The ugliest Smith I own, prepare yourselves..

Another Ugliness Candidate - Before & After

My Colt 1902 had fallen on hard times, but was perfect inside. After some TLC prep it went to Turnbull's to get lettering replaced and charcoal blue.
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This is the ugliest Smith I own. Used and abused. Some previous owner slammed the cylinder shut Hollywood style so many times it damaged the recoil shield. The nickel is flaking off of the bad refinishing job. When I got it was out of time. I fixed the carry up and it shot terrible. It patterned to the left. I thought the holster wear on the barrel only added character to the revolver till I realized the holster wear was into the crown of the barrel. Now fixed it is very accurate. It maybe ugly but I'm keeping it.
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I gotta tell you, I love beat up guns. I prowl pawn shops for beaters only to find the sellers want new prices for them.
 
I love the beaters, I figure why buy a truck if your afraid of scratching the bed up. The. More use the better.
 
DCWilson said:
My ugliest gun isn't ugly by neglect. It isn't even a Smith. It just has a naturally high WI (warthog index).

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Thank heavens there was never a Smith & Webley partnership.
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Uuggh, I just threw up in my mouth. You can rust ANY gun into ugly but THAT thing was born that way. I think they call it F ugly.:D

David wins! I love this thread!
 
Cave Gun...

Onomea said:
Drew, very intriguing. How'd did you come by it? Bet there's a story in there...

Arlo
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Arlo, the Cave Gun was given to me by an acquaintance of mine who had worked CID and later DEA in "the triangle" during the 1970's & 80's. He was a "serious" guy. As I recall the story, now many years ago in the telling, he found this gun and a bunch of others in a cave near the Laos / Thailand Border. He may have told me, but I cannot recall under which command he was operating at the time.... He had no idea who stashed the gun, but it could have been a local Dope Lord, Viet Cong, Pathet Lao or possibly even earlier, by resistance forces fighting the Japanese. Given that the gun is roughly patterned after a 20's era S&W, anything is possible.

As we often say, "if only they could talk...".
 
The thing about Webleys is that they look like they were assembled inside out. It seems like half the works are just bolted to the outside. Couldn't they have made the frame a little bit thicker to get all that stuff inside where other firearms manufacturers put it?

On the bigger .455 frame the Webleyness of a gun is diluted somewhat, and the larger ones don't look quite as bad; but the smaller .38/200 Webley packs all that stuff into a smaller volume, and the effect is quite stunning.

They shoot well, though.
 
Actually David...

Being that yours in an honest to goodness Webley and not an Enfield, it's as desirable as you can get in these .38-200 guns.
 
Sebago Son said:
Arlo, the Cave Gun was given to me by an acquaintance of mine who had worked CID and later DEA in "the triangle" during the 1970's & 80's. He was a "serious" guy. As I recall the story, now many years ago in the telling, he found this gun and a bunch of others in a cave near the Laos / Thailand Border. He may have told me, but I cannot recall under which command he was operating at the time.... He had no idea who stashed the gun, but it could have been a local Dope Lord, Viet Cong, Pathet Lao or possibly even earlier, by resistance forces fighting the Japanese. Given that the gun is roughly patterned after a 20's era S&W, anything is possible.

As we often say, "if only they could talk...".
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Drew,

If you answered this I couldn't find it. What caliber is it?

I was going to tell you that, in spite of the S&W logo, it was a counterfeit. Looks like you figured that out though.:D
 
"Found in Laos during the war...."

A friend of mine found a 1861 muzzleloading Enfield .577 musketoon, complete with sword bayonet, in a VC bunker. How and why it got there and what use the Vietnamese had for it is still a mystery. Unfortunately, another soldier stole it before he could ship it home.
 
Wow! I'm gald to see this post hit a spot with everyone, great seeing all those old beaters.
Let's see some more from others who have them stashed back.
I do have to say that my Wife, who's grudgingly started to realize I actually have a pretty nice collection was quite put out when i brought that one home. Her remark was "Your going to put that in the safe?"
Come on, show some more ugly ducklings all.
RD
 
Mechanically it's very sound, believe it or not it's been fired very little, barely a mark on the recoil shield, not cutting on the topstrap, internals are good and it locks up tight and fires.
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So you mean cosmetically it's ugly, but as a testament to good design and durability, it's a beauty. :D
 
Now that you mention it

My F'ugly gun is also a Centennial, but exactly what I was looking for when I bought it. It's in the 8000 range but dont recall tha actual number right now.
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Dont know who parkerized it or why, but being from about 54-55 (dont remember that either) one could speculate it may have seen overseas service. One thing I can't believe is it has a bent ejector...with that short of one someone had to have been trying.
 
While the Centennial has a good bit of ugly I would say Cave Gun takes the trophy!
 
Here you go, my submission:

The outside of the barrel on the lower picture is almost worn into the rifling and the same side's grip panel has no checkering and the medallion is almost worn away. The front sight is also worn down terribly and the there isn't much left of the S&W logo at all!

I paid $49.00 for it if I remember correctly about two years ago, but it's still tight, shoots good and seems to have hardly been shot at all!

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DCWilson said:
My ugliest gun isn't ugly by neglect. It isn't even a Smith. It just has a naturally high WI (warthog index).

IMG_0150.jpg


Thank heavens there was never a Smith & Webley partnership.
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If there were a Smith & Webley, you could shoot it as is without buying grip adapters or target stocks.
 
Well as an "Ex-Limey" I have to defend the Webleys (and even Enfields). I have four MKVis (one sill in 0.455), four of the MkIVs in 38/200, four Enfields (two Mk1s, one each MkI* and MK1**) and even an Enfield MkVI in 0.45 ACP (the ba****d who did that should have been hung!!). They all go bang when fed properly and are accurate enough at 7 yds that they will "hurt". Remember the old bit of doggerel "The Colt won the West, the Webley the rest (of the World!)"

I still get incredulous looks when I bring these out, particularly with the MkVIs and then proceed to put the holes in a 2" circle. Just need to practice a bit with them and it does not hurt to use 0.454 heads in the MkVIs. Dave_n
 
I must admit there is a certain, odd, 'over-engineered' beauty about the Webley. What withall the screws, levers and seemingly mismatched parts they still make for an impressive military sidearm. I'd be the last to agrue that they did not do thier part in 'civilizing' the wilds.
What is the tumblatch looking thing for? Opening the cylinder? It looks like it would rapidly tear a hole in the knuckle of your thumb under recoil.
RD
 
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