(Cross-posted from another King thread)
Coincidentally I just reached into my safe a few minutes ago and withdrew a revolver I haven’t fired in about 25 years. It’s a Model 1905 Hand Ejector 4th version target model with a 6-inch barrel and Roper-style thumb rest stocks that was gifted to me by my godmother 35 years ago or so. It belonged to her uncle who was a Mississippi riverboat gambler, and carried a pair of Colt Detective Specials with the front sights filed off. She kept those but gave me his target gun.
It has the King rifle base front sight with gold bead, and adjustable rear with half-circle notch. I was intrigued by it and was going to start a new post because tonight I read this in Wikipedia in a photo caption:
“Smith & Wesson 1905 4th change 1915 Target model. "NRA"Slow Fire at 25 yards. This one left the factory in 1929 and was sent with ten others to a firm in Buenos Aires. The hammer was added later and is in the general form of the King Gun Shop modification usually intended for the timed and rapid fire portions of the NRA course.”
I know nothing about the King Gun Shop, and would like to learn more. I happened to see this post and decided to ask here instead. (I have learned a lot since I first posted this elsewhere a few days ago, and now realize this gun is pretty special).
Here is a fun anecdote. I grew up in San Francisco. When I was given this revolver it was missing the rear sight blade. I took it to the only gun shop in town, run by a very Yoda-like old Chinese man named F. Bob Chow, who I later learned was a true legend in shooting circles. (RIP)
I asked him if he could help sort out my rear sight problem. He explained to me that the gun had King sights, which were very rare, a pre-war thing. He asked me if I knew what he did before he opened his shop, and of course I didn’t. He said, “I was the manager of the King Gun Sight Company”. He chuckled and walked to the back room, and came back with a fishing tackle box. He opened it up and explained that when they folded, he was given all their leftover inventory. He rooted around for a second, and came up with a perfect rear sight blade, installed it, handed it to me and refused to take payment!
A true gentleman!
My gun had an unbelievable hair trigger (he characterized it as being extremely dangerous, and he kept the gun that day to fix it and turn it into a safe but very light trigger). Could it be that this gun was given the treatment by King? It seems probable.
It looks quite unremarkable, has a lot of the bluing worn off, and is almost supernaturally accurate. I think I’m going to fire up my press and load a bunch of .38 HBWC rounds and start shooting it again....
