He Who Hesitates...M19-4 Story

[semperfi71]

Walked into a gunshop looking for used pistol grips. Inside the guncase is a M19-4 2 1/2 inch barrel. Red paint on the sight ramp. Some blue wear on both sides of the barrel at the muzzle. Otherwise in good condition. $400.00.

I ask about lay-away and am told it was half down and the rest in 30 days.

I ain't got the money (having just acquired two handguns in the last seven days) but I'm thinking what can I sell from my collection to get this revolver. It is high on my "gotta have list".

But, I put it back and go looking at grips.

The gunshop phone rings, the counter-man says just a minute into the phone. He goes to the owner and says the guy on the phone wants to know if you will take his offer. Bossman says sell it to him.

I fade out on the conversation because I am looking at "stuff".

I find some grips, buy them, and decide to look at the M19-4 again and maybe see if I can somehow purchase it.

It's gone.

I ask the counter-man if the phone call was for the M19-4. He says, "Yep". He put it aside for the phone-caller.

I'm not sure if I missed that buy because of "restraint" or if I was just not thinking straight..........

I mean I could have come home and sold one of the dogs to finance the buy..........

 

[Hondo44]

It's probably happened to all of us at one time or another. My dad always said: "He who hesitates, looses."

If I'm undecided about paying the price asked, before I put it down I always ask if they have any room to move on the price. Very often they do and that puts me over the fence and I grab it.

I wonder if the guy on the phone made an offer under the $400 price that was accepted.

 

[TAROMAN]

BTDT. I feel your pain. Just remember, like busses and women, another will come along..
My most recentl hesitation was with the Bud's 3" M-10s.
Mulligan..
So, last week. it was ME on the LGS phone putting a 65-5 on "hold".

So, learn from this negative experience.

And, remember, insanity is doing the same thing again and again while expecting a different result.

 

[fyimo]

I missed a mint 14-4 with 6 inch barrel last year because I wanted to think it over and only after the making the decision to buy 15 minutes later did I found out it had just sold. Two weeks later at another gun show I found the exact same condition revolver for the same price and snatched it up without even thinking about it.

Good luck in search and another will come along.

 

[ralph7]

i feel your pain, semper fi.

when a gun is offered, sometimes it sounds a bit too much and then when you find it gone, you realize what a great deal it was.
it's a weird mental thing that i have been trying to fix for a while now. i hate kicking myself for poor or slow judgement.

 

[PA Reb]

This same type of incident just happened to me but I was the on the other side for once. I wasn't looking to buy a revolver when I went into my local FFL dealer but I spotted a very nice 686 in the case. I asked to see it, looked it over and said I'd take it. Not thirty seconds later, a fellow that had looked at it a half hour before me made the decision at home that he wanted it and called back to buy it. I could hear his high pitched voice on the phone yelling "&%$@!&^!" So yes, it happens all the time to all of us in both directions.

 

[steamloco76]

I just missed a 19-3 four inch in near mint condition last week.
Saw it on the PAFOA forum classifieds and waited a couple of days before emailing the seller. When he got back to me I was second in line to look at the gun. Received an email a couple days later that the other guy bought the gun for $350!

Why did I not email the seller the second I saw the ad. He lived only 45 miles from me.

 

[jebe]

we all have missed one,but thats what keeps me looking i could be the one to find a m19 for 250. i dont beat myself up to much cause it motivates me to get out there and find the next one!!!! jebe

 

[PbRx]

This happened to me several times. Sometimes because my subconscious noticed something my conscious mind did not right away. Other times, like Semperfi, the guns were gone by the time I figured out how to pay for it. Just keep looking. The fun is in the chase.

 

[H Richard]

Yeah, a couple weeks ago, I got my issue of Gun Digest and didn't read it for about three days. There was a particular I Frame I had been looking for listed in 98%. I called immediately, and was told sold two days ago.

 

[Marshal Tom]

I have had that happen many times over the years but another one will come your way. I sold my mint 2.5" 66-2 with box etc a few years ago wanting a 3" 66. I passed on several of them looking for the right one and finally found one NIB for $599. I always think that if I pass on this one, I will never find another but fact is they made more than one of all of them!

 

[Dump1567]

I don't miss anymore.

I tell them to pull the tag and "I'll take it".

Picking-up my model 13 with 3" barrel today. Got it for $280.

And while I'm there, I'll swoop-up anything else that's priced right. I can usually just sell it later and make my $$ back if I change my mind.

 

[bigtubby]

I don't miss anymore.

I tell them to pull the tag and "I'll take it".

Picking-up my model 13 with 3" barrel today. Got it for $280.

