Got a Nice 14-3

[shakyshoot]

Just picked up the 14-3 Target Masterpiece I bought on GB and man, it's a beauty. Almost no turn line and nice dark, glossy blue with practically no wear. Even the shop owner where I did the transfer was waxing poetic about it. The gun is great mechanically and has a trigger to die for. Would be nice if it had the target grips, but I'll try the Magna's out for a while and see how it goes. No one wasted any time cleaning the gun before putting it up for sale, but a few swipes and the bore and chambers look mint. Figure to shoot it Sunday or maybe tomorrow. I haven't tried going to my range on a Saturday, but I've been there a couple of Sundays and it wasn't that busy.
I know this was around mid-70's but can anyone come up with a closer time frame? Ser# 8K89XX

 

[Jtown]

Looks like 1975
Walt

 

[Babysitr]

what a "classy" looking revolver......NICE

 

[KalamazooKid]

These are fabulous shooters and a great looking revolver. I absolutely love mine from 74.

 

[shakyshoot]

Looks like 1975
Walt

Thanks Walt--You can't get much more "mid-70's" than that. I vaguely recall graduating from high school in that year.

 

[bananaman]

That is a nice 1! You are sure to enjoy it! My -3 is from 1977. Bob

 

[rbmac52]

I've got 8K8904 and believe it is a 1975 gun.

 

[D Brown]

Model 14-3

That looks like a beautiful Model 14! I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

 

[shakyshoot]

Had the 14-3 to the range today and did OK. Actually the 2nd trip, but I didn't report on the Saturday trip because I burned almost half of the 100 rounds before I got a decent sight-in. The sights were set crazy high and quite a bit left. My first shots missed the 8 1/2" x 11" paper at 10 yards. Ultimately I came down over 20 clicks and about 6 right. Shot another 80 rounds today. The best I did at single action slow fire was this 25 yd target. It scores better than it looks, cause the hole at the top of the 10 ring is a double, and a gauge says they both touch the 10. So it was a 90 on an NRA slow fire target. A 3 3/4" 25 yd offhand group, but got 7 of em in a 1 1/4". The skinny Magna grips don't much agree with me. I've already ordered a Tyler-T grip and another one for my Mdl 36 with the even skinnier Magnas, so I'll see if that helps. No real problems at the range anyway. It's gone bang every time, and the loading and ejection are fine.

This was some fairly fast double action shooting at 10 yd. The DA trigger is pretty nice. Haven't shot too much DA yet, since this won't be a self defense gun. (Since it's 38 spl only, and also too nice to ever see a holster.) But it will get shot and hopefully shot often.

 

[KEN L]

Just picked up the 14-3 Target Masterpiece I bought on GB and man, it's a beauty. Almost no turn line and nice dark, glossy blue with practically no wear. Even the shop owner where I did the transfer was waxing poetic about it. The gun is great mechanically and has a trigger to die for. Would be nice if it had the target grips, but I'll try the Magna's out for a while and see how it goes. No one wasted any time cleaning the gun before putting it up for sale, but a few swipes and the bore and chambers look mint. Figure to shoot it Sunday or maybe tomorrow. I haven't tried going to my range on a Saturday, but I've been there a couple of Sundays and it wasn't that busy.
I know this was around mid-70's but can anyone come up with a closer time frame? Ser# 8K89XX

Looks like Jan/Feb time frame 1976, but methinks the stocks are not correct. Should be magna style, not PC magnas. Unless, of course, they are numbered to the gun. Real beauty nonetheless!

 

[shakyshoot]

Looks like Jan/Feb time frame 1976, but methinks the stocks are not correct. Should be magna style, not PC magnas. Unless, of course, they are numbered to the gun. Real beauty nonetheless!

Forgive my ignorance, but what's the difference between magna and PC magna? I haven't had the grips off yet, so no idea if they're numbered to the gun. As someone who is a shooter and not really a collector, whether they're original to the gun is not a big deal to me, but I'm curious about this magna vs PC magna.

 

[shakyshoot]

Alright, I took the grips off and one is stamped 54719. But at least everything looks good under there. No rust and the strain screw is tight.

 

[EricR]

Standard magna's have "square" bottom edge whereas PC (plain clothes) magna's are rounded.

Standard magna's

Both of these are PC magna stocks

 

[shakyshoot]

Thanks EricR--I can see the difference.