Clue and question: Did you see any nickel models in this thread?
Suggestion: Maybe there's a reason for that . . .

Jack
Was the gun in the top of the picture of 3, and then again at the bottom re-barreled with an earlier vintage gun barrel?Another shot of some relatively late Model 14s (two dash 4s and a dash 3):
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Upper gun from the previous photo, this time with its box, docs and tools:
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No. I have good reason to believe it has not been tampered with. I bought this gun brand new in a gun store in Oregon more than 30 years ago. I still have the receipt. The revolver has lived in its box ever since. I have fired a total of 6 rounds through it, and that was 30 years or so ago.Was the gun in the top of the picture of 3, and then again at the bottom re-barreled with an earlier vintage gun barrel?
Factory original nickel guns are out there. . . . 14-6 special run with laser engraving: could be several hundred out there.
They made a few factory nickels in the newer 14-8 for awhile.
Yes. And like S&W putting the underlug on the Model 629 and calling it "Classic." Like any truly "classic" Model 29 ever had such a thing! It almost seemed like they wanted to turn everything into an L frame lookalike. Maybe it's me, but I can't imagine anything like this happening while the Wesson family still owned the company . . . (which they did not after 1965).kinda like Cadillac trying to mimic the Lincoln design to pick up a few buyers.....
The barrel is a lot more polished/shiny looking than the rest of the gun is in the pics. The barrel has that early deep black, wet look to it.
Yes. Great eye! Thanks (I think) for pointing this out.
It is weird. I just took that gun, along with another 98% Model 14-4, out into the backyard sunshine and looked at them side-by-side. There is no question the blue is different on the frame and the barrel of the subject gun. The other example did not exhibit this characteristic. The blue matches on everything on that one. The frame bluing on the subject gun almost looks like the matt satin blue on the HP. So I took an ANIB Model 28 out of the safe and put it side-by-side with the 14-4. The finish is not quite the same, but it is actually closer to the 28 than it is to the comparison 14-4. It is darker, less shiny and tending toward a matt finish, while the barrel is the normal bright blue. Very strange!
As I mentioned previously, I am the first and only owner of this revolver. So it must have come from the factory like this. I wonder if this was in any sense common in 1980. That is the year this gun letters to (July, 1980, to be more precise). I'm at a loss as to what to think.
Jack
That is kinda what I think. Or something.or maybe the frame and cylinder missed the final polishing stage before bluing.
That is kinda what I think. Or something.
Mostly it just bugs me that I never noticed this before. For 30+ freaking years . . .
Jack
I can understand some folks not liking the full lug versions since I felt the same way until I shot one.
I just gotta return to this post.
"It started life as a Model 16 ..."
A Model 16? In .32? Really?
It's hard to see how Bowen could have made the charge holes satisfy these specs if they were already full bored .38 Special holes. It is akin to why he needed a .22 caliber barrel to bore and rifle to a different twist than that found in S&W .38 barrels. What I don't get is why he couldn't have simply bored out the .32 barrel. Why back all the way up to the Model 17 barrel? Maybe he just couldn't bring himself to bore out that Model 16 barrel. Maybe he had another use for it. Model 17 barrels would have been a lot more plentiful.Model 16 to which Bowen added a Model 17 barrel, bored and rifled to match a Colt Python in both bore diameter and twist. He then rechambered the Model 16 cylinder to specifically fit the 148 wad 38 Special target round.