TTSH What 3rd gen did you see at the show?

[18DAI]

And what followed you home from the show today?

Y'all please feel free to add anything you want in this thread and derail or let it wander. I am just curious if my friend TTSH was able to score at the gunshow being GaryS was not there and Jeppo was in NC today......as far as I know. Regards 18DAI

 

[Sevens]

I'll bet -NO- because whatever he found wasn't high grade enough condition-wise to make in to his shopping cart!

 

[Jeppo]

All I was able to find today was a high condition 5944.

 

[Sevens]

Hey, that's a neat and scarce one!

 

[TTSH]

And what followed you home from the show today?

Y'all please feel free to add anything you want in this thread and derail or let it wander. I am just curious if my friend TTSH was able to score at the gunshow being GaryS was not there and Jeppo was in NC today......as far as I know. Regards 18DAI

Oh, you are going to be disappointed. I came home with money still left in my pocket.

Keep in mind that I have shifted my main focus from semi-autos to older pre-IL blued revolvers. It would have taken a substantial 3rd Gen find (not duplicating something already in the collection) or a really good price on a 39-2 to get me to give up my plan for another sweet K-frame in the collection by year's end.

All I scored today were two nifty sets of factory K/L-frame target grips with speed loader cuts... real artsy ones! Rubber is fine for shooting, but my safe queens deserve to wear the very best!

 

[TTSH]

I'll bet -NO- because whatever he found wasn't high grade enough condition-wise to make in to his shopping cart!

Well, there is a certain truth to that! I can't deny it.

Example: There was a "return visiting" Model 3913NL at the show for just under $600. I took a look at it again for the 3rd time. The memory fades with old age.

Yep, still too worn for me. Damn shame too. I've got one in the collection but it wants company. But dear old Dad and dear old Grandad would roll over in their graves if I came home with a gun that wasn't "as-new" or awful damn close. It's just the way I was brought up.

 

[TTSH]

All I was able to find today was a high condition 5944.

Hey, that's a neat and scarce one!

Well, that confirms that Jeppo was not at the MA show.

And now, the official question: Did it go home with you?

Answer: Of course it did! Remember who you are talking with!

 

[Jeppo]

$600????? I guess if I lived up there, I’d need a smaller safe.

I have a very thoughtful friend, also on this forum, who is quite prolific about doing the hard searching. He’s a very astute buyer and almost always gets more than his money’s worth. He found the 5944 and decided he didn’t need it. I’m just glad nobody else needed it in the week between him finding it and today.

He’s pointed me towards quite a few guns and I’ve bought most all of them. I’m not too proud for sloppy seconds.

 

[TTSH]

$600????? I guess if I lived up there, I’d need a smaller safe.

Yep. That's what an "NL" goes for up here.

Before I found mine for a little bit less, I was fully prepared to pay $600+Tx for a different one in 100% condition that I had found at a show back in 2016... but, with cash in hand, I found that it had been sold at or before the next show.

 

[18DAI]

Good thing I purchased my 3914NL when I did. Now that Jeppo and NCBeagle are out there, I will never see another one locally. Regards 18DAI

 

[TTSH]

Good thing I purchased my 3914NL when I did. Now that Jeppo and NCBeagle are out there, I will never see another one locally. Regards 18DAI

It's a tough, competitive, sometimes exasperating game... this gun collecting thing. And I'm finding out it's arguably tougher yet with vintage S&W revolvers than it is with 3rd Gens.

Someone around me is vacuuming up older K-frames just like your guys down there are vacuuming up 3rd Gens. One popular dealer had 3 good vintage K-frame candidates for me at the last show... this time: none.

Stopped at a dealer on the way home whose inventory list has been showing a couple vintage K-frames (albeit at very high prices)... both gone.

It's like we have our own Jeppo up here, just with a different focus.

And remember: No pawn shops here and, for the most part, we can't import.

