Have you ever spot purchased a gun only to get it home and be amazed? Have you ever said to yourself; "What am I missing? This thing looks too good to be true."
Well, last Thursday while poking around at a neighborhood garage sale I got a hint that they also has a couple of guns they wanted to sell and asked to see them. The first thing they brought out was a S&W Blue Box that looked almost new. The seller told me it was his brother-in-law's revolver. He was a retired LE but his duty weapon was always a semi-auto, probably Glocks and that this was never his duty weapon. I asked a few more questions but he told me the brother-in-law had passed away and he didn't know any more about the gun. I took it out of the box, took a glance, saw that it was a 19-4 and asked him how much he wanted. When he told me I tried to cover my surprise, pulled the money out of my wallet, gave it to him, replaced the revolver back in the box and came home.
When I got it home I put it under the lights and started giving it a thorough examination. I was dumbfounded. It has either been re-plated or this is the most pristine Model 19 I have ever seen. It's just that immaculate.
The box it came in may or may not be original. The seller said that, AFAHK, it was the original. The end sticker with the serial number is missing. The sticker on the other end of the box, however is there and accurately describes the revolver and all of its features. All of the documentation was in the box, including the warranty card, as well as the unopened tools. If this is an assembled bunch of stuff pieces together, someone did a really good job of it.
The front of the cylinder has three burn rings, on every other chamber. There is a hint of carbon around the forcing cone but no signs of cutting at all. Fired three times at the factory and never fired again or re-plated and purposefully only fired three times? I don't know and probably no way to ever know for sure.
There is a "N" on the face of the cylinder but here is where my doubts begin. This, to me, looks more like hard chrome than Nickel. I have owned Nickel revolvers in the past and I remember them to have a bit more of a yellow cast to the finish than this gun has. It is a bright, shiny, "silvery" finish. It certainly could be a pure factory Nickel finish but I don't know how to tell for sure.
Anyway, here are some photos I took. I only have a crappy camera so they are not very good but maybe you can get the idea as to how good this thing looks. Original or re-plate? Doesn't matter. It will be a part of my life for as long as I have life.
Bob
Well, last Thursday while poking around at a neighborhood garage sale I got a hint that they also has a couple of guns they wanted to sell and asked to see them. The first thing they brought out was a S&W Blue Box that looked almost new. The seller told me it was his brother-in-law's revolver. He was a retired LE but his duty weapon was always a semi-auto, probably Glocks and that this was never his duty weapon. I asked a few more questions but he told me the brother-in-law had passed away and he didn't know any more about the gun. I took it out of the box, took a glance, saw that it was a 19-4 and asked him how much he wanted. When he told me I tried to cover my surprise, pulled the money out of my wallet, gave it to him, replaced the revolver back in the box and came home.
When I got it home I put it under the lights and started giving it a thorough examination. I was dumbfounded. It has either been re-plated or this is the most pristine Model 19 I have ever seen. It's just that immaculate.
The box it came in may or may not be original. The seller said that, AFAHK, it was the original. The end sticker with the serial number is missing. The sticker on the other end of the box, however is there and accurately describes the revolver and all of its features. All of the documentation was in the box, including the warranty card, as well as the unopened tools. If this is an assembled bunch of stuff pieces together, someone did a really good job of it.
The front of the cylinder has three burn rings, on every other chamber. There is a hint of carbon around the forcing cone but no signs of cutting at all. Fired three times at the factory and never fired again or re-plated and purposefully only fired three times? I don't know and probably no way to ever know for sure.
There is a "N" on the face of the cylinder but here is where my doubts begin. This, to me, looks more like hard chrome than Nickel. I have owned Nickel revolvers in the past and I remember them to have a bit more of a yellow cast to the finish than this gun has. It is a bright, shiny, "silvery" finish. It certainly could be a pure factory Nickel finish but I don't know how to tell for sure.
Anyway, here are some photos I took. I only have a crappy camera so they are not very good but maybe you can get the idea as to how good this thing looks. Original or re-plate? Doesn't matter. It will be a part of my life for as long as I have life.
Bob
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