Take a look and tell me why I bought this old 38...

[Absalom]

I don't like being a killjoy, but I'm afraid I'm with DWalt and Art Doc on this. I have had and have M&Ps with stock damage, notches, and stock damage that looks like notches, maybe even stock damage intentionally made to look like notches, in that area, particularly on ex-police guns that spent a lot of time in open holsters. Could indeed be anything or nothing.

 

[ABPOS]

To me the hammer looked like it's been sanded down or something. Like reprofiled. Smoother or something. I guess maybe it's the refinish....

 

[crstrode]

In addition to the notches, the poor refinish job certainly indicates it is a gun owned by Al Capone.

 

[mm93]

Any number of reasons a gun can have notches carved into them. And mostly the grips get them, but I've also seen notches filed into the metal!!! Always wonder why anyone would be so careless as to do the notches in the metal on a gun?
I bought an old 1893 Marlin takedown rifle from an old timer long ago. When he showed it to me it had 30 some notches filed into the hard rubber buttplate around the perimeter. I asked what the "decoration" was, and he said each notch represented a deer he'd shot with it.
What was more interesting was the barrel was threaded for a Maxim silencer and had a knurled collar to protect the threads. I casually mentioned how it was too bad the silencer was gone, and he walked over to a drawer and pulled it out! I tried like heck to buy it, but he said he'd never registered it in the 1930's when he was supposed to. Even when I told him to cut it in half and I'd buy it, he still wouldn't part with it. Always wondered where it went? Always wondered how many of those deer were shot out of season with a silenced rifle?

 

[Texas Star]

It was found to be Elvis Presley's first handgun?

Otherwise, I think you wasted $285!

 

[glowe]

DING DING DING! . . . Now how did they get there? Who would have cut four very pronounced notches? There are 4, the one nearest the grip frame doesn't show up in the pic.

Here is the problem with those questions - you will never know the answers, so you have a chromed beater with no known history?? . . . but if you got it for a fair price, I bet it still shoots just fine.

I have my grandfather's 32 Top-break and it has eight notches on the stocks - one for each raccoon he shot in the barn or chicken coop.

 

[swagmeister]

You bought it because you wanted it, very simple!

 

[BAM-BAM]

After market nickle ..... hammer and trigger should be cased hardened!

IIRC Dad's 46 M&P has a notch or two on the left grip...... he was left handed and I think he killed a door handle or two over the 20 years in carried it as a Patrolman,Sgt and Lt...........

 

[DWalt]

"What was more interesting was the barrel was threaded for a Maxim silencer and had a knurled collar to protect the threads. I casually mentioned how it was too bad the silencer was gone, and he walked over to a drawer and pulled it out! I tried like heck to buy it, but he said he'd never registered it in the 1930's when he was supposed to. Even when I told him to cut it in half and I'd buy it, he still wouldn't part with it. Always wondered where it went? Always wondered how many of those deer were shot out of season with a silenced rifle?"

I have understood the reason why suppressors (silencers) were regulated under the NFA (1934) was to discourage their use by poachers, not because it had anything to do with preventing any other types of criminal activity. Back where I came from, deer poaching was common and most poachers used .22 rifles. And very effectively.

 

[Hondo44]

Maybe after the 4th notch he was looking for his 5th wife.......