The 'unofficial' 58 Club

[SAFireman]

Okay guys, here is your chance....post your photos, stories, and favorite loads for the unloved beast that is the Smith & Wesson Model 58.

I have been a fan since I held one the first time...many months later I finally came to own 2, now I am totally sold on them...how about y'all?

Here are my two, both are first year of production. The blue one gets carried while riding the fence lines, the nickel one is on BBQ detail

 

[Sebago Son]

Count me in!

I've got alot of these guns, some in perfect condition, but this beat up, blue worn old S frame with the wrong stocks is my favorite....

Note the caliber....

It loves 8.2 grns of Unique in a .44 Magnum case under a 242 grn. cast lead round nosed flat point.

 

[bgrafsr]

I only have one, but I like it and will not be sold by me:

 

[Art Doc]

The gun that serves no real purpose. Too big and heavy with excessive recoil for police work. The fixed sights make it less attractive for sporting use than the 57. There is nothing the 41 Magnum can do the 44 can't do better. The 41 is a caliber that demands reloading for economy and to make sure you have some as not every store will have it on hand.

Yet the 58 has developed a cult following. I described the 58 as "a Model 10 on steroids" many years ago. Back around 1988 when I had an FFL I saw a wholesaler offering 58s as police trade ins for $189. I bought one as a curiosity. Came with the usual (and abominable) Pachmayrs so I dug through my big box of parts and found that somewhere along the way I had acquired two sets of correct 58 Stocks (without even looking for them) so I slapped on a set.

No matter how hard I tried I never could figure out a specific purpose for this gun. The closest I came was as a "woods" or backpacking gun where one might want a lot of power for dangerous animals is the most compact package possible. But this was reaching. I am not in the least bit surprised that the 58 was a failure in the marketplace.

I have kept this gun for 23 years just so I can say I have one... I guess. I shoot it now and then. I must confess that I don't understand the fascination with this revolver.

But, I do have one. I lettered it back when it cost $20 and it was shipped to Philadelphia in 1977. I have never been able to ID any police agency in PA that used the 58 so I don't know which (if any) department used this gun. The serial suggests a 1974 date so it appears this pistol set in inventory three years before being shipped. They were not fast sellers.

 

[Fredo Batali]

Here's Mine

I purchased this one last April or May. I've wanted one for a while now and finally found one. I started hand loading the .41 Magnum about 25 years ago. It was the first cartridge I hand loaded. I still love it! I've had a .41 Magnum of one model/manufacturer or another in my collection for the past 25 years. This one's Magna-Ported and it shoots just fine.

 

[A10]

Your overwhelming enthusiasm is blinding Saxonpig....ok, I'll take it, just so you don't feel so bad. Honestly, the attraction is the same as for the Model 10. This is a straight forward, purpose built gun. One reason for it to exist, and that is self defense at a short range. The problem was that Smith didn't market the ammunition properly. Everyone started using magnum loads instead of the lighter defense load, and LEO's who weren't used to the recoil couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with it. Too bad, 'cause they came out with the .40 S&W which did exactly what this one was supposed to, only in a semi.

 

[BUFF]

I bought mine back in the mid 1970's with the intention of probably never even shooting it. I was going to cut it up into something else.

Back then, if you wanted a new double action .44 Special or .45 Colt, you made your own. While N frame .357's were the top choice for the .44 Special, the longer cylinder of the .41 and .44 Magnums was desirable for the longer .45 Colt. My gunsmith, the late Robert Ballard, did a fantastic job on my M-28/.44 Special conversion and when I picked it up, he showed me a .45 Colt he was just finishing, using a Model 58 for the doner gun. I decided I needed one.

I bought a new 1955 Target barrel from J&G Rifle Ranch, then in Turner, Montana. I bought a new rear sight assembly from a display of blister-packed S&W parts at a sporting goods store and then found a brand new Model 58 at another store, priced at retail, about $160.00. I sat them aside and then began saving the gunsmithing fee.

