HP help?

[JP@AK]

I'm looking at a 5 screw Highway Patrolman that is in like-new condition. The lady won't sell it, but I told her I would try to find out some information for her. Frankly, it has me puzzled.
The serial number is S121198 (1955?). The finish is bright blue and the stocks look like correct Magna stocks, but they are smooth (no checkering). It has a 6" barrel and seems to be correct in every other way.
Did some HP revolvers get the brighter blue finish? And what about these stocks?
Thanks for any help you guys can give me.
Jack

 

[Hondo44]

I've never heard of an HP with bright blue unless it was re-blued. I've not seen smooth magnas either, but doesn't mean they didn'y exist.

 

[DWalt]

The whole rationale of the HP was a lower grade dull finish which would be less expensive to produce by eliminating much of the hand polishing. Otherwise, it is a Model 27 (or pre-27). Gotta believe someone had it polished and re-blued.

 

[bamabiker]

Pictures might help. There has been talk on here before about some HPs got a more polished finish but not to the M27s standard.

 

[Pisgah]

The finishes I have observed on these guns have varied somewhat. Never seen one as polished as a 27, but some were distinctly more matte-finished, while others had a higher polish closer to a mint 1949 M&P I own.

 

[rct269]

It is my recollection smooth Magna's were commonly referred to as "presentation" grips/stocks at the time. That designation set off some alarm bells---which may very well be false alarm bells!

That said, if the grips are numbered to the gun, I'd be sending off for a letter----right now. The rationale goes along these lines: Presentation grips and a bright blue finish (on a gun that wasn't offered with such) smells very much like something special---a token for somebody's favorite highway patrolman----maybe the boss man himself-----somewhere----sometime.

And aside from that SWAG, I'd have her get a letter anyway.

Ralph Tremaine