Blemished Model 10-7

[54ball]

In some of the following photos you will see my Model 10 loaded with red snap caps. Although snap caps are for practice, they should be treated as real cartridges. My apologies for this error.

I recently purchased another Model 10 to go with my nearly pristine revolver my brother gave me.
I wanted to do a lot of practice, so I found this blemished 10-7. Both of my Model 10s are 1978-79....
thumbnail by Travis Brown, on Flickr
This is right after I got it home. It was very dull, almost flat looking and it did have some areas of red rust. It cleaned up very nicely with some Flitz polish. I was really surprised how well it cleaned up.

IMG_0115 by Travis Brown, on Flickr
IMG_0116 by Travis Brown, on Flickr

Some type of substance was all over the right side of this revolver. Whatever was ran down the top of the barrel. It also spotted the bore in a tiny spot on that side.
I have my ideas on what it was.
IMG_0118 by Travis Brown, on Flickr

Here it is with a set of vintage service stocks to match my other Model 10.
Mechanically the gun is like new. The spot in the bore has diminished significantly after several rounds of shooting.
I feel like it cleaned up well.
The old gun was abused and likely misused. Now it will be taken care of.

 

[alwslate]

A little bit of cosmetic damage to a gun in excellent mechanical condition can lead to a bargain price on a great shooter.

 

[Old_Cop]

You did a nice job on the cleanup, I hope the substance was not blood.

 

[MajorD]

A little bit of cosmetic damage to a gun in excellent mechanical condition can lead to a bargain price on a great shooter.

These are the working guns I like to find.

Especially old police guns, which were typically carried a lot and fired very little.

My brother was a police firearms instructor for his small agency for many years. Man does he have stories!

In the many years before standardized or state mandated qualifications, there were cops he worked with that hadn't had guns out of holsters for years.
A lot of cops looked at the revolver as just something they had to lug around, to be handled as little as possible.
Some would go out of their way to avoid qualification day, even calling in sick to skip it.
Back in those days it was not unusual for some cops to go a 20 + year career and shot only a couple hundred rounds in that time.

Most of these types of guns looked terrible- rust finish wear, busted grips but like new mechanically

 

[54ball]

You did a nice job on the cleanup, I hope the substance was not blood.

Thanks, Old Cop
I believe blood is...likely.
It makes the most sense. I doubt it was French's Mustard.
This maybe in incredibly poor taste but my brother and I joked...

For Sale Cheap!!!
Smith and Wesson Model 10
Like new!!!
Only fired once.
Only dropped once.

Somebody could have gotten pistol whipped. There's no telling. There's no telling what it was or how. On second thought it could have been mustard.

We often hear the cliche, "Man if this old gun could talk."

Sometimes we really don't want to know.
Sometimes mysteries are best left as that, mysteries.

 

[54ball]

thumbnail by Travis Brown, on Flickr
IMG_0125 (1) by Travis Brown, on Flickr

I cleaned up the Magnas and put a couple of thin coats of shellac over the original finish.


I put the Magnas back on both my Model 10s. I really like the Service Stocks but I seem to have a little fumble when drawing from my shoulder holster. I want to reposition the gun to get a good trigger index.
This was no problem from my OWB holster but I can't quite get the initial grip I want out of the shoulder holster.
This may be a matter of practice.