At $269, I'm kind of intriqued. Pretty good reviews on their site from customers, but I'm interested in possible opinions from an independent source....

I got a 3" square butt and love how it balances in my hand. I added a grip adapter and am good to go. Not a safe queen but a great shooter

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Wheel guns are real guns too.

Yep.

Still cleaning the bluing up and just added these Hogues...

Model 10-10:


This was her before:

Bought this at Robertsons trading post, G.A. for $289, , Each gun is graded by price, and each ad has over 10 photos of the gun you would buy. I understand Bud's is "luck of the draw" Grips I bought from Altamont.Gun is from Ohio Dept. of Corrections

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Max, grips are a nice touch to your model 10. My 10-8, has C.T. 207 Lasers on it. Bob

warrconn, the Bud's guns are guaranteed for function. You don't know what dash # you will get, or what cosmetics will be like. I got a 10-8 from them last year. The grips were like new (odd) There was typical blueing, and holster wear. Very light rust, that came off. Would I buy another? YES!!! A great value, for a solid functional Smith! Bob

I bought one of those 10's from Buds and I should get it this week. For a shooter you can't go wrong for the price and buds guarantee that it will work. Yesterday I bought a 64-6 from Robertsons and I should get it in 10 days or so. I just couldn't stop my finger from pushing the "buy it" button. Robertsons does do a nice writeup of the guns condition and the price was very reasonable.
These trade in's usually require a little TLC - some cold blueing or light polishing if you want them to look nice.

I bought a S&W model 10-10 from Bud's a month ago. round grip frame ,4" barrel, regular holster wear. Shot great, but wante a 3"er. So we cut the barrel back on a milling machine crowned the muzzle,new gold bead front sight, beautifull combat walnut grips, and touch up blueing. Great balance, shoots to point of aim at 20 yards and a sight to behold.2012-02-02 18.58.47.jpg

2012-02-12 10.41.36.jpg

I bought one of the 3" square butt guns. Finish was lousy, but mechanically it is perfect. I would lay a month's pay down that this gun had less than 100 rounds fired through it in it's life (spent in a holster).

At $269 it's too high.

A couple months ago SOSS had 10s on gunbroker for $205 buy-it-now.

Wow!! Nice job!!

At Bud's, $269 is the cash price For the 10. If you use a credit card, he tacks on 3%, which about $7 more. Here is another 64 I got at Robertson's, $289, plus $10 shipping.Love K frames.Grips are bonded ivory from Altamont Grips.

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This is my 10-8 from the Victoria Police Department.

I made a few mods to it.

Buck

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I paid $243. delivered at Bud's. It was on their auction page.
Can't wait to see it and shoot it.

I just received my used square butt heavy barrel Model 10-8, S/N: AAY51xx from Bud's. Cost was $280.07 shipped with insurance & CC surchage to my FFL. The bluing is quite worn in several places and the stocks look pretty rough, but I found no rust nor pitting. 'Full lock up' is tight with no endshake, the DA trigger feels so sweet (the first Model 10 I have held in hand), and the barrel and cylinder bores look very good to me.
I may have found the 'shooter' I wanted. It will be a week or two before I get to try it out, but working the action and dry firing with snap caps is making me smile.

I do not have access to S/N information, and a phone call to S&W customer service is a day or two away - can anyone tell me the year of manufacture?

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Late 1982.

Buck

Thank you for the info on year of manufacture.

Just ordered a RB HB 10 from Buds. Hoping that it will be a VPA gun like my 3" one.
Does anybody's recent 4 incher have the VPA sticker?

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

mine from bud's had the vpa sticker. didn't know at the time what it was. wish i han't tossed it.

I bought a 3" 10 from Bud's from the first batch. I got a 10-4 tapered barrel, SB, which is dated in the S&N catalog as made in 1962 but the serial number dates to 1966. I left the VPA sticker on it, cleaned it up, put Hogue goodyears on it. It locks up perfectly tight, zero endshake, and has the best trigger, tightest lockup of any S&W I own. It has the 1/10th inch sights of the 10-4 and shoots POI=POA at 15 yards. The smoothness of the trigger and narrowness(?) of the sights make it my most accurate revolver in DA. I'd buy one again if I didn't already have one (of the 3" type). I really like the 3", non-HB, 38 Specials.

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But then, what do I know?

What is the VPA sticker and what am I missing???

Im thinking of getting one and having it parkerized,I have a guy local who will do it for 60.00 and it would be perfect to take to the woods as my sidearm when deer hunting.

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The Lord cometh and right soon

Inventory sticker from Victoria Police Armory.

As I understand it from another thread, the 'VPA sticker' is a small round micro-code adhesive sticker on the right side cover behind the cylinder, designating the Victoria (Australia) Police Armory.
I took mine off Sunday & threw it away when I received my HB 10-8 SB, thinking it was some kind of tracking barcode thing from Bud's Gun Shop.

The Victoria Police Armoury sticker is a micro-barcode as seen on the sideplate of this 10-5.
Mine endures normal usage just fine. i plan to leave it there as part of the gun's history.
Interestingly, the gun came in a plain brown M&P 40 box with the S&W paper inside. There was a new sticker caught on the paper.

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

My 10-8 has VPA 03425 sticker on it still. I plan on leaving it there. An Aussie member told me that the guns could be tracked by this sticker.
Kind of a history document that I will never be able to read. Bob

I should be able to pick my 10 up from my LGS tomorrow. I looked at it yesterday and it looks just like the pic on Buds website. I requested the original wood grips and Buds was nice enough to send me a gun with the original wood grips and they look very nice. The gun had barely a turn mark and most of the blue is intact. Just a light wear at the muzzle. Can't wait to see how it shoots.

