Perfected DA38 Factory Engraved..

[bigl1911]

Fine!!!

Even idiots get lucky once in a while so I will tell story first!! I'm not a rifle guy; however two guns came up at one of my best local gun shop... A perfect period correct 1903 Sporter (1927 I think) and a terrific early about the same period 1903 National Match.. Not my thing really but when these come up one cannot pass or it will be the elephant to got away. Truth be told one of my mentor experts owns the shop and pulls these guns for me when they come up... So I go in to pick the two rifles up and "Dad" says I have two guns for you (he hides these good ones in a secret spot somewhere in the shop and when he is in the mood) and pulls this guy out and a first year maybe first month Pre 29 5".. I look at the 5" and it is screaming HH Harris all over it.. Needless to say I took both guns will post the 29 soon..

 

[bigl1911]

 

[glowe]

Engraved 38 Perfected revolvers are quite rare and I have only seen one other example. Could you tell me the serial number and the last patent date on the barrel? I have been keeping track of this model and am interested in the hammer block patent of 1914 and when it was applied to the Perfected.

 

[bigl1911]

Engraved 38 Perfected revolvers are quite rare and I have only seen one other example. Could you tell me the serial number and the last patent date on the barrel? I have been keeping track of this model and am interested in the hammer block patent of 1914 and when it was applied to the Perfected.

Serial 2330
Pt - Aug 4th 96 Dec 22 96 Oct 8 01 Feb 6 08

 

[merl67]

What a beauty !!!!!

 

[glowe]

Serial 2330
Pt - Aug 4th 96 Dec 22 96 Oct 8 01 Feb 6 08

That serial number is early, which is on the other end of the patent date spectrum. Your last patent date is actually Feb 6 06, which is only on the earliest 38 Perfected examples. The majority of production carried a Sept. 14, 09 date and only a few carried the Dec. 29, 14 hammer block patent date at the very end of production. I believe the 1909 patent date was a change in the way the base pin was installed. Early examples were screwed in, while the 1909 examples used a cross pin to hold the cylinder base pin in place. Yours does not have the cross pin in the shroud.

 

[Doc44]

Possibly Style 2 (degree of coverage) by Oscar Young.

Bill

 

[bigl1911]

Possibly Style 2 (degree of coverage) by Oscar Young.

Bill

Hi Bill,

Letters July 21. 1909 style 3 engraving blue with checkered black hard rubber target grips..

 

[bigl1911]

Possibly Style 2 (degree of coverage) by Oscar Young.

Bill

BTW Really!! Wow!! Talk about dumb luck!!

 

[RKmesa]

What a GREAT gun. First engraved perfected that I have ever seen. Thanks for sharing!

 

[TexasJames]

What a great piece of history! Yes, I would agree you truly are a lucky dog! (not an idiot, you had the sense to pick up this piece.) I had a old Cxxt, = other brand, Officers match 22 on a 38 frame. It was from sometime in the 30's (I think?) was my father's purchase. I really liked it but being an idiot in my youth, I let it go value on something like that is never worth letting something like that go! (my stupidly!)

Thanks for sharing, Texas James

 

[OM Beatts]

Nice. Very nice. You did well for yourself.

 

[stinsonbeach]

What a beauty!!!

 

[murphydog]

I get all the cool S & Ws, but what is with that Kar 98 that keeps showing up in the background? Inquiring minds want to know!

Beautiful gun, and also the first engraved one I have seen. Enjoy!

 

[Hunter Keith]

.38 S&W "Perfected" 1st year

An absolutely stunning gun! My "Perfected", close to yours in serial # range (3070) was factory nickel with a four inch bbl. Bbl was butchered, top patents polished off, and a slot cut in for the sight. Top opening latch was also nickeled, rather than left blue. It is amazingly tight, indexing, lockup etc. and shoot like a dream!

 

[bigl1911]

​

I get all the cool S & Ws, but what is with that Kar 98 that keeps showing up in the background? Inquiring minds want to know!

Beautiful gun, and also the first engraved one I have seen. Enjoy!

I will change the background rifle!!

 

[Andrew2105]

What a great piece of history.

The story of clever crooks figuring out how to disable top break revolvers struck a chord with me.

Back in the late 80's early 90's this same issue was brought up concerning the Beretta Automatics of the time (92 series I believe). As I got the story (rumor?) there was some type of vulnerability that by some sort of manipulation a foe would be able to dismount the slide or some such rendering the pistol out of action, until it could be re-assembled.

This was said to be much more serious than rearward pressure on the slide to take a semi auto temporarily out of battery, which all are vulnerable to when the pistol was improperly deployed or perhaps "desperately deployed" in close quarters.

It should be remembered, that at the time the big "change over" from revolvers to "wonder nines" was in full swing. Lots of "claims" were flying around.

Let's also not forget the tactic of the bad guy reaching over the top of a DA revolver grabbing the cylinder thus making DA fire impossible as the DA pull was unable to overcome the resistance. A desperate tactic to be sure, and futile/fatal if the hammer is already cocked for SA fire. Perhaps a non-fluted cylinder would be a bit less suceptable to this suicidal/desperate tactic?

This also puts me in mind of Detective Martin McFadden on Euclid Avenue lo those many years ago.

Sorry if this digresses to far from the original intent of the post.