A memory from my past - seeing my first S&W...

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Back in the early to mid-1940s, my dad was a teller at several banks in Arizona - parts of the statewide Valley National Bank chain. Around 1945, when I was roughly 6 years old, I remember visiting the Phoenix VNB with my mother. It was headquartered in what was then one of the tallest buildings in Phoenix. It was then known as the Professional Building - still there, but now abandoned and being converted into an apartment building.

We were there to visit my father, who worked there as a teller at the time. He later became the assistant Comptroller for the chain of banks. As we walked into the building, there was a bank guard standing inside, and he was packing a very shiny revolver in his holster. He noticed me staring at it and asked my mother if he could show it to me. He added that he would be very careful not to let me touch it. She agreed.

I can still see that revolver in my mind's eye. He carefully removed it from his holster. I know today that it was a nickeled S&W K-frame Military and Police with a four-inch barrel. It sparkled like a diamond, and I thought that it was one of the most intricate and beautiful pieces of machinery I had ever seen. At any rate, I thanked him for letting me see it.

Fast forward to the present time. Ever since I saw that beautiful gun, I wanted to own a duplicate. I didn't know the manufacture date, but it could have been in the late '30s or early '40s. It looked pretty new then, and I now know that nickeled M&Ps were not often made in the war years from 1941 to 1945. I fixed in my mind that what I wanted was the same thing, but it had to have been made in my birth year, 1939.

I searched for one meeting those specifications for years, but not long ago one of our forum members posted a picture - and there it was, clean as a whistle. By its serial number it had to have been a 1939 gun.

At any rate, I was lucky enough to purchase it.

To most folks, this would be just another revolver, but to me it was very special and brought to mind a memorable moment from my childhood. It lettered to August 30, 1939, just a few days before WWII was kicked off by the German invasion of Poland.

I think it's a beauty in more ways than one, and it's a real keeper.

John

 
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Terrific story, John. Thanks for sharing it with us.

I've told this story before. I was a year older than you (age 7) when I saw and handled my first S&W revolver. My grandmother took me to a rancher friend's property near Bonneville, Wyo., in the summer of 1959. Mamo taught me to shoot pie plates out of cottonwood trees with her nearly new blue S&W Model 31 2" .32 S&W Long. Mamo bought it at our friend Sid Humphreys' Gambles store in Shoshoni, Wyo.

Like you, many years later I wanted one just like Mamo's (in true Scots heritage, my older brother got hers). Mine shipped in August 1958.
 

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I always find intriguing the memories that stick with a person for many years. One of mine was seeing pictures of scoped revolvers in the gun magazines I perused in my youth. It took some years but now I have some along with the space age looking Remington XP 100 in .221 Remington Fireball. The old foggy Phantom scope had to go though.
 

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Great story, John. I remember the first time I saw a Smith & Wesson. I haven't yet closed the loop and bought a twin for myself.

I was around 8 or 9 years old and at my Dad's business. The local beat cop was a big Norwegian guy. He liked to hide behind a telephone pole to wait for the guys jaywalking on their way to coffee. He'd come out of hiding, blow his whistle at them and then jaywalk with them to go have coffee. Different times. One day he was in the shop chatting with Dad. So of course I had to ask "what kind of gun do you have, sir?" He carefully pulled it out of the holster and looked it over and said "Smith & Wesson."

I was suitably impressed. It made an impression on the young kid. Only later did I realize what it meant that he had to look at it to tell me what it was. Like I said, different times.
 
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I just love these old nickel wheel guns, mine dates to 1954 and out of 9 other pistols this one is the most fun to shoot.
 

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[Good afternoon to all of you, please help me... need a de-cocker smith and wesson 39-2. mine broke, where do I get another de-cocker smith and wesson 39-2?]

Try this: Gun Parts & Firearm Accessories | Numrich Gun Parts
Numrich Gun Parts Corporation 226 Williams Ln. Kingston, NY 12401 Phone: 866.686.7424. Fax: 877.486.7278

Perhaps YOU could figure out how to use an online translator before posting on an English-speaking site in Portuguese?
 
That looks wonderful and historic...

This same gun is historic - it belonged to a small city police chief in Indiana, and Roy's authenticating letter shows that was where it was initially shipped.

I've been searching for an original maroon hinged box labeled for a nickel 4" M&P to accompany the gun. I've posted in the "want to buy" section here for quite some time, but no luck yet. :(

John
 
It is a beautiful revolver for sure and the story even better. Thanks.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

The first revolver I ever fired—and, unless memory fails me, the first I handled—was a Model 36. This ignited a half-century-and-counting love affair with snubnose revolvers in general, and S&W J-frames in particular.
 
Paladin, I'm no fan of bright and shiny but since the story goes so well with that revolver, and because you spent so many years loooooking for one, congratulations in getting you early boyhood fix. It is a good looking gun to be sure.
 
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