great find but bad news

JKT119

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knoxville tn. smoky mts.
Good news is i bought a mod 64 stainless s/n D429*** and a mod13-2 blued s/n ABF0*** at a recent show from an individual collection. Bad news is both have those rubber pachymer(sp) grips. any advice how to identify and find the correct grips. Both are too beautiful for those rubber things.sorry no picture. KEN
 
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Try posting here in the Want To Buy section and include the info for the gun. Someone out there will likely be able to help you, great bunch of folks here.
 
They would have had walnut Magna or service stocks, checkered and with rounded bottoms.
 
JKT119
The stainless revolver in the center of this picture is a Model 64 with a D prefix. The round butt Magna stocks on it would be correct for both of your revolvers (assuming your Model 64 is a 2" gun with the round butt).
jp-ak-albums-miscellaneous-revolvers-picture9214-5-snubbies-4a.jpg
 
One way to make sure that what you hear about which original grips are correct is to buy the SW Standard catalog, if you don't already one one. It's a reference guide that's fairly close to comprehensive. So much info in it that it might be hard to follow at times, but you can usually find the info you want.

If you want original wood grips, keep in mind that the standard Magna grips will be almost always be serial numbered to a different gun. One way to avoid a mismatching serial number (if that sort of thing bothers you) is to look for old grips that were from S&W, but not originally sold with a gun. These were sold aftermarket by S&W for customers who were looking to replace worn or broken grips. They won't be serial numbered at all, so it will be obvious to collectors that that they're not original to the gun, but at least they won't have conflicting numbers.

You can also get factory wood target grips, which were never numbered, as far as I know. Your 13-2 won't need diamond targets, and that's good because they're a lot more expensive than non-diamond targets. I'm 95% sure you won't need diamonds on you 64, either, because they introduced that model about the time they phased the diamonds out, but you'll want to verify that with your serial #.
 
as a general rule folks who use/shoot their smiths add rubber grips for comfort in shooting

Yup. They're not pretty, but they are a definite aid to marksmanship, for most folks. I suppose they're not really needed for .38s, but they work just as well for .38s as they do for guns that kick harder. That said, good luck with your search for the period-correct stocks. :)
 
Your 13-2 won't need diamond targets, and that's good because they're a lot more expensive than non-diamond targets. I'm 95% sure you won't need diamonds on you 64, either, because they introduced that model about the time they phased the diamonds out, but you'll want to verify that with your serial #.
The Model 64 was introduced in 1970, and the Model 13-2 did not arrive on the scene until 1977. Neither of them were ever issued with diamond stocks (Magna or Target). Moreover, I would be very surprised if any Model 13-1, -2 or later variations shipped with target stocks. PC Magna would have been standard.

You can also get factory wood target grips, which were never numbered, as far as I know.
Actually, some of the very early examples were numbered. But since they did not need individual fitting, the practice was stopped pretty quickly.
 
The 13-1 and 13-2 's that I have owned all had PC Magna grips that had 4 digit numbers stamped on the back of the right half.The numbers were the last 4 digits of the serial on 3 of 4 guns.On the 4th 13-2 the 4 digits didn't correspond to the serial.

Never owned a Model 64.
 

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