Curiosity got the best of me, and I shot a couple of boxes of both the full charge JSP and law enforcement-oriented lead bullet loads through it.

Word then leaked out that S&W was about to produce a target grade revolver in .45 Colt, which turned out to be the 125th Anniversary Model 25-3. Eventually, I got a couple of them when they were introduced.

I left the .41 Magnum Model 58 alone.

While it may have been the best factory-produced law enforcement revolver and ammunition combination made to that point in time, I still think the gun went wide of the mark of what was really intended. As great a gun as the Model 58 is, I think it would have been better for most of us had it been chambered instead in .45 Colt and .44 Magnum.

 

[maglvr]

For many years I though the 58 was the prettiest revolver made, until I discovered the fixed sight N frame 38's and 357.
I have 4 58's, 2 blue and 2 nickel.
Only one gets shot, a well worn nickel one that came down from Alaska.
It's load is a 250gr. HC-WFN over a lot of Lil-Gun.
If it ever wears out i'll just grab another.
Living proof that S&W once knew how to make a gun!

 

[Sebago Son]

"... As great a gun as the Model 58 is, I think it would have been better for most of us had it been chambered instead in .45 Colt and .44 Magnum."

Agreed.

I think that had S&W chambered the 58 in an array of cartridges it would have survived another 25 years in the catalog and may still be with us today in some form or another.

My personal preference for a Police Revolver would have been for a .45 ACP version of the Model 58.

 

[BUFF]

In a SHOOTING TIMES magazine article published in the late 1960's or early 1970's, Skeeter Skelton wrote up a discussion of single action versus double action revolvers. There was a photograph included that had the data sheet for a Model 58 with a lineup of cartridges on it. The caption said, "Double-action .41 Mag. S&W M58 is ideal officer's and hunter's handgun. Good calibers for this gun are - left to right - .41 Mag., .45 ACP & AR, .44 Spl., .45 Colt, .38-40 and .44-40."

I always assumed Skeeter took the photo and wrote the caption, as it looks like the other pictures in the article were provided by him, most including him in them holding some of his favorites.

The Model 58 is a very business-looking sixgun, to be sure.

 

[murphydog]

I think that had S&W chambered the 58 in an array of cartridges it would have survived another 25 years in the catalog and may still be with us today in some form or another.

You mean, "is still with us", right?

Product: Model 58 - S&W Classics - 4" .41 Mag Bright Blue

 

[Art Doc]

A10- Overly powerful ammo was not the only problem with the 58. Go back and read my first post again. The 58 is too big and too heavy. Many cops (including just about all the women officers) find the N frame too large to handle effectively. The trigger reach requires long fingers as does getting a good grip on the gun. The majority of cops packing a gun this size complain about the weight. Yes, the 58 was a single purpose item, but it was not a good design for that intended purpose regardless of caliber. The slow sales and lack of enthusiasm for this model prove this fact.

Given the choice between a Model 10 and a Model 58 for uniform carry I would take a 10 without hesitation. Most would agree with me. The late Tom Ferguson wrote of ditching his issue 58 for the lighter K frame when he had to walk a beat.

 

[Sebago Son]

You mean, "is still with us", right?

Product: Model 58 - S&W Classics - 4" .41 Mag Bright Blue

I just knew some stickler was gonna call me out on that....

 

[keithherrington]

Here is a slightly different twist...

Courtesy of Mr. Hamilton Bowen and Craig Spegel. As you probably already guessed, I like shrouded barrels.

