S&W 1905 target with cut barrel

[Modified]

... One more that I can have fun with and not care about it was well worth the small cost.

This is one of the best parts about modified guns.

The other thing about modified guns is that you know someone modified it, or had it modified, for a reason. If the workmanship on the modification is fine that can be an indication of some interesting history. Which you may or may not be able to find.

When you can find that history though, what a hoot! Especially when you buy the "butchered" gun on the cheap.

I too have a 4" cut barrel and kind of beat to heck M&P target, also has an HBH. It has uh, things about it. Need to get one of them corrected and then maybe I'll post it here.

I did have a think about the collection, and despite the overwhelming of majority of my collection consisting of modified guns, interestingly most of my guns with "wrong" barrel lengths were just re-barreled. Outside of my somewhat shameful (and thus not yet photographed) 4" (sort of, it wasn't cut...right) M&P Target, I only 4 other cut barrel guns. One is uh...a colt. And outside of coming from a Miami Pawn Shop, and having the appearance of having been used to wack a few wise guys, it's main draw for me was being extremely cheap:



Funny thing though, after that gun, the next 3 chopped barrel guns of mine are 3 of my very very favorites.



A 1917 equipped with walrus ivory, chopped barrel, king super police sights, and outfitted with an action job to accommodate the Registered Magnum hammer that was installed. The butt is also slightly rounded for good measure.




A triple lock I immediately fell in love with and named Roscoe.

The craftsmanship that went into this self described butchery is really quite astonishing. The left grip panel having a very small thumbrest, which required the stock circle to be widened. The right panel was modified in the same way for no reason other than to make the two side symmetrical.

I'm not sure if the guy who wrote this article in the March 1935 American Rifleman did the work, or if someone just read the article and did the work (then took things a few steps further), or if this is actually the same gun as in the article, but with further refinements done by Frisbie.




And, last but.. at least in my opinion, best. Which is a hard thing to rank because I *really* love the two N frames. But after the Historical Foundation sent me info on this one, a gun I already thought was just grand became something really special. Especially considering the owner who had it modified at the factory lived a town north of where my family are from in Minnesota.









That frame mounted firing pin upgrade just make me so pleased. I love the thought that went into the upgrades. It's a shame the stocks were a later (very poor) butchery of a set of K-frame Sandersons. At some point here we will get the stock situation set to right.

 

[Walter Rego]

I like it. Colt's offered shorter than 6" barrels on their pre-war Officers Model Target .38 revolvers which were contemporaneous to the S&W .38 M&P Target Models. They aren't common, but aren't unicorns. The 5" variants of those were pretty popular and a few 4" guns are known too. You would have thought that fans of the S&W style actions would have ordered some shorter .38 M&P Target guns too but all the ones that surface seem to be post-factory gunsmith jobs.

 

[Waveski]

To each his own , but personally I would never be comfortable with a cutaway trigger guard, not on any level.

 

[Jim Watson]

Long long ago, I saw a 4" M&P Target. I did not know enough then to look for signs of a sawn off barrel. I did not stretch my budget to buy it because it had a sluggish trigger return; probably just a clipped rebound spring in the guise of a "trigger job" but I did not know about that, either.
The dealer even offered to keep the pearl handles and reduce the price $25.