Hello. A little backstory is required. So please bear with me. I'm a cop and five years ago I was browsing through a bunch of firearms that my department was preparing to sell to a dealer. They were all firearms confiscated from criminals, found during search warrant services ect. Most were junk, but there were also alot of Rugers, Astras, Stars, Llamas and a few little gems - beat up gems but gems nevertheless. I came across my Outdoorsman among all those handguns. My beat up gem.
Now nobody knew what it was. The tag on it had it identifed as a K-38 Target Masterpiece. I knew what it was. A five screw Outdoorsman with a 6.5" barrel and Diamond Magna grips on it.
It had lived a hard life and the crane was missing. Yes that's right the crane was missing, but everything else was there. The finish had seen better days but the bore was still sharp. I knew that it wasn't a pristine collector piece, but I jumped on it anyway. I put my name on it, but I had to make sure that all efforts had been made to confirm that the owner could not be located. I would hope some cop would do the same for me if he was drooling over one of my revolvers.
I called S&W and was put through to Roy Jinks. He advised me that the Outdoorsman was shipped from the factory to the Rex Gun Company in New York City, New York in August of 1953. It had the 6.5" barrel and a blued finish when it was shipped out. After that it never returned to the factory.
I then did an ATF trace on it. It showed up once at a pawnshop in Flagstaff, Arizona in the spring of 1975. After that nothing. An NCIC query came up with absolutely nothing. My department recovered it in 1997 when serving a search warrant on a burglary suspect's house. Lots of stuff was recovered. The department told the media and for weeks folks came in and looked through the recovered property. Some property was returned to the rightful owners, but the Outdoorsman was not one of them. So I came to a dead end.
So in the fall of 2004 I purchased my Outdoorsman from a local dealer for $50.00. He thought I was nuts, but then he isn't into Smith & Wesson revolvers.Though truth be told there was a littel voice in the back of my head agreeing with him.
Over the years I had a little work done on it here and there. The crane was replaced etc. But there were issues with the cylinder release and the timing was all screwed up and the trigger action was gritty. I finally decided it was time to bite the bullet and take it into a good smith and have it worked on for real. In other words time to spend some money.
I called John Taffin (he lives in my area of Idaho for those who know who he is) and asked for a good gunsmith. I took it to the gunsmith he goes to and yesterday I picked it up. The timing is dead on. The cylinder release is perfect and the grittiness in the action is all gone. Yipeee.
Now I have a dilemma. As I said this old Outdoorsman has had a hard and rather mysterious life. The finish isn't horrible, but there are some scratches and scars. Obviously not all parts match anymore (the cylinder crane) so I guess it's a parts gun for lack of a better word. Or perhaps I should call it a shooter.
I've wanted an Outdoorsman for years.Since I'm a cop I'm not made of money and I'll take my S&W pieces anyway I can. It's a big impressive looking revolver and I'm thrilled to have it. Right now I have spent an estimated $300.00 to include the purchase price. Is it worth spending a couple hundred more for cosmetics? All you hard core S&W collectors please advise. Consider my specimen and that tell me what you would do.
I'll add a photo later.
Now nobody knew what it was. The tag on it had it identifed as a K-38 Target Masterpiece. I knew what it was. A five screw Outdoorsman with a 6.5" barrel and Diamond Magna grips on it.
It had lived a hard life and the crane was missing. Yes that's right the crane was missing, but everything else was there. The finish had seen better days but the bore was still sharp. I knew that it wasn't a pristine collector piece, but I jumped on it anyway. I put my name on it, but I had to make sure that all efforts had been made to confirm that the owner could not be located. I would hope some cop would do the same for me if he was drooling over one of my revolvers.
I called S&W and was put through to Roy Jinks. He advised me that the Outdoorsman was shipped from the factory to the Rex Gun Company in New York City, New York in August of 1953. It had the 6.5" barrel and a blued finish when it was shipped out. After that it never returned to the factory.
I then did an ATF trace on it. It showed up once at a pawnshop in Flagstaff, Arizona in the spring of 1975. After that nothing. An NCIC query came up with absolutely nothing. My department recovered it in 1997 when serving a search warrant on a burglary suspect's house. Lots of stuff was recovered. The department told the media and for weeks folks came in and looked through the recovered property. Some property was returned to the rightful owners, but the Outdoorsman was not one of them. So I came to a dead end.
So in the fall of 2004 I purchased my Outdoorsman from a local dealer for $50.00. He thought I was nuts, but then he isn't into Smith & Wesson revolvers.Though truth be told there was a littel voice in the back of my head agreeing with him.
Over the years I had a little work done on it here and there. The crane was replaced etc. But there were issues with the cylinder release and the timing was all screwed up and the trigger action was gritty. I finally decided it was time to bite the bullet and take it into a good smith and have it worked on for real. In other words time to spend some money.
I called John Taffin (he lives in my area of Idaho for those who know who he is) and asked for a good gunsmith. I took it to the gunsmith he goes to and yesterday I picked it up. The timing is dead on. The cylinder release is perfect and the grittiness in the action is all gone. Yipeee.
Now I have a dilemma. As I said this old Outdoorsman has had a hard and rather mysterious life. The finish isn't horrible, but there are some scratches and scars. Obviously not all parts match anymore (the cylinder crane) so I guess it's a parts gun for lack of a better word. Or perhaps I should call it a shooter.
I've wanted an Outdoorsman for years.Since I'm a cop I'm not made of money and I'll take my S&W pieces anyway I can. It's a big impressive looking revolver and I'm thrilled to have it. Right now I have spent an estimated $300.00 to include the purchase price. Is it worth spending a couple hundred more for cosmetics? All you hard core S&W collectors please advise. Consider my specimen and that tell me what you would do.
I'll add a photo later.
