Collecting Themes

[rubiranch]

Glad I only really like one caliber.

I do have two .41 Mags the rest are .357s. Mostly LOL

 

[Chukar60]

There's a Romanian proverb that says, "Time cures all things."

It's been less than a year since I said I wasn't interested in stainless steel Chiefs Specials. Now I find three in my hoard in the last four months. Hmmm.

Each one is sort of an oddball so I guess that fits my original theme. There's a 2" Model 60 square butt 1 of 600, a Model 60-1 Target (Ashland exclusive 1 of 660), and a 60-10 (I've never heard anyone put a number on those -- probably a lot more than 600). I guess I need one with the diamond grips from '65 or '66. Searching....

Two bit, I have no idea how many 60-10's were produced, but if your number is accurate or close to it, I am very happy to have owned two of them. Still retain the last one. Won't be as dumb as I was with the first one which i sold thinking I would find another without a problem. No problem at all really, only took 4 years to locate a clean one!!

 

[drgbike]

It all started with, yeah thats the" one" i want !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[44wheelman]

Theme, budget, and collection....my experience you can pick two. My collection is just neat guns that i got good deals on. Every time I went looking for something, say a 539, or a 624, I only found high prices.

 

[Dan Carey]

Well, if it's a S&W with a pinned barrel and no lock...I'm interested!

 

[Frank46]

I'm not a collector by any means. I'm more an accumulator have no set goals for my accumulation of mostly military surplus firearms. I started in the late 60's mainly because at the time I could not afford factory built rifles. But I could afford military surplus rifles. Saturday mornings when I didn't have to work would find me at the old Brookhaven rangeon Long Island testing mt new toys. Non corrosive military surplus ammo was still available in great quantities and berdan got tossed into the scrap bucket and the non corrosive got saved and reloaded. Those were the days. Frank

 

[Imissedagain]

Collect by Caliber.
45s and 22s only.
Long or short.
That's it.

Except for................ 355, 356, 357, 358 .....
Collecting optics has merits.

Guns and optics
Rods and reels
Never give fish a fighting chance.

 

[Moo Moo]

Due to the Australian Firearms laws, I can't be too fussy on what I pick up for my S&W collection. I started out with Snubnose revolvers as these are somewhat cheaper due to certain licensing restrictions. I suppose I've "picked the lowest hanging fruit first". I am starting to get a few 3rd Gen Autos also. Other firearms brands are picked on TV/movies as well as use by Police and Military units.

 

[Rick_A]

I'm currently selling my best shooter (4" heavy barreled K frame) and most valuable (vintage N frame) to focus on something more practical...concealed carry. I'm planning on buying a 66-8 with the 2.75" barrel and using some extremely ugly (but comfortable) rubber grips. My oldest revolver will be of 2009 vintage...and that's just fine It'll join my J frames and a relatively lightweight tapered barrel 45.

 

[Nathan510]

So far my themes have been....

All Frame sizes 3" Pre-lock with some Limited Run IL Models in Stainless and it's matching pair in Blued.

All Caliber Pre-lock Mountain Guns, and other modeled 4" Tapered Barrels (624, 24, 27 etc)

One Example of each odd-ball model or Caliber in Stainless, Especially in 3" Barrel lengths (650, 642, 640, 646, 610, etc)

Any Pre-Lock Performance Center, Especially 3" Comp Models

Model 27's, specially 3.5" and 4", P&R

 

[StrawHat]

...It'll join my J frames and a relatively lightweight tapered barrel 45...

Which 45 is that?

Kevin

 

[catcher79]

45 years ago, my initial plan was to collect Colt .22's of all configurations. I have worked on that plan for all these years. However, my collecting thoughts began to wander and I expanded to other styles and calibers. I began to collect calibers and ended up with every caliber covered from .22 short to .45 Colt. The .44 Specials and .32 S&W Long got a lot of my attention. Then military rifles and pistols got their due. I have an accumulation now more than a true collection, but it's mine, I'm proud of it and enjoy it immensely. And not to worry, 10's, 12's, 15's, 16's, 17's, 18's, 19's, 24's, 25's, 26's, 27's, 28's, 29's, 30's, 31's, 34's, 41's, 57's, 58's, 60's, 64's, 65's, 66's, 67's, 624's, 629's, all the Mountain guns (except the 41 Magnum) and many others of the five screw variety. And safe queens and shooters, I enjoy them all.

 

[Lobster Picnic]

I started too late to have an elaborate collection or a refined focus, but managed to collect a few good specimens from the fabled K-frame Masterpiece series and a few nice J-frames, my favorite being the 3" Model 60-4. I would like to add a fixed-sight K-frame and maybe a 2" RB Model 34, but those are conceits rather than requirements.

I do stick to 4 calibers; .22LR, .22WMR, .38 Special, .357 Magnum. It keeps things simple, and my wife and grandson can use everything I own.

