6.5" 38/44 from 1940

[Jebus35745]

Cutting the bbl to 5" cost me some extra money, it would have been cheaper to have left it a 6" gun with gold bead front sight. The bbl is stamped .32 long ctg. which looks cool, no signs of the old .22 long rifle. The 5" bbl matches my ISP overrun. Maybe if I find a cheap K-22, I'll have him cut it to 5" also. I had him install a Weigand front sight base so I can change the blade to what works for me when I shoot it. I'd hate to try to knock a pin out to change sights. Larry

 

[Reddog]

Larry,
Yes, the land is mine. My folks bought it back in the mid '50s. The first 80 was $10,000 with a small turn of the century house on it and the second 80 was $6,500. My dad tore down that old house and using that material, and much more, built a modern house to replace it. I helped him as I could. I was on the road back then, driving a truck. A few years later he ramrodded a larger house for us on the north end of the property. It's all worth well over 10 times as much, now!
Your .32 is beautiful, as are the stocks and the blue job. The front sight looks like the one on my chopped 27. I've always heard that a .32 is easy to shoot and is most generally accurate.
Keep us posted on how it shoots!
Old pic of our house.
Dick

 

[Hondo44]

AH, the peaceful wide open spaces and lot'sa room to shoot to one's heart content.

 

[Reddog]

My sentiments, exactly!

 

[788Ham]

That is really a super neat OD ! I recently picked up a '37 38-44 HD, #40***, not as nice of a finish as yours, but that sucker really shoots nice, better than I can shoot it. Good luck with it.

 

[Reddog]

Thanks, 788!
I have a 5" HD from 1935, too. I like the OD much better!
Dick

 

[Reddog]

Shooting today!

Hey Fellers!
I haven't been able to do any shooting for a while. And part of that time I didn't have a working computer! I decided to upgrade a while back and ended up trying 3 computers before I got one that I liked. Wife and I almost had a breakdown from withdrawal! I hate that!
Then about the time we got the computer going, a water line broke underground in back of the house. We're in the country, so nothing to do except dig it up and repair the leak! The line was buried 33 years ago so we liked to never found it! And to make it worse, the leak turned out to be under the air conditioning unit outside the house which had been installed, later! We had to cut out a lot of the plastic pipe and re-route it! Lots of digging before we figured out where the leak was. Water was seeping up through the grass and the north yard was like quick sand! Just lucky I walked around that way on the way to the mailbox! In the meantime, we we're without water in the house for three days! We had to haul water for drinking, bathing and flushing during that time. That's a pain, believe me!
So, it was a real pleasure to get out and shoot a few rounds through the 38/44 OD again, today!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Dick

 

[Jebus35745]

Nice shooting Dick, Keep the old S&W working. Thats how an outdoorsman should shoot. Larry

 

[Reddog]

Hey, Larry!

 

[Jebus35745]

Hows the model 10 shoot that you bought? Here's a pic or 2 of the targets the .32 shot off the top of my box with a red dot mounted. Sort of a Polish ransom rest, yes I'm Polish. I put the open sites back on it, now I'm happy with the gun. Larry

 

[Reddog]

Actually, Larry, I've bought two 4" M-10 lately! And I've got a second 5" Heavy duty on the way! The M-10s shoot pretty good. About what you'd expect. I'll post pics of the HD when I get it. It's a lot nicer than my other!
Dick

 

[Reddog]

5" 38/44 HD S-91758 from 1952

Here's my latest, fellers! It's a nice one, too! Excuse the poor pics. My camera battery was dead so I had to use my wife's.
Haven't got to shoot it yet. It has a letter with it. I'll post it later.
Dick

 

[Reddog]

Jinks' letter on second HD

Here's the letter I promised!
Dick
Just noticed again that my camera date is off by almost five years! Need to figure how to change it?

 

[Reddog]

6.5" 38\44 O.D. from 1940, again!

It's been a year, so, I thought maybe I'd better warm this old gun up, again, and see if it still works! It does! But I don't think it liked the 158 grain load as well as the 153 grain load? They're both too hot for good target loads, but fun, anyway! I shot the other half of both boxes in my rusty 15-3 and they really made that little 4" booger jump! The 158 gr. is a commercial cast RNFP and probably hard lead so haven't had much luck with it. I like my homecast 153 gr. SW better! These were shot off sandbags at 25 yards. Happy shooting everyone!
Dick

 

[Jebus35745]

Wow, the 153 gr bullets make you look like you know what you're doing. This is a flash from the past, never figured it would be bumped again. It didn't seem like a year, time flies I guess. That is a sweet gun, Larry

 

[Reddog]

Thanks Larry!,
I need to load some lighter target type loads to see if I can't do better, although a large part of my problem may be my eyesight! I can't see the holes in the target at 25 yards like I used to!
Dick

 

[Reddog]

I took the O.D. out today with a box of 148 full wads seated flush with 3.0 gr. Bullseye. Off the bags at 25 yards it was more of a pattern than a group? Don't know whether it was me or some bad loads?
Dick

 

[Reddog]

One stock that I have?

I had a question about the one stock that I have for this gun. I thought that I had posted pics of it long ago, but hadn't? Here they are.
Dick

 

[usnrigger]

Wow, I got lost reading the full postings. If you have not got the barrel pin sorted out... Yes, you can use a drill bit it is hardened and may blue a slightly different shade or it may not, just depends. I had to make one for a 1917 and used round stock spring steel that Brownells sells, they have a bunch of different dia. and may have assortment pack.

USNRigger

 

[Reddog]

Barrel pin.

Thanks, Rigger!
I made a pin with a drill bit and it worked fine!
Dick