4" Model 1950 Target .44 Special Advice

[further12]

A local gun store has a bright blue, 4" Pre-Model 24 1950 Target .44 Special with red ramp sight for sale. Unfortunately, someone, possibly a police evidence department, lightly engraved a man's name and a ten digit number on the non-blued side of the back strap. The engraving does not touch the blue of the back strap and is completely covered by the grips. The number does not appear to be a phone number or a social security number.

No box, the grips belong to another gun, and the blue between the extractor shroud and barrel has thinned a bit. It looks good until you remove the grips.

Would you buy it as a shooter or pass on it? The price is around $3,200.

 

[Twogunnes]

Sounds a little steep to me. I would pass.

 

[bettis1]

further12,

That is a very scarce gun. That could be a driver's license...lots of police depts. urged folks to put their DL's on guns, tvs, etc. during that time. Not quite sure what you mean by the "non-blued side of the backstrap. Searching for the man's name might give you some leads on following up on it.

As scarce and desirable as it is, I would do my best to acquire it if I were you. I would try to convince the gun store that the "disfiguration" seriously lessened the value and see how much you could drop the price. I think that, even with the name and number on it, it is more than "just a shooter". If it turns out that the owner was a mass murderer or a famous lawman, the inscription just affirms the ownership.

Bob

 

[further12]

Bob,

Thank you for your reply and suggestion that the owner may have engraved his driver's license number on the frame. I Googled his name but nothing came up.

The number is engraved on the unfinished grip part of the frame where the fitters marks are stamped.

Jeff

 

[ken158]

Rare gun but overpriced especially with the home engraving... I would balk at half that price...

 

[Doc44]

The "engraving" on the grip frame is of no consequence. If the 44 is 98 percent or better and the barrel is original, the price sounds about right.

Bill

 

[SDH]

It may be neither here nor there but... a similar revolver sold at auction on GB last Dec. for about $2100, without extra scratchings. I thought that a good buy at the time.

 

[tennexplorer]

It may be neither here nor there but... a similar revolver sold at auction on GB last Dec. for about $2100, without extra scratchings. I thought that a good buy at the time.

No, that was a really good buy. I think that the "black gun frenzy" caused that one to go low. Personally sorry I missed that one.

 

[Hondo44]

further12,
The price is about maximum for that gun. And the gun is very nice but may not be a maximum gun. It's all moot however until the 4" barrel is authenticated! Because they are so scarce or rare, many owners made their own. We see them all the time on this forum and elsewhere, but they are only worth about half the price of what's being asked for the one you're looking at.

You'll notice related threads right below. The ones with 4" in the title will have great pics and discussion clues on how to identify a cut barrel and an original 4". You should bone up on those before thinking about reaching for your wallet. Good luck, you may have found a real prize.

 

[Delos]

Depends on your pay number

I have an old High Standard DM 101 double action derringer that I put my social security number on many years ago. It has traveled at least a million miles with me. Lately it has been retired. No real crime in my area - yet.

A friend of mine once (when living near Los Angeles) had his television set stolen. He found out who had it and confronted the guy. The guy claimed it was his. Victim called police. The police could not prove ownership so it stayed with the alleged thief.

Marking property or saving bill of sale is good.

Bye the way. Lots of parolees get picked up with guns never reported missing. People convicted of gun crimes lose ownership usually. Police have many reasons to acquire handguns. It was not unusual for police to have handgun sales and bicycle sales, not all that long ago, at least in small cities.

I would wait for the price to go down then grab it up. Unless it stirs some heart strings and shows very little wear. Maybe the difference in price it might drop to is no problem to your wallet.

 

[Twogunnes]

Really a good idea to put your SS# on items. That way if it does get stolen the thief has your ss#.

Sure he would appreciate that!!!

Why not just snap a couple of pics and be sure the serial numbers are legible.

Or possibly write them down!

 

[GM4spd]

Rare gun. The engraving wouldn't bother me in the least--
especially if covered by the grips. That revolver in brite blue
is nice IMHO. Pete

 

[Joe in SC]

Out of sight owner markings such as you describe do not bother me in the least. In fact I bought a desireable model that was as new and was so marked by the first owner. With the good ones getting scarce I'm not going to be that picky about out-of -sight, out-of-mind markings. I'm not sure about the price, someone more familar with current pricing of that model will bring you up to date.

 

[rburg]

You guys are making me feel bad. A few years ago I paid $500 more than that for a gun our forum owner had. It was a nice one, and I like the gun. At the time I hadn't seen one cheaper. So I was a big boy and paid his price. Later I saw he'd sold another one to one of our members. He wasn't complaining either. I wish I lived where you guys are seeing low prices.

 

[MikeyB]

Wow. I had no idea 4" 1950's are that valuable.

 

[BUFF]

I have one, I love it.

***Topic Drift Alert***

Do we have any documented 4 inch 1950 Targets in .45 ACP?

 

[dewey]

If not 98% I'd say max is $2600-2800 BUT I guess that's not far off....

If you have another, I'd take out my checkbook and offer $2,500. If he sees that you are serious he may make a counter offer. If he won't buge WELL.......you may get a stomach ache later.

When I first started collecting these everyone told me there were around 200-250 made. Now most guess 500. With everyone having PCs the price has gone WAY up. More interest=Higher prices.

I won't pay $3,200 for a shooter, but that's just me......


Dan

 

[tennexplorer]

I must respectfully disagree. I think there were about 200 - 250 made. I think there were a lot of barrels made that never made it onto guns. I think that's where the other 250 came from. I think there would be more known specimens were there 500 originally.

 

[Delos]

Really a good idea to put your SS# on items. That way if it does get stolen the thief has your ss#.

Sure he would appreciate that!!!

Why not just snap a couple of pics and be sure the serial numbers are legible.

Or possibly write them down!

Really funny...... Ha Ha....Ho Ho
Well, 30 or 40 years ago when I put my SS number on that gun it was not an issue. No computer crime nor people opening accounts in other peoples names. Things have changed and will continue to change. What is logical today will sometimes not be logical tomorrow.
In 1940's, when I was young in Boy Scouts we were taught that running stream water was safe to drink. Really wrong.
My school teachers said that the air at the equator went up and came down at the poles. They did not know about the jet streams and air going up and down at about 30 and 60 degrees. (Oh, I forgot, today when texas has a drought it is not the dry air from equator dropping down, it is global warming - ha ha).
Plate tectonics was a rumor. Old folks sat around in evenings listening to the radio.
Our best astronomer thought he saw canals on Mars. Maybe egyptian pyramids.

I could write a long list of things that have changed. Now if anyone could tell todays younger generation all the things that will change they could do everything right.
But they are too busy talking on their cell phones and playing video games.
Perhaps in the not to distant future they will all be flipping burgers at local hamburger joint. But they will be working for chinese owners.
Maybe you should tell them we are not turning out enough engineers, and our country is borrowing too much money.
Gun control is just the first step to slavery.

 

[Delos]

Oops.... Talking numbers under grips

Oops, we were talking about the numbers that might be under the grips of old revolvers.

Anyway the easy answer is that times change. Last I heard a persons military "service number" is now the same as their social security number.

So if you saw an old item that had a persons "service number" on it you might have no way to figure that out. Mine was seven digits and began with 534, issued back in 1959.

Next time I get a desire to number something maybe I will use it again.