Model 35 revolvers are interesting guns; they represent the tail end of a model sequence that never had enormous production success (it appears that only a few tens of thousands of units were produced over 60 years), but had an enormously positive critical reception. I have been thinking recently that I really need one to round out my set of small-frame .22s, and the pretty picture you posted of yours makes me think it is time to do something about the hole in my collection. But I bet I won't find one at a price as good as the one you came across. Congratulations on a great score!
Technically the Model 35 is not a Kit Gun. S&W never used that term for any model with a barrel longer than four inches. The Model 35 is the direct descendant of the .22/32 Bekeart target revolver introduced in 1911, and before the model number was assigned, S&W called the postwar version of this gun the Model of 1953 .22/32 Target Revolver.
I wish the company had kept the prewar tapered barrels on the Model of 1953 .22/32s. Those straight barrels on the later guns just look too heavy to my eye, though the front-shifted weight of the gun may have been an advantage in competition.
I don't know how many Pre-35s and Model 35s were actually made, but probably only a few thousand; the serious .22 target revolver market increasingly moved to the K-frame guns after the first K-22 was introduced in the 1930s. I tend to think the I and J frame target .22s remained in production as long as they did because they better fit the hands of young people who were being introduced to handgun marksmanship. The shorter barrel small-frame .22s had other reasons for success because of their pocket portability as woods or trail guns.
I'll repeat: handsome gun at a handsome price. Congratulations.
