Highway Patrolman Questions

[Lt JL]

the Old Bear is a self-confessed recoil weenie in his old age. That 28 will digest anything you can feed it, and outlive you and your heirs, if taken care of. Buy it. $50.00 too much is really only $50.00 too soon, as prices are going. LT JL

 

[Tommezgun]

About 4 years ago a friend told me that another friend of his had a 28 for sale for $275 and wanted to know if I was interested. I asked the condition and he said he had not seen it. Already having three 28s I said if it looks ok I might buy it. A few weeks later my friend calls again and said that he had the gun and it looked pretty good. I went over and looked at it. 6" S serial from the 60s smooth target grips 90% + condition. The owner had a note with it with the info and had written $275. I asked him 3 times 275 he said yes. So I bought it. Then said to my friend if he has any more like this tell him I'll buy all he has for that price. No box or papers but I am not into collecting them.

 

[BZimm]

Ok, I wasn't sure if I should keep this thread going or jump over to the "ultimate" one, but anyway, I gotta question.

The more I fondle this gun, the waaay more I like it. I carried it quite a bit over whitetail season and with a Bianchi 110 holster in the crossdraw position, it was actually comfortable. Anyway, the most of the screws are boogered up on this thing and it makes me sad....

Can I buy a "set" of screws that I would use to replace all of them? And where would you recommend I get them?

I hesitate to do this because the damage done is part of the guns' heritage, so I'll think about it for a while. The frame and side plates are not scratched up, it's just the screw heads themselves.

 

[retiredbadge8091]

Love the S&W Highway Patrolman. I have two, a pre 28 HP and a Model 28-2, both 4"ers. They shoot great and ooze coolness.

 

[LAH]

If the stuff hits the fan and I could only have one gun, it would be a S&W Highway Patrolman.

Nuff sed.

4 or 6 inch?

 

[Nightowl]

You can probably get some new screws from Smith. If not there are several vendors that sell older parts. Two things to remember is that the blueing on newer guns is different than the process used when your gun was built. And that the front screw is fitted to the yoke so that it fits snugly to the frame. Too long a screw can damage the yoke button.
I'm not sure I would worry about it much unless the screws are really bad.

 

[codenamedave]

Ok, I wasn't sure if I should keep this thread going or jump over to the "ultimate" one, but anyway, I gotta question.

The more I fondle this gun, the waaay more I like it. I carried it quite a bit over whitetail season and with a Bianchi 110 holster in the crossdraw position, it was actually comfortable. Anyway, the most of the screws are boogered up on this thing and it makes me sad....

Can I buy a "set" of screws that I would use to replace all of them? And where would you recommend I get them?

I hesitate to do this because the damage done is part of the guns' heritage, so I'll think about it for a while. The frame and side plates are not scratched up, it's just the screw heads themselves.

If they're not so far gone that torquing is compromised, you could try cleaning them up with a file and rebluing them. Brownell's Oxpho-Blue is the best I've found in a cold blue, and you can make more applications to get darker colors until you get a good match. Since I'm not interested in owning show pieces, I actually prefer keeping the gun as it came, as opposed to buying shiny-perfect new screws.

 

[steelslaver]

Before you go to filing on the screw heads do this. Get a piece of brass and drill a hole in it that the screw will sit in and the head protrude. Take a real small hammer and lightly tap, tap. tap the screw head. This will cause most of the metal that was displaced by the previous poor screwdriver work to move back close to where it belongs. Then clean up the with a bit of fine sand paper. If you don't have a file thin enough for the slots, sand the sides of a hack saw blade down. Lay the blade on something thing and flat and use a sanding block. The freshly sanded screw heads will take the cold blue better if they are heated up a bit.

 

[gmborkovic]

The brass block is an excellent suggestion. 40 some odd years ago, an old smith in Baltimore, gave me a brass block drilled and taped for various screws. A 5-44 tap may be hard to find, but works great.

 

[BZimm]

Ya know...those are some great ideas. I'm not really wanting to *******ize this ol' girl, and maybe some "farmers fixes" are the way to go. I appreciate your suggestions very much.

 

[Sully8548]

Nice find. I picked up this late 59 early 60 28 no dash a while back for a very good price. No regrets.

 

[rolandbr]

Are those cokes on that one, did it come with them in the S series 4 screw

 

[fyimo]

The Model 28-2 is mechanically the same gun as the 27-2 except S&W wanted to sell them to police officers so they did a matt blue and didn't checker the top strap to lower the cost. Other than those two things they are the same as a 27-2.