Some Combat Masterpiece eye candy

My Combat Masterpiece collection ended at 1990 but after a little horse trading with a buddy last night nudged the collection up to 1993 with this 67-3 pictured below right with Model 67-1 (left) for comparison.

1988 67-2 which changes New Yoke retention system,radius stud package, floating hand / hammer nose bushing.

Happy 90th BD to Harley Davidson and Beenie Babies are born...Otherwise unfortunately lots of doom n gloom such as the Bill Clinton Presidency,

Federal Agents raid religious cult Waco Tx killing 76 including 27 children, Brady bill is signed into law, Severe Blizzards in Eastern US , Islamic fundamentalists explode bomb in WTC, bombings in Bombay india kill 300 then an Earthquake in India kills nearly 10,000, Haitian Ferry sinks killing 1000, Fighting between Muslims and Croats in Bosnia Herzegovina kills untold, 7.8 earthquake off Hokkaido, Japan launches a tsunami killing 202 on Okushiri, Earthquake centered on Killari, Maharashtra India kills nearly 10,000 , Oil tanker MV Braer carrying 85,000 tonnes of crude oil runs aground crude oil spills into the North Sea causing an ecological disaster, Earthquake hits Flores Indonesia - 2200 dead , IRA explodes massive bomb in Bishopsgate London , anti-abortion activist murders doctor, Russian Nuclear Accident at Tomask 7, tennis player Monica Seles stabbed by an obsessed fan of Steffi Graf , Worst Brush Fires in Australian History destroy the world's second largest national park, Two former police officers are convicted of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King and (NAFTA) is signed into law by US President Bill Clinton ....now....exhale

1993 Model 67-3 (HB) Change extractor (star), change rear site leaf (round) , drill and tap frame, introduce Hogue rubber grips (sorry couldnt bare to see those on a nice pre IL SB S&W )....
Interestingly there is no mention of the wide rib barrel change in the SCSW and the 67-3 is now like its blue twin the 15-5.

1996 change to round butt frame
1998 67-4 introduces MIM parts and internal firing pin,
2002 67-5 is now IL,





 
Thanks so much for posting all this.

I have a nickel 15-4 that's been my bedside gun since I bought it new for $189 in...1979? I have the receipt in the box, but it's packed up at the moment. I bought it new at a pawn shop in Houston, TX. The serial number comes back as 1977, but maybe guns were slower to move through the distribution channels back in those days.
 
Seeing all of the period inventions and products with those revolvers brings to mind what Jeff Cooper once said. Col. Cooper once said words to the effect that it is difficult to think of anything made in 1911 that is still state of the art of close to one hundred years later other than Browning's pistol.

I feel the same way about the S&W Combat Masterpiece. In its category (medium frame, versatile revolver), it is hard to imagine anything else built in 1950, give or take, that is still state of the art. When you think of it, we had the ".357" Magnum, Registered, Non-Registered, and post-war models, the Combat Masterpiece and Combat Magnum, and the 44 Magnum all before 1960. Almost every other invention made at that time has been made obsolete by improvements in the intervening 50 years. Not so with the revolvers.

Anyone remember seeing that H.H. Harris ad that floats around here from time to time? If you picked your S&W collection just from that ad, or one of Bill's (Doc 44's) 1960 or so all model circular, you would have an excellent S&W collection and still be just about state of the art.

Amazing when you think about it, isn't it?
 
Perhaps this would be a good opportunity to bring the thread a little further fwd in time with a pair acquired in the last 2 years.

Shown below are a 4" Model 15-7 Serial BRC 8071 from app. 1994 (left) and a 6" Model 14-6 Serial CAZ 2932 from app. 1997 (right),
both were offered in 4", 6" and 8 3/8" lengths at times and IIRC both should have shipped with rubber grips ,
( no self respecting K-38 should be seen in public without proper wood stocks IMO). ;)

Note the 14 and 15 model lines had the same revision changes from introduction until around 1988 , after that their revisions part ways.
Both revolvers have smooth combat triggers, are factory drilled and tapped for scope mount and have the new style rear site.

The 15-7 (left) would be the last year of the SB K grip frame and has the old style thumb piece,
The 14-6 (right) is a late production version with the new (then) MIM thumbpiece with RB frame and is supposed to have a MIM trigger (according to the SCSW ) although this one appears to be forged.


Neither have the old trigger stop slot and both have superb actions .


This brings us up to 1997 which is also about the end of the hammer mounted firing pin.
 
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Something to wish for.

Let me throw a wrench in the works, and ask you experts a question. Was the Mod. 15s, and the Mod. 18s ever made in snuby 2" versions? That would give the folks that have the many variations, and strange versions, something to hunt and collect. Many years ago A friend of mine had a S&W Mod.36 Chief Special, machined to accept a S&W 22/32 Kit gun's adjustable rear sight, thus making it a .38 special cal. companion piece of his S&W 2" 22/32 Kit gun. As I remember he was just "Tickled Pink" with that set. At one time I had pictures of that set, but, they've been lost.

Chubbo
 
Chubbo said:
Let me throw a wrench in the works, and ask you experts a question. Was the Mod. 15s, and the Mod. 18s ever made in snuby 2" versions? That would give the folks that have the many variations, and strange versions, something to hunt and collect. Many years ago A friend of mine had a S&W Mod.36 Chief Special, machined to accept a S&W 22/32 Kit gun's adjustable rear sight, thus making it a .38 special cal. companion piece of his S&W 2" 22/32 Kit gun. As I remember he was just "Tickled Pink" with that set. At one time I had pictures of that set, but, they've been lost.

Chubbo
Click to expand...

The model 15 was made in 2" but not the model 18.
 
J frame Set.

LOBO;
That is good to know. If one wanted to make up a .22 LR / .38 special set, a Mod. 34, 2", could be used for the .22 LR half, and a Mod. 15, 2" for the other half of the set. I'm probably the only one, Goofy Enough" to want a set like that anyway, and also to old, and poor to hunt , and buy, a nice 2" Mod. 15, anyway. Dreaming, is one of the things that i can still do.

Chubbo
 
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