Bat Guano-
You are correct about Askins not liking S&W much He told me personally that he hated their sales reps, whom he considered to be snobs. He liked the Colt reps much better.
He also mentioned having to turn the barrels of almost all Colts that he bought for the Border Patrol while their chief firearms instructor prior to his Army career. Colt seldom got the sights aligned right, and their cylinder timing also wears much faster than for Ruger or S&W revolvers.
I once had the great good fortune to own a New Service in .45 Colt, made about 1935. It was in truly NRA Excellent condition, near new. The sights WERE aligned and it shot six rounds of Remington .45 Colt ammo into a single jagged hole at 25 yards from "offhand" on my better days. Its accuracy overlapped that of my M-29, which is saying something!
I was quite bitter when I had to sell it due to a GI Education Bill check being late when I had to register for college and buy books. I later went back to that pawn shop, too late. A fat dumb-looking security guard had just bought it. I hated to think of it being in the hands of that gink, who clearly had little idea of what he'd just acquired. I hope he cared for it better than I suspect. I did take some comfort in knowing that at least one guard wasn't walking around with an RG .38 on his belt...
Back to this Shooting Master. I imagine that if you wanted, you could amuse yourself out in the country by shooting grasshoppers or bees with it at reasonable range. It'd sure be snake head-accurate! A well made Colt is an astonishingly acurate revolver.
What gripes me is that I was shooting a .38 Diamondback years ago and the sights wouldn't adjust enough to get the gun properly on-target. I called the Colt PR lady and she wasn't too concerned. Said to just use Kentucky windage! Yes, she really said that! I was so steamed that I haven't bought a Colt since. But honesty compels me to admit that the three Pythons that I've owned were all every bit as accurate as S&W M-27's, maybe a tad better, although human factors made that impossible to be certain about. (No Ransom rest) But I can tell you that both brands would clump all six shots from offhand at 25 yards into one ragged hole quite often, and I am not a particularly distinguished marksman, compared to Elmer Keith or anyone who competes in the Olympics.
A Colt Gold Cup .45 would shoot all seven rounds into an even tighter hole, if you adjust for caliber. With round-nosed bullets, that wasn't as much of a factor as when I shot SWC's, with their wider, cleaner holes. It as just frighteningly accurate with Federal's 230 grain Match loads. I almost thought that someone really good was shooting that gun!
Seriously, BigInge, I totally applaud your acquiring that Shooting Master. Despite having read somewhere that S&W ads used to refer to the "file like" checkering on the backstrap, I doubt that recoil will abrade your hand. You deserve to open a mature bottle of Chateau Latour to celebrate this gun becoming yours! (I have had Latour just once in my life, the bottle being a gift from my son. When I uncorked it, I felt like I was the Sun King, celebrating moving into a newly built Versailles. Indeed, King Louis may well have drunk a bottle of it that day. The vineyard/estate was already long famous.)
I gotta run. But that gun excited me, as I'm sure it does the new owner. And, yes, Charles Askins disliked S&W, to the point that he bought Colts, even knowing that he'd have to re-sight most! But he did own a four-inch .357 Magnum, I think a Registered Magnum, and liked the Model 39. I believe that he'd largely mended fences with S&W by the time the M-39 appeared.
He was, BTW, quite a character. He once stood in public in a dining room in a major hotel in San Antonio and offered to run guns into Rhodesia, within hearing of not only Col. Rex Applegate and me (with whom he was speaking), but anyone within earshot, and he was not whispering. I don't think he was joking, either. I was in agreement with his cause, but it was highly illegal, under a UN and US embargo. One thing about Charlie: you knew pretty well what he thought of you. He was honest about his feelings.
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