25-2 8 3/8" rarity?

Doc44 said:
The only 8 3/8-inch heavy barrels made were to be used in making 44 and 41 Magnums. I suppose this is the source of the barrels for the long barreled 25-2s. I don't know what the forcing cone looks like when the barrel is forged and before being fitted to a frame. I know the length of the barrel on the 25-2 measured from the frame is 7 3/8-inches, whereas, a 44 Magnum barrel measures 7 1/2-inches. The ejector rod on the 25-2 is also about 1/8-inch shorter as is the ejector rod shroud.

Bill
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I don't know how long the barrel shank on the forging is either, but I'd say that explains how the OP's barrel was made, all right. There are only two basic lengths of protrusion into the cylinder window by the breech end of the barrel on the N frame. One is the length of the 41/44/later 45 Colts, and the other shared by the 25/27/28, etc. The difference is about an 1/8". It sounds like a 41/44 blank was machined down to allow enough protrusion to get to the cylinder face. The barrel marking sure looks factory. The model marking on the frame is consistent with the two 25-2s I have from the early '70s.

USMC, I imagine the rifling is the M25-style 6 narrow lands/wide grooves as opposed to the more typical S&W 5 lands/grooves?
 
Bingo on the rifling pattern, alphelion...6-groove, narrow lands.

Length from muzzle to frame is 7 3/8".

The wait on this letter is gonna kill me.
 
USMC0802 said:
I just stepped out on the front porch (joys of living in the country) and went 2 for 6 standing/unsupported on a conspicuous cow pie that the range finder says is 142 yards out there...and excepting one trigger jerk, the rest were within a foot or so.

I love it.
Click to expand...

Most people have to go to Vegas to shoot craps.
 
Wait! Wait! I didn't post the other "good news" yet...



My revolver is SN N24024...they lettered N24025. Still in the fight. ;)


I am just hoping that when I call this week, they will be able to pull my order form - I am 99% certain that I entered the correct number on the letter request, and I sent photos of the SN as well. Fingers crossed that they will bump me to the head of the line on a re-research of the correct number. If I screwed up the number on the request, which is within the realm of possibility as I've made my share of bone-headed mistakes in the past, the saga will unfortunately continue for another 4-5 months.
 
Wait! Wait! I didn't post the other "good news" yet...



My revolver is SN N24024...they lettered N24025. Still in the fight.

Yes you are.....I think you will win
 
USMC0802 said:
Wait! Wait! I didn't post the other "good news" yet...



My revolver is SN N24024...they lettered N24025. Still in the fight. ;)


I am just hoping that when I call this week, they will be able to pull my order form - I am 99% certain that I entered the correct number on the letter request, and I sent photos of the SN as well. Fingers crossed that they will bump me to the head of the line on a re-research of the correct number. If I screwed up the number on the request, which is within the realm of possibility as I've made my share of bone-headed mistakes in the past, the saga will unfortunately continue for another 4-5 months.
Click to expand...

These MARINES...never give up!
Gotta love 'em.:D
 
Throwing in the towel; the letter contained correct info, but the serial was a typo. Revised letter already in-hand at no charge.

Would've been cool if it was in the original configuration, but can't really complain as I paid "shooter price" for a "shooter revolver"!

Still does not answer the question about where the barrel came from. Lack of any factory-return markings on the gun add to the mystery, since if so marked the logical answer would have been a return to S&W for rebuild into current state.
 
That is a heck of a deal ---a long bbl 25-2 and two cylinders---cool.

I have thought about sending a 25-2 to have another cylinder fitted---but I want both cylinders to fit.
 