And while I'm there, I'll swoop-up anything else that's priced right. I can usually just sell it later and make my $$ back if I change my mind.

I don't think anybody with half a brain would hesitate on a 3" 13 for $280.00 I would but a pallet full at that price.

 

[Willeys]

Too often I decided not to buy a gun because I thought it might be too expensive, only months or years later, I buy the same model for more money. Lessons never learned.

 

[DARBY]

Semperfi71 - keep in mind the old quote "On the Plains of Hesitation lie the bleached bones of ten thousand who on the dawn of victory lay down their weary heads resting - and there resting, died.."

Choice S&Ws rarely appear in my area, and just about never for reasonable prices. You can imagine my surprise when I walked into a local gun and pawn shop looking for ammo last week and spotted two exceptional revolvers with decent price tags. One was a 29-2 in damned-near-new condition and the other a very clean 15-3 snub with leather accessories. The wheels started turning, but I walked out - I have plenty, maybe next month, blah blah.

I made it about a mile before I turned around and asked the owner for his best price for both of them. He made me an offer I could not refuse and I now have two fine additions to my growing collection.

Beware of the Plains of Hesitation..

 

[semperfi71]

"Time, condition and scarcity have always taken care of the overpayment."

My exact philosophy all although "spendy". I am 58, my eyes are "slowing down" for shooting, my time remaining overall could be limited. I'm not going to wait three years (etc.) to find what I want to enjoy. I will overpay a bit but not ridiculously so.

In the case of this particular M19-4 I knew the price was very good. I just did not have the money to spend or I would have bought it.

Honestly (but stupidly to a frugal person) I was going to have to pass it up and when I do find one I might have to pay as much as $550.00 (but it better be REAL good).

AFTER I came home and thought about my gun collection, I had ONE gun I could liquidate and buy that S&W but by then it was too late.

When I went to pay for the Colt Lawman MKIII I have discussed here the cashier told me it was a good thing I bought it because there was a guy standing close to me and he had already told a salesman that if I balked he wanted it.

I suspect the "caller" on the M19-4 we are discussing got it for less than $400.00 because the demeanor of the conversation between the two gunshop-guys led me to believe they were "agreeing" to an "offer".

There are plenty of 2 1/2 inch M19's out there. On the online auctions many of the sellers are getting stupidly ridiculous on their "starting bids" or their so-called "reserves". And they are not selling. Some of the gunshops are doing the same thing. But there are good ones out there to be found at reasonable prices.

I want a nickle and a blue M19-4 or earlier model in good shootable condition. I'll find them if the government lets me and I don't run out of "time".

 

[125JHP]

we all have missed one,but thats what keeps me looking i could be the one to find a m19 for 250. i dont beat myself up to much cause it motivates me to get out there and find the next one!!!! jebe

You mean... like the 19-3 2 3/8" Nickle I found at a Tucson gun show last year for $175 ? like that one?

 

[Dump1567]

I don't miss anymore.

I tell them to pull the tag and "I'll take it".

Picking-up my model 13 with 3" barrel today. Got it for $280.

And while I'm there, I'll swoop-up anything else that's priced right. I can usually just sell it later and make my $$ back if I change my mind.

Back from the LGS. Looked at several S&W's the owner may end-up consigning. She'll give me a call if these guns come in.

Not to thread jack, but here's that model 13. Not that pretty, but it's tight and smooth.

 

[bigbren]

That almost was me last week. Killin' time at a gun show before going on a date. A 19-3 for $295! Filling out the paperwork will make me late. What to do? Needless to say, it's in the safe, and blondie was very understanding, but complained that it was too heavy for her!

I passed on a .22 Diamondback about 5 yrs ago for $600. Went back the next day and it was there for $750. Had to skip it out of principle, but that's the one that has always haunted me. Who dares, wins!

 

[steamloco76]

I don't miss anymore.

I tell them to pull the tag and "I'll take it".

Picking-up my model 13 with 3" barrel today. Got it for $280.

And while I'm there, I'll swoop-up anything else that's priced right. I can usually just sell it later and make my $$ back if I change my mind.

I did the "I'll take it!" today.

Visited a shop about 8o miles from home that the wife and I hit about four times a year. Snagged a really nice (one idiot mark near the barrel pin on one side) 19-4 , 6 inch, P&R, TT, TS, TH with original wood stocks for $392 out the door.

I didn't really need another 6 inch 19, but the condition and price were right on. They said they just traded it Thursday night.