 

[Benchrest1]

I don't have a theme per say, but when I see something I like I buy it. Here in California its not easy to get just what you want when you want. It was a lot of years before I found some of what I have.

 

[muddocktor]

The only semi-organized collection I have done is to accumulate model 27's in all the normal barrel lengths. I have at least one of all common barrel lengths and all have recessed cylinders. But my 6 1/2" gun is a 27-5 and doesn't have a pinned barrel and is also my only non-nickel gun too, so I could still potentially be in the market for a 6 1/2" barreled nickel 27-2 or older gun.

 

[Thuer]

At first. Have fun with collecting. There are also a couple of good books on the subject.
My Smith and Wesson collection covers the development of Smith and Wesson.

Started by the model 1 second issue, thirth model Russian, second model Schofield, New model 3 and the model of 1881 double action.

Then about 10 K frame revolvers starting with the model 1899 ending with a S serie M&P. A very nice model 13 and a U.S.A.F model 15. And one lost model of 1955 in .45 acp.
I am not done yet with collecting Smith and Wesson. There is a nice model 14 made in 1961 in sight. And I do not know what is next on my pad.

Good luck with your collection. And have fun.

 

[Robert L Wells]

45 years ago, my initial plan was to collect Colt .22's of all configurations. I have worked on that plan for all these years. However, my collecting thoughts began to wander and I expanded to other styles and calibers. I began to collect calibers and ended up with every caliber covered from .22 short to .45 Colt. The .44 Specials and .32 S&W Long got a lot of my attention. Then military rifles and pistols got their due. I have an accumulation now more than a true collection, but it's mine, I'm proud of it and enjoy it immensely. And not to worry, 10's, 12's, 15's, 16's, 17's, 18's, 19's, 24's, 25's, 26's, 27's, 28's, 29's, 30's, 31's, 34's, 41's, 57's, 58's, 60's, 64's, 65's, 66's, 67's, 624's, 629's, all the Mountain guns (except the 41 Magnum) and many others of the five screw variety. And safe queens and shooters, I enjoy them all.

Outstanding!

 

[H Richard]

Since I like older S&W's, I put together a few mini collections, what I refer to as a short set. One example is a set of #1's. Includes one each of all three Issues, (but there are many "Types" of each issue to go yet).


This set is all No 1 1/2's, rimfire and center fire.


This set is .32 Safety Hammerless, 1st issue, 2nd issue, 3rd issue.


Sorry about the reflections, they are all in shadow boxes and sit on my roll top desk in my home office.

 

[Green Frog]

Well, I vanished for five months. I got interested in other things, including self-publishing and promoting two books. But I kept working on the S&W collecting theme I described when I started this thread.

The idea was to memorialize my shooting and collecting days (I'm disabled now). Having given away and sold most of my collection, I wanted to rebuild a small collection of revolvers that captured some of the variety of features, sizes and finishes that Smith offers ... in one caliber (because total cost was a factor). Here it is.

Model 37 2" .38, J, Blue, Aluminum, Rnd. Butt
Model 65-5 3" .357, K, Stainless, Rnd. Butt
Model 10-8 4" .38, K, Blue, Sq. Butt, PC Magnas
Model 27-2 5" .357, N, Nickel, Sq. Butt, Boughman Sight, Football Targets
Model 14-1 6" .38, K, Blue, Sq. Butt, Patridge Sight, Diamond Targets
-----------------
Model 25-5 6" .45, N, Blue, TS, TT, TH, WO, RR, Football Targets

The years range from 1961 to 1988. The Model 25-5 is there because it was my favorite Smith of all to shoot. The Model 65-5 is not actually in my hands yet. We are in the process of concluding the deal . I've covered barrel lengths, finishes, frames and stocks. Not all of them certainly, but if you look closely and think about it there are quite a few smith configurations or features represented in one way or other on one gun or other.

Robert,

I got back into this thread when somebody "Liked" a post I put on it a year ago. The one thing that I noticed about your latest post (above) is the comment about keeping to one caliber for simplicity, then adding a 45 and a 22, then getting rid of the 22. Just an observation, but if you are planning on any shooting, both the mentioned disability and ammo availability and cost would seem to indicate that the K-22 would be a nice thing to have regardless of what else you keep. I find that as much as I love my K-38 and K-32 as well as a variety of other pistols and revolvers, my K-22 still gets the nod as often as most of the others combined when I go to the range. JMHO of course, but I really feel strongly that every S&W enthusiast needs a K-22.

Froggie

 

[mikerjf]

Somehow I managed to learn not to start collecting, because I quickly develop that bug in almost anything... cars, motorcycles, guns, guitars, etc... so for me it's about finding the minimum that I actually use and find interesting.

I tend to like things that have been personally customized in a period-fashion, so something like a chopped 1917 would probably get me interested. Or an old engraved 22 Ladysmith.