Mystery solved. I received an email from a gentleman who was "there" when these two-cylinder guns were ordered. Here is what he had to say:

"The story is that in 1977 or so, I was working in the original John Jovino company. Located at 5 Centre Market Place in Manhattan. It was a street one block long, behind the old Police Headquarters. The place where Teddy Roosevelt had his office as police commissioner. Anyway, John Jovino's was a major Smith distributor and the largest Colt dealer in the country. There were a few of us that were gun nuts. One guy had the idea of having dual cylinders for the model 25. I think it was our gunsmith named Ron Tortorella, now past on. Anyway Ron talked with a Smith & Wesson gunsmith named Franny Longdon.
Franny made up something like six handguns at least. Mine was a standard 6.5 inch barrel. Since I was still a teenager I did not take possession of my gun and it was sold on me. A NYC cop named ****** has one for sure but I lost contact with him.
So that's the story. Made in the Smith factory on the down low for at least John Jovino's by Franny Longdon. I hope this helps you."
 
See my post #18 above. This story keeps getting better. FWIW I used to live in NYC in the 1970s when your gun was built. The Jovino gun shop has been seen in NYC-based movies like "Mean Streets". True it was near the old police HQ and also located in what is/was called Little Italy. Mafia guys hung out in the area and sometimes got whacked(Google Joey Gallo and Mafia).

Jovino is very well-known among Smith Nuts because the shop made a specialty of buying 6 1/2" Model 25-2s and cutting them down to make 45 ACP snubbies. They round-butted the grip frame and put Pachmayr rubber stocks on. They also usually trimmed down the target trigger and hammer but left the adjustable sights. I have seen a number of these guns and the work was extremely well-done. Some other gunsmiths imitated the Jovino-style as well so it's not always easy to know what is Jovino work.

I have no doubt Jovino had the "creds" with S&W to get a few custom guns built.
 
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Yep, I probably owe ya a Coke for your initial hunch coming true! :)

I'm very glad to have the story on it - it was such a head-scratcher and I figured the details were lost to history when the letter came back as it did and there were no return marks on the frame.
 
USMC0802 said:
Yep, I probably owe ya a Coke for your initial hunch coming true! :)

I'm very glad to have the story on it - it was such a head-scratcher and I figured the details were lost to history when the letter came back as it did and there were no return marks on the frame.
Click to expand...

You don't owe me because this thread was very interesting....takes me back to my NYC days. You began this thread saying barrel length was 8 3/8"; then later refer to 7 3/8" ; one must be a typo?
 
Here's the mystery 25-2 with Both Cylinders

Howdy folks, I was lucky enough to buy the very gun that has been the subject of this thread. I'm sure glad he didn't tell you people he was selling it, I never would have been able to compete. USMC0802 and I had quite the "thread" ourselves, he sent me this thread, and I am completely taken with the story. I get the gun next week, literally on pins and needles. The Lovely Wife is hunting a divorce lawyer, I paid WAY too much for it, but that didn't matter, so much history just in it's birth, let alone it's long life. I'd love to continue the story, and my quest is to find someone from Jovino's or the factory, or someone who got one of it's brothers who can verify the truth of the story by witness or record. This "*******" needs a true lineage to take it's rightful place on the rarity throne, and become a footnote to the Blue Books everywhere. Ready to give it a go please?
 
The editor cut out my word meaning a person who doesn't know his father, you know the one, I felt it was proper for the situation.
 
Howdy, Newbie Tombstoner here, I joined to fulfill my quest to validate the birth of my 25-2. Story is Jovino's contacted gunsmith Franny Longdon at the S&W factory and he then made 6 Model 25s with BOTH 45 Colt and 45 Auto cylinders on the QT. My source worked at the Jovino Gun Shop in the 1970s, and was supposed to get one, but was too young, and it was sold to someone else. I have one with both cylinders numbered to the gun, with an 8 3/8" barrel. S&W letter says it left with the 6" barrel. Anybody know people from either the factory or gun shop I might contact, or know anything yourself? My gun would appreciate it. Thanks, Bruce in Tombstone.
 
Neverending 25-2 Story

Howdy, I have the double cylindered 25-2 of USMC 0802 now, I'm on a quest for another witness or record to prove how special this gun is, not for value, but so it's "royal" line and rarity can be recognized. Anybody with anything to add will be appreciated, and all leads followed to the end. Thanks, Bruce
 
Bought a lot of S&W wheel guns from John Jovino in the 60s and 70s including a pre 25 1955,a couple of 52-2 plus a Colt .38spl National Match
 

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