serial number is 490xx.

First one-hole target I ever shot was with a Model 14-3 using wadcutter reloads....last shot didn't touch paper. That was resting the grips on the table and using two hands at 25' , but says all it needs to say about the guns.