Hit a trifecta this weekend

[JSR III]

Well, I attended the Marlboro, MA spring gun show this weekend and wasn't expecting to find too much as the pickens have been slim lately. Was cruising the aisles and one dealer that I have done business with and has done many out of state transfers for me had a fairly nice looking M&P in his case. I decided to give it a look as I am a sucker for 5 screw 6" blue wheel guns and it wasn't in real bad shape. The $395 price tag also caught my eye as it is real tough to find any S&W under $500 around here that isn't beat up.

Aside from a few blems, the gun was decent and he told me I'd get a 10% discount as a repeat customer. That clinched it for me and the C 53207 series M&P now lives with me.

After lunch with my crew, I came home just in time to hop online and watch two guns that I bid on in the Amoskeag Auction that was also this weekend roll up. Both of my bids were on .22/32 HFT's and the first auction went through with no other bids made. The second auction had one on site bidder but he only bid once IIRC and the hammer fell just under my max bid.

So, all in all, it was a great weekend with an M&P and 2 .22/32 HFT's joining the herd. I bought the two auction guns sight unseen except for the auction house photos so hopefully I did OK. One is one of the 490 guns shipped to M W Robinson in 1912 and the second is in the mid 500,000 range so should be one of the first to exhibit the recessed chambers.

It was a great weekend buying wise but the gun fund took a big hit so I may have to stay home for a while.

 

[jmace57]

Congrats to you on all 3. I watched and bid in the Amoskeag auction, but ended up short on all my bids. There were some nice items, and I'm sure I was looking at the ones you bought.

 

[Hondo44]

James,

Way to go! Two HFTs at a time, wow. The one just under mid 500,000 is likely gonna' be after 1940. Hmmmm.......Could it be over the post war beginning #? An elusive post war Transitional Target?

 

[DCWilson]

I sat that auction out, but I just went back to look at the lots and see that I probably shouldn't have been so standoffish. There were several HFTs up, and one in particular was interesting to me -- 529482.

That number is very close to 529466 and 529488, both of which are among the earliest .22/32 Kit Guns to be produced. This situation seems to confirm the fuzzy zone between 529451 and 529500, where it has been reported that a few KGs were produced as special order HFTs, or perhaps were built as HFTs but were rebarreled as four-inch guns before being shipped. Anyway, that's an interesting serial number range in .22/32 history.

 

[JSR III]

Jim, the serial number is actually 529482 so it should be a pre war gun. The ones in my database before and after it are 1931 and 1938 so I'm guessing mid 30's. With the birth of the K 22, the .22/32's weren't flying off the shelf and I think they may have only been selling a few per year.

Unfortunately, that section of my database is rather thin plus you also had a lot of kit guns going out in that same serial number range.

There were actually 6 .22/32's up for sale at Amoskeag this weekend with 3 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday. I now have 12 in my collection plus the tool room model that was used as a mock up for a 22 on a 32 frame.

I didn't have a Robinson gun nor did I have one with recessed chambers other than one with a diamond that apparently went back for a new cylinder after S&W offered the chamber modification. That gun is mentioned in the SC of S&W under the .22/32 Bekeart section but needs to be corrected as the gun was not originally shipped that way.

 

[JSR III]

David, if you liked that number then you will probably love this one from my database. 527712 shipped 6/26/34, then 529,488 in 1936 and then 529751 in 1937. All 4" kit guns.

 

[DCWilson]

James, I do like those numbers. Another KG in the vicinity is 529490.

527712 was a special order KG assembled for Victor Wesson. I think there may have been a few more made around that time for review by other family members with a say-so in production decisions. 529488 has been bought and sold a few times in the last couple of decades and finally settled in residence in my safe a couple of years ago. It letters as a KG rather than a special order HFT.

Thanks for the notice on 529751. If I had heard about that one previously, I hadn't yet folded it into my prewar KG data base.

 

[blockislander]

I too went to the Marlboro show and left with a nice Colt DS. [/URL[URL=http://s29.photobucket.com/user/Blockislander/media/nickelDS1/DSC_0163_zpszcfogivw.jpg.html]

 

[rjb1]

Even though it's a Colt, I am very envious of that Detective Special.

You might want to do a bit of research about the city to which it was sold (Fordson, MI).
As best I can tell, the city went out of existence and became part of Dearborn just about the time that that gun was sold to them.
From Wikipedia:
"In 1927 it [Dearborn] was established as a city. Its current borders result from a 1928 consolidation vote that merged Dearborn and neighboring Fordson (previously known as Springwells), which feared being absorbed into Detroit."

However, Fordson High School still exists and, believe it or not, their football team is the "Fordson Tractors".

(I grew up in Detroit, so was I interested in this myself.)