Just picked it up and it is a 10-11 with the VPA sticker on it. Can anyone tell me when it was made? S/N CDM58XX

You boys are costing me money again. Ordered a pair of 'em today, happy birthday to me!

Just got a 4" square butt 10-10 in a couple days ago. Some holster wear and surface rust, but cleaned up nicely. It seems to have been shot a bit, but still has lots of life left in it. For the price, I just might need to order a round butt and have a set. I like the fact they are Aussie guns since I was in the Newcastle area a year ago.

Just picked mine up from my FFL... 10-10 round-butt with VPA stickers. It has the new-style cylinder latch. Bluing worn, but no dings, and it locks up just fine. CAR92xx serial number... could anyone with the book tell me how old it is? Pictures to follow, and thank you!

CARXXXX looks like 1991 according to SCSW.

Still waiting for Bud to ship mine. Its a RB, too.
Bud's VIP only when I spotted them.
Not sure if that gets me a nicer one or anything special.

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

Thanks! '91 was a good year.
I think it means they're running out when they restrict an item to VIP. However, they had the RBs on the police supply side with no restrictions just the other day when the VIP showed up on the regular site. BTW they offer these guns to LE folks for $10 less... wish I'd seen that before I hit the buy it button. Still a good deal IMO.

Well, that makes two of us. I had looked in the Police Dep't before but somehow missed the fact that they also had used guns.

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

Nice looking gun. Appears that yours didn't do much boomerang duty, either.
And the barcode on the barrel is interesting. My 3" VPA gun didn't have one of those, only the round sticker.

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

Yup, a clean one-owner. A little touch-up and new grips and she's going back on duty. I'm going "old school" for my last couple years and letting the 3913NL take a break.

64-5's that I picked up from Robertson's recently. These came from the Ohio Dept. of Corrections. No cool stampings, just a 2 digit number behind the hammer, no bar codes either. All three funtion perfectly and show very little wear, scratches and such, but the buffing wheel takes care of that. Altamont grips on the top two.

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Oh yeah, those 64s look good! I had a couple 64s, 65s, 66s, 13s over the years. Switched to a 669 back in the late 80s when we could finally carry semi-autos. Bought a 6906 and then traded for a 3913NL for work. This is actually the first 10 I've owned in over 35 years of tradin' guns. I have a set of Altamont rosewood boot grips with medallions on the way to replace the plain janes that came with it.

How'd you guys get those 64s so shiny?

Judicious sanding with 1500 and 2000 grit followed by lots of love with Mothers Mag polish.



Ex-police 64-5

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

I have a 6" grinder in my shop, got a buffing wheel at Ace Hdwr. and some stainless compound. First I clean up the scratches and such with 600, then 1200 wet/dry,using WD40, not water. Cover anything you don't want buffed with duct tape, Use a full face shield and hold on to your stock, or your gun may get airborn. I put an old rug under my buffer just in case.Then buff it until I'm happy. Can't stay away from the darn thing. All my stainless are pretty much done now. Even my Rugers!This SuperBlackhawk came from the factory satin stainless.

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your super blackhawk wouldn't be one of the special edition lew horton guns with the blackhawk grip frame?

No, Just a standard one with Lett grips before he went out of business. Here is my son's Bearcat done the same way.

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pretty nice. I bead blasted mine and now I'm going to try to polish it back to shiny. lot of work.

I was looking at these, but I got a very nice nickel model 15-4 for $300 cash out the door at the last gun show I was at. I am a adjustable sights person so that was better for me.

$269 or whatever + shipping + FFL, I feel I got a better deal.

15 out the door for $300 is good. My 64's were $299 delivered,+ $20 transfer. I like stainless over blue on the old trade in's because I can make them look better myself. Don't have a bluing bath. Plus, 64 is one of my favorite Smiths. If you are going to polish a bead blasted gun, try the 600, 1200 wet (WD40) method. The 1200 might take down the bead blasted surface to smooth pretty quickly, save you alot of time.

I bought one today. Can't beat the price. I bought a round butt hoping I might get a shorter barrel. Plus I can make the round butt a square butt but I can't make a square butt a round butt. (Say that 5 times fast!)

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John 1:17
NRA Life Benefactor

Bought one of these this weekend - NOT from Bud's. Got it locally. Model 10-10 $244. Wood grips (not Smith). 4" bbl. LOTS of holster wear - I think it may have worn out a holster or two! But cylinder is tight. Really what I was concentrating on.

Bought it to shoot cast bullets in and work up loads for some other 38 SPC revolvers my boys were given by FIL. Shooting the Federal 158 grn LRN facotry load, it was shooting about 2" at 10 yds - to POA - POI was maybe 1" to the right. I can certainly live with that.

This is as good as my tired old eyes and worn out shoulders will do these days. I was very happy with it. Think with a good 158 grn LSWC lead load it should easily do near 1".

It ain't purrty, but it shoot well. I am very happy with it. If youc an stand the blue wear, they are very good comfortable shooters, espec for the money.

Mine came a few days ago. It's a 10-11 rb heavy barrel. Blue wear, to be sure, but sound otherwise. No rust or pits, cleaned up nicely.

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I bought one of the VPA 3" square butt 10's from Bud's. Had quite a bit of bluing wear and some pitting on the side plate as well as a small ding on the muzzle. The ding is not into the crown.

It locks up tight with no endshake. The trigger is very smooth, not too heavy, and it shoots very accurately. Id post a pic but it is at S&W getting refinished. Upon return it gets Spegel grips and becomes my wife's house gun. She loves it!

My co worker diddnt know Smith made 3" revolvers and bought himself one as well after seeing ours. Wish Id have had the money to buy 2!