Hi Folks,
Was at the local show this past weekend and made a couple nice finds on S&W's. This was one. A husband and wife were walking past me and I noticed the non relieved diamond targets and what appeared to be a K38. Asked what they were asking and the lady said $300. I looked at him for confirmation and then told them that if my inspection proved o.k. that I would buy it.
I checked the timing and looked at the condition and bought it rather quickly. As I stood back in my excitement of knowing I had just bought a pretty decent condition k38 4 screw with diamond targets at a great price , I notice the barrel is a bit short. I knew it was factory as the lettering was centered so I start to get a bit more excited.
My mind takes me to the thought of a special run of guns called the Hannen special aka Dayton gun. There were about 2000 of those made. A S&W buddy(forum member jebus) walks up and looks at what I have and says "do u know what u have?" I say I believe it is a Dayton gun. He promptly says "you are wrong". I told him I was lost as to what he was saying at this point and he was going to have to educate me.
He tells me to check my barrel length and he was correct that it was 5" and not 4". once that was confirmed we took the grips off to see that the serial number was in range for the special order gun he suspected it to be and it was.
So then he tells me about the Illinois State Police special order guns and how there was somewhere around 400 of them ever made. Congratulates me on a great(lucky) find and we go our way. Thank you very much Larry for the information. I really enjoy learning new to me information on S&W revolvers.
So after a little internet research it would seem that the serial number (304700) falls in line with the 3rd and final shipment of ISP guns. The non relieved diamond targets also seem to be correct for the final shipment of guns as well. The non relieved diamonds seemed odd to me as I figured they would have been used up and gone by 1957.
Anyway , it has some bumps and bruises and a little muzzle wear and a little speckle rust but overall pretty decent example of a very rare version of the K38.
Here are a couple pictures of my ISP K38. Had to snap the pictures fast as it was starting to rain.
Twig.
Was at the local show this past weekend and made a couple nice finds on S&W's. This was one. A husband and wife were walking past me and I noticed the non relieved diamond targets and what appeared to be a K38. Asked what they were asking and the lady said $300. I looked at him for confirmation and then told them that if my inspection proved o.k. that I would buy it.
I checked the timing and looked at the condition and bought it rather quickly. As I stood back in my excitement of knowing I had just bought a pretty decent condition k38 4 screw with diamond targets at a great price , I notice the barrel is a bit short. I knew it was factory as the lettering was centered so I start to get a bit more excited.
My mind takes me to the thought of a special run of guns called the Hannen special aka Dayton gun. There were about 2000 of those made. A S&W buddy(forum member jebus) walks up and looks at what I have and says "do u know what u have?" I say I believe it is a Dayton gun. He promptly says "you are wrong". I told him I was lost as to what he was saying at this point and he was going to have to educate me.
He tells me to check my barrel length and he was correct that it was 5" and not 4". once that was confirmed we took the grips off to see that the serial number was in range for the special order gun he suspected it to be and it was.
So then he tells me about the Illinois State Police special order guns and how there was somewhere around 400 of them ever made. Congratulates me on a great(lucky) find and we go our way. Thank you very much Larry for the information. I really enjoy learning new to me information on S&W revolvers.
So after a little internet research it would seem that the serial number (304700) falls in line with the 3rd and final shipment of ISP guns. The non relieved diamond targets also seem to be correct for the final shipment of guns as well. The non relieved diamonds seemed odd to me as I figured they would have been used up and gone by 1957.
Anyway , it has some bumps and bruises and a little muzzle wear and a little speckle rust but overall pretty decent example of a very rare version of the K38.
Here are a couple pictures of my ISP K38. Had to snap the pictures fast as it was starting to rain.
Twig.
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. Enjoy!
There is no objective reason I should seek out such a revolver, but they are just ... interesting.
