Can't resist those Model 10s

[lowercase]

Here is my latest acquisition. It's a Model 10-5 with 4" standard barrel and square butt. Model number is D8099XX, so I'm guessing that it shipped around 1974-76. The only noticeable wear is a small area at the muzzle from a holster.

It shoots like a dream, and looks great, too. I may grab some elk bone grips for it, but the wood stocks in the picture are originals and number matched to the gun.

The Pachmayr "Improved Grip Adapter" along with its little vintage box is something that had been on a dusty shelf in the gun store since forever.

Being a run of the mill Model 10, it's not anything fancy, rare, or exotic, but I really like it.

 

[brucev]

There's a lot to like about the Model 10. Considering revolvers in general and DA revolvers in particular, it is simply a superlative design. You are most fortunate to have found such a nice one.

 

[oldafsp]

The Model 10 is the unsung hero of revolvers.

Simple, effective,reliable and accurate it has everything you need and nothing you don't.

The Model 10 is always my recommendation for a quality home defense
revolver. Or just as a fun shooter that lasts for years.

Often passed by for other models the stalwart M&P design has filled the holsters of law enforcement,military and civilians for over 100 years.

How do you improve on that.....you don't

 

[OIF2]

Gotta love the Model 10...I have a few. I like the 3" and 5" ones. Nice target, by the way.
Bob

 

[fyimo]

They are a perfect revolver and have been since they were introduced and are sort of the flagship of the S&W line in way because they are their most produced revolver.

My 4 inch Model 10

My first model 10 a 6 inch inherited from my Dad

 

[mg357]

I love the s&w model 10!

 

[jpwhel]

Nice looking Mod 10, I have the 10-5 in both 4" and 5" versions and they are both nice guns to shoot. Enjoy.

 

[RetMcy4]

I am so angry I sold my Model 10 for $25.00 a little more then 5 yrs ago to a gun store. Wish I had it back now! Great guns always did what they were made to do!

 

[Wiredog]

Love my '68 10-5 K Frame 2". Handed down from a family friend..$75. bucks..eh. Great shooter and nice and solid!!

 

[riverrat38]

The Model 10 is the unsung hero of revolvers.

Simple, effective,reliable and accurate it has everything you need and nothing you don't.

The Model 10 is always my recommendation for a quality home defense
revolver. Or just as a fun shooter that lasts for years.

Often passed by for other models the stalwart M&P design has filled the holsters of law enforcement,military and civilians for over 100 years.

How do you improve on that.....you don't

I have been recommending M10 police trade-ins as the most cost effective home defense guns for 15 years. I don't think anyone has ever taken my advice. They watch too much TV. I recently made this recommendation to my 31 year old daughter, with the same result. She has been told by her friends that she needs a Glock! 14 years ago, she loved to shoot my M60-10 with reloaded WC's. Where did I go wrong?

Rick

 

[raisedin99]

lowercase,

Be assured you'll never go wrong with a model 10 or any smith utility revolver for that matter. I believe there will always be following for the Model 10 because of its proven reliability.
Pictured is the last model 10 that I bought some time ago.

terry

 

[oldafsp]

I have been recommending M10 police trade-ins as the most cost effective home defense guns for 15 years. I don't think anyone has ever taken my advice. They watch too much TV. I recently made this recommendation to my 31 year old daughter, with the same result. She has been told by her friends that she needs a Glock! 14 years ago, she loved to shoot my M60-10 with reloaded WC's. Where did I go wrong?

Rick

You didn't Rick. You gave good sound advise. It's a generation thing in most cases. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don't.

 

[TAROMAN]

The essential Smith & Wesson. The gun that "made" the company.
Every shooter should have one - or more.

 

[99savage308]

Taroman is right.

 

[Texas Star]

Anyone read, "Dr. No."? Not in the movie, but Ian Fleming armed Dr. No's guards with US .30 carbines and Smith & Wesson .38 revolvers, "the usual model."

I had no trouble understanding that "the usual model" meant the M-10.

 

[66Park]

Gotta love the Model 10...I have a few. I like the 3" and 5" ones. Nice target, by the way.
Bob

Wow! I love the stocks on the 3" gun. Are those Kuracs?

 

[DustyJacket]

I am so angry I sold my Model 10 for $25.00 a little more then 5 yrs ago to a gun store. Wish I had it back now!

Please tell me that you forgot a zero........

 

[DustyJacket]

I have begged and begged my LGS to find me one of those (Or a round-butt if they exist) all to no avail.

 

[28Shooter]

The Model 10 has to be the epitome of what a working revolver is all about - functional, beautiful, conveying pride in ownership and confidence in its ability to get the job done.