 

[Double-O-Dave]

I was at a gun show a few months ago when I spied a used Model 40 that the seller wanted $400.00 for. It was nickeled, but the finish was worn through in a few places. It appeared that it had been carried much, and shot little, if at all. Remarkably, it only had a 3 digit serial number. I asked the seller about it and he stated he had bought it new a long time ago, placed it in the glove box of his truck and "kinda forgot about it". I talked him down to $350.00, but he wouldn't go any lower. A few hours later, I walked by his table again and the Model 40 was gone. He explained, with a sheepish grin, that after we had talked, he had decided he really couldn't part with an old friend. Sometimes, the hesitation can be beneficial. I didn't blame the seller at all.

Best regards,

Dave

 

[hittman77]

Been there and done that. Seems I regret far more I DIDN'T buy than ones I DID!

 

[Gunsandguitars]

Like SemperFi71, I'm entering my late 50's and realizing I have less time here left than I have already spent, so I'm trying not to deny myself my one true vice...well, not too much anyway.

I have amassed a nice, though small, collection of S&W's all dated from my heyday, the early to mid 70's. But I simply can't afford to buy every one I see, so I pick and choose carefully. If lacking cash I will trade, and even take a beating if it's something I really want...I just have to choose carefully.

Living within your means is a bitch! :0)

 

[DAdams]

I pulled that bonehead move once. once only.

 

[RobC2]

In general with good deals, if you snooze you lose. It goes the other way too though. I saw one of those random postings on a gun board once where there was this "unfired" gun at a shop way below the market rate. I really wanted one, so I figured out his time zone and called him just as he was coming into the store and even as I was buying it, people were calling him on it, I could hear them. Well, I got it and it was not all that. Considering you saw it in person, that removes a lot of the risk, but even so, sometimes it takes time to consider if the gun in question is something you really want right now, or if it is just a good (probably just fair) deal.

 

[Bat Guano]

I'm usually pretty philosophical about the ones I miss out on, but I was up in a little gunshop in Paradise CA in 1966 picking up a rifle when I spotted a 4" Triple Lock .44 Special in the case. It was decent, and the price was $85. Being in the service at the time and bound overseas, I walked away from it.

I partially redeemed myself about ten years later when I spotted a seriously underpriced 5" Triple Lock Target at a gun show. I was broke at that time as well, but talked the seller into taking $25 down on it and sent him a check for the balance Monday morning.

With the kids educated and launched, and a mad money fund, I can occasionally be mad and impulsive and get away with it.

But that Triple Lock in Paradise still taunts me.

 

[Kavinsky]

Well this may be some cold comfort but I wouldnt have gone for a dash 4 because of the gunblast article called use of magnum rounds in K frame smith and wesson found here

Use of Magnum Loads in S&W Model 19 and Other K-Frame Magnums

So as far as I'm concerned I would think the earlier the model 19 the better, any anything post dash 3 is to be avoided because of the crush fitting practice that was implemented latter down the line, along with using anything under a 150 grains in it

still even then a model 19 is a model 19 and thats one of the few smith and wessons that I've shot where it didnt feel like the grips needed to be replaced to properly fit my hand when I shot a fellow range goers 19 - 4 awhile back.

one thing was for sure though, Keith was right 4 - 4 3/4ths of an inch is just the right barrel length for a .357 magnum like it was on that 19 and the sad thing is I knew the original owner of it who traded it in on a glock, half regretting it all the while.

little wonder.

 

[Cpt. Obvious]

On the other side of this coin is the fighting the urge to settle on something. I had been looking for my first revolver/s&w, be it a nice 27 or 19. Well there was a 4" 686+ for sale locally, and while I liked it and it was at a fair price, I thought I should still wait. So I gave it a couple weeks, and that 686 had no takers, still doesn't. Kept telling myself I shouldn't settle. Lo and behold, someone offered to sell me an unfired 19-6 for less than the 686, essentially what I wanted. Would I have been happy with the 686? Probably, but still would be wanting that shiny 19...

 

[Fishslayer]

I've missed quite a few because I didn't know what I was looking at.

A 3" M66 leaps to mind.

As does an 8 3/8" nickeled M29.

A $700 Garand that was in great shape.

I don't actually remember the gun, but the owner of my LGS was gone for a week. I made the decision to buy and was there about a half hour after he opened with cash in hand. He had a phone message that somebody left with CC info & all....

 

[125JHP]

I was at another gun show and spied a Kimber Ultra carry II with a $650 price tag. Trouble was there was a fella lookin it over real close while his 2 buddies ooo'd and awww'd over it. I could see the itch in his wallet and he took the longest time trying to make up his mind. I pretended to look at another gun on the table but continued to listen as he tried to talk the dealer down... nope, not more than 20 buks would he budge. The guy just had to think about it and as he left and was 2 steps away I had my cash out and the UC in my hand.... now it is one of my favorite EDC pieces. I think the dealer mentioned later that the guy came back for it...