Hello Dave
I appreciate your kind words here.
The story behind how these Roper stock's came to me is rather Unique as well. The K-Frame Roper's came on a Gun shop consignment K-22 as I mentioned in my previous response & they were on a Model 17-2 revolver, which was much too early for the time span for Roper grips shown on my K-32 above. When I bought the The Model 17-2 K-22 that these Roper grips were on, the finish had been re-blued and was a Lousy Job with the S&W Trade Mark buffed almost off the gun. I had always liked the idea of having one Nickel plated so I sent it off to Ford's Refinishing in Florida as I only had $300.00 in it with the Purchase price of it having the Roper's on it in the transaction of it, I felt the revolver came to me pretty much Free. Ford's Custom gun Refinishing did a great job on it Transforming it to Nickel and re-stamped the factory trade mark for me, that had been previously destroyed. About Three years after that, I came across a Nice Outdoorsman K-22 at a gun show & I swapped the nickel K-22 off for it, without the Roper stock's on it when I traded. I discovered once I got them home that Roper had scribed a date of "1936" on the rear of these stock's so now I had a Gun from the same time period of which they were made and are shown below on it. I have since Placed them on my Pre-16 K-32 shown above as I got the Original factory serial numbered stocks that came with my 1936 K-22 Outdoorsman revolver when it shipped from the factory.The Larger-N-frame set as I had mentioned came off a Model 27-2 revolver found at a Gun show which was blued with an 8-3/8" Barrel. The seller of that gun agreed to swap me for a set of Highly figured Walnut Factory target stocks in trade that I had with me that day. Once I Placed the Walnut Factory stock's on his 27-2 he asked me "If he owned me any Boot on the swap" ? I was very Pleased with the trade straight across the board as an even swap, so I could not take his money but I sure enjoy the Roper stock's that he called "Them There Fancy Herritts"... It just goes to show you never know what's out there if one is patient enough to look a little, and they now reside on my 1935 Registered Magnum shown above.
The Last revolver shown belongs to a friend of mine & is wearing a set of Thumb Rest Ropers like Don's gun has above. I was intrigued how Matheis Gagne Paid attention to small details in his Custom stock making & had relieved the S&W Trade Mark Portion on the revolver's frame area of this Registered Magnum so that it could be viewed with the stock's in Place. Without a Doubt, Matheis Gagne was a True Artisan and way ahead of his time. Prior to Making stock's for Walter Roper He was a Clock & Cabinet Maker and I would Love to find one of his hand made clock's to go with my stocks. Walter Roper was very articulate in his Enterprising ideas and made several Improvements to the shooting industry over the years. He came out with the Roper designed adjustable front revolver sights that we saw on Colt Revolver's and worked very close with Shooting Teams from Camp Perry back then.
Originally before he hired Matheis Gagne to make his stock's He took his Custom stock idea to S&W and wanted them to build these larger style Target stocks but they refused to make them as at that time they had service Stock's with Grip adapters and later came out with the Medium sized stock's we call Magna's. To me S&W was very Late to the Party in the making of their Factory Target stock's being in the early 1950's time span when we first started seeing them show up on K-Frame revolver's, and a Little later in the mid 1950's for the larger-N-Frame revolver's and I feel that Perhaps Matheis Gagne's Son Albert Gagne had something to do with the Birth of the S&W larger style Target stocks for the Pre-29's. Albert worked for S&W after his Father Matheis had retired and had all ready been familiar with Stock making as his Father had apprenticed him in it, and he also shot on the S&W Factory shooting Team. I base this on Purely speculation as far as him having anything to do with the Birth of the S&W target stocks but they certainly do resemble his Father's creation in some way's of The Diamond center & slight Palm swell we saw come on The Famous Coke Bottle style stocks of the Late 1950's time span when he worked there....Whether or not Albert Gagne really had anything to do with the Birth of the S&W larger style target stock's remains to be a mystery to us, but we do know that him and his Father were True artisians of wood stock's way ahead of their time and made some Gorgeous stock's that we all have learned to cherish and collect for our prized revolvers...
...I'll try to get better at taking pic's