 

[S&W-Keeper]

Good looking model 10. A nice clean pinned barrel model is getting harder to find these days. If I had a dollar for every one that Smith made I would go to work tomorrow and retire.

 

[jwh32]

In July 1978, I was in MONICO and the police were carrying 4" model 10 Smiths. white belts and holsters.

john

 

[scotts500]

When Herman Geryian, Hitler's #2 man ,was captured he had a Smith & Wesson Model 10 in his German holster!
Also guys that grip adapter sure does bring back alot of memories. My dad was a Lawman for 44 years and I know that for the first 18 he carried a Model 27 with standard grips and a grip adapter! Never had a problem!
I am 3rd generation Law Enforcement and my son is the 4th generation. Even though we have gone to automatics in Police work there is still something about having a good old blue steel revolver hanging on your hip! It may not carry 20 rounds but it sure will deliver its 6 accurately!

 

[STCM(SW)]

Have had this one for many years.

Just like the look & balance.
The one I use to teach new shooters what a real good revolver handels like.

 

[lebomm]

Congratulations, lowercase !
+1 on the "Great Target!"
All of the above is why the Smith & Wesson .38 Military & Police has been the standard of comparison, the world over, for a century.
I have several as well.

Larry

 

[OIF2]

Wow! I love the stocks on the 3" gun. Are those Kuracs?

Yes, those are John's work. His magnas are every bit as nice as his target coke-style stocks.
Bob

 

[riverrat38]

Anyone read, "Dr. No."? Not in the movie, but Ian Fleming armed Dr. No's guards with US .30 carbines and Smith & Wesson .38 revolvers, "the usual model."

I had no trouble understanding that "the usual model" meant the M-10.

Or the pre M10. But it is close. Dr. No was first written as a screenplay in 1956, but was never produced. It was first published as a novel in 1958, one year after the S&W Model name to number changeover. This info is from Wikipedia. Now, I think I will need to reread the novel. Its been many years.

Rick

 

[Hannibal Barca]

Even I am a fan of the Smith and Wesson revolvers I had always underestimated the model 10 pencil barrels revolvers. I had always preferred the models 14s, 15s, 27s, 19s or others more fancy S&W revolvers, but once I bought my first model 10-5 pencil barrel revolver I changed my mind. I was surprised how accurate could be this humble fixed sight revolver was. Since then I am a big fan of the models 10, they give me a very pleasant surprise

Hannibal

 

[M3Stuart]

Yes, everybody should have several!

Shown: 10-4 3", 10-5 4" tapered, 10-8 with the smooth trigger. All have very nice double actions.

 

[OIF2]

Since we're doing M10s...5" 10-7 nickle (1979) NIB.

A 10-5 5" and a 10-8 3" HB...both with Tylers. I'll always have a couple of 10s around.

 

[Texas Star]

Or the pre M10. But it is close. Dr. No was first written as a screenplay in 1956, but was never produced. It was first published as a novel in 1958, one year after the S&W Model name to number changeover. This info is from Wikipedia. Now, I think I will need to reread the novel. Its been many years.

Rick

Dr. No and Thunderball are my favorite Bond books. Watch for the S&W Centennial that Bond got with the PPK to replace the .25 Beretta. Fleming made an error: Geoffrey Boothroyd meant for Bond to have the .38 Airweight as his main gun and a Model 27 as a car gun to replace the "long-barrelled Colt .45." Fleming read a story in ,"American Rifleman" on small autos, which he personally preferred and subbed the PPK for the Centennial, but had Bond take both to Dr. No's island. He should have had the .357 and either the Walther or the Centennial. The real Boothroyd later explained this to me in a letter and in articles for gun magazines and in, "Sports Ill.".

Yes, the Model 10 designation was applied just a year before the book appeared, but I basically meant the M&P, whether those used on the island had the Model marked or not.

BTW, I wrote to Ian Fleming, suggesting the Model 36 with three-inch barrel as the basic Bond gun. Suggested Gaylord holsters. He was away when my letter arrived, but his secretary sent a very nice reply. (Yes, I was into guns at a very young age.)

In, "The Handgun", perhaps the very best basic handgun book ever published, Boothroyd noted the then-new S&W M-60 and said that its stainless construction should make it the real Bond gun, but Fleming died the previous year, making it a moot point.

In any event, the "usual model" of S&W .38 surely meant the M&P/M-10, whichever is correct for the time acquired. Fleming may have even meant the .38-200, which he was surely familiar with as a British service revolver. Again, the same basic gun, but I think Dr. No was more likely to have sourced his guns from the US.

Note that Fleming called the .30 carbines Remingtons. They were actually Winchester-derived. Sometimes, he just goofed on guns. But he was usually better at that than most thriller writers.