 

[Badkarma 1]

'Fightin 58'

Not long ago I headed up a thread in The Lounge as to my finding a 58 at a local gun show in Collisville Il. It had a bad case of "pushoff" and was sent to my gunsmith to be fixed, where it also got refinished in electroless nickle. "He" came home yesterday and is now serving as primary house cannon and sometime carried in the backyard in a Galco hip holster.
He's a handsome beast that looks like a no-frills badass business gun!
Yes he's heavy, barks like a Rottwielier on crack, recoils like mule (except with Win. 175gr Silvertips), and does tend to get noticed at the local indoor range where he effeciently silences the auto pistol crowd as he belches fire and brimstone sending 210 grains of lead downrange with a pleaseing SMACK on the backstop!
I tend to like old, outdated technology, and big, heavy caliber service type revolvers have always been my first loves! Would I carry one today? Sure! Just give me enough speedloaders and a pair of suspenders!
What these guns do is inspire confidence, and that large maw tends to meek those who look upon it. They are revolvers designed with one purpose in mind...to save your bacon and take a beating in a rough and tumble world! To qoute something I once read somewhere;" I haven't seen their kind in a long time, and I don't expect we'll ever see their kind again."
The 'Fightin 58' was the last of a dying breed, the big bore fightin revolver! Cherish these beasts as they still do their jobs like none other! Dale

 

[mikeruns]

I found mine at Greentop guns near Richmond, Va about '91 or '92 when stationed @ Quantico.
Was a SFPD revolver, so interesting how it ended up on the east coast only to make it back to Socal with me since '93 and now central TX and maybe home state of MT in near future.
A travelin' 58 I call Buford.
Think it cost me $168 or $188.

 

[Sebago Son]

Now that is one tough looking sixgun. Very business like and assertive. A perfect fighting revolver... I like it! .45 ACP or .45 Colt?

This one went the other way...

A 58-29-20 (Frame, Cylinder, Barrel respectively) in .44 Magnum that we used to refer to affectionately as "The Hybrid".... By Karl Sokol.

Easy to carry, tough to shoot. The Target Stocks helped... During my search for the perfect "belt gun", it passed through my hands for a while in between other Forum Friends... I think half a dozen guys here have owned at one time or another...

 

[delta-419]

Mikeruns, I too have on of the S.F.P.D. guns, my only .41 Mag. Serial number on my gun is S259897. Grips don't match so its now wearing a set of Exacutioner's stag grips.

 

[SuperMan]

58s...where to begin....

Bought the first one about 1974...a nickel that didn't shoot to POA so it ended up with a Bushnell Phantom scope on it.....so if someone out there has a nickel 58 with two counter sunk holes in it the gun was probably mine...

Had two more while I was with Dallas PD...a stock blue and a gun someone had had bright chromed...not nickel. Both were sold back in the 1980s...

Didn't have another one till I picked up two "butchered" ones on AuctionArms a few years ago. One was a mint S prefix first year of production...that someone thoughtfully had parkerized. The Target grips had some bad chips but for $430 I didn't think that for a shooter it was a bad deal....

This as it arrived...day one of shooting...18 rounds at 10 yards...the one out of the group was round one and my fault....

With a standard set of Magnas on.....

The original Targets shortened and refinished by a very talented friend...

It now wears a set of Cokes....

..more to come.....

 

[SuperMan]

...and...

..the other butchered gun is a 70s vintage what "was" like new blue...until someone did what I always wanted to do to a 58....

Gun was like new when a guy in Idaho brought the gun in for "modifications" in about 2001. He brought it back to the shop in 2005 and sold it for Christmas money...and he had never fired it...

Bobbed and serrated hammer....

Polished and narrowed trigger with a great DA trigger job...

Mag-Na-Port Quad-Porting

Oversize cylinder release...

Just a GREAT gun to shoot....

Found a parts set on GunBroker, everything but the frame, so any time I want I can restore the gun to "original"....

Those are the two I have kept out of the ten or so I have owned...

As to loads, 8.0 grains of Unique duplicates the original factory Police Load of 950 fps. The above groups were shot using Berry's plated 210 grain bullets....

Of all the 58s I've owned only two didn't shoot to POA. One shot very low and one very left....other than those two the others were spot on...

Bob