Time again for me to reconsider my good wife's recommendation: Take up bird watching.

 

[18DAI]

Good thing I'm not a collector! Im a shooter. So I think anything that has been abused or neglected, or is cosmetically challenged, will be left on the table.

I HOPE so anyways. Regards18DAI

 

[TTSH]

Good thing I'm not a collector! Im a shooter. So I think anything that has been abused or neglected, or is cosmetically challenged, will be left on the table.

I HOPE so anyways. Regards18DAI

Easy for you to say! You have BMCM on speed dial! He can fix anything you buy to better than "as-new" condition!

 

[mbliss57]

I really miss the gun show hunts. I’ll be back from the UK in 2-3 months for good. I’ve been relegated to internet sales. Then picking them up from my FFL when we are home every 3 months.
I do have a 3914NL waiting for me that I got from a forum member who knew I was hunting one. It’s not in the condition I like my guns but this had been a missing link for a long time so I gave up condition just to have one.
I also found a Pre Model 37 with red box and docs and original aluminium cylinder and factory letter to add to my pre model J frame collection.
I’ll be home in 3 weeks. I may have an Army.45 model of 1917 waiting as well. I’m bidding on one right now. But none of that is as fun or fulfilling as the gun show hunt with crowds and cash and a little dickering!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TTSH]

But none of that is as fun or fulfilling as the gun show hunt with crowds and cash and a little dickering!

No question that there's something to be said for the up front and personal thrill of the hunt! It just happened to be a little dry today in terms of affordable vintage all-metal S&W products.

Around here, gun shows aren't huge, so it's like buying a lottery ticket. You don't really expect to score, but when you do it can be grand! Those occasional victories keep me going back again and again.

No, I didn't come home today with a new addition to the collection (darn it!), but I did score a couple of really nice sets of factory grips for when I do score!

Now comes the harder part. I've promised myself one more addition to the collection before the end of the year... a Christmas present to myself after a pretty difficult year... and since the show didn't produce that addition, I've got to go out now and find it on my own.

Glad I've got new tires on the trusty old SUV!

 

[mbliss57]

TTSH...Is there something special you are looking for? I assume from all you have written it has to come organically from MA? BTW my daughter and her family live in Boston and my 1st cousins Ed and Jill live in Dracut with their spouses and kids and Jane in Framingham with her family. So I am pretty familiar with eastern MA. We also lived in the Hartford area for several years back in late 1980s.

 

[BLUEDOT37]

I shoot what I collect

I made it thru the upper floor (only) at the Wanenmacher Gun Show today & unfortunely I came home empty handed. Nothing I didn't have already or it was overpriced.

Too much walking and looking but not enough touching.
Seems the choices are getting more limited.

I'll try again tomorrow if my blisters let me.

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[TTSH]

I made it thru the upper floor (only) at the Wanenmacher Gun Show today & unfortunately I came home empty handed. Nothing I didn't have already or it was overpriced.

Too much walking and looking but not enough touching.
Seems the choices are getting more limited.

I'll try again tomorrow if my blisters let me.

Now, THAT is a SHOW!

 

[TTSH]

TTSH...Is there something special you are looking for? I assume from all you have written it has to come organically from MA?

Ideally, I'd like to find another near "as-new" blued pre-IL revolver with a 4" barrel in either .38 Special or .357 Magnum. And yes, it pretty much has to be a Massachusetts gun given our oppressive laws & regs. Importing an older (but not quite C&R) S&W revolver would be difficult at best, although not necessarily impossible.

Of course, I am always open to another premium 3rd Gen or another Model 39-2 at the right price. That kinda goes without saying.

There are a couple guns locally that I've still got my eye on. They aren't exactly what I want nor are they priced to sell... but I may end up snagging one of them if nothing better pops up before year's end.

 

[mbliss57]

So if it is a C&R revolver.. does that make it easier to import? Most of my revolvers started life in the 1960s or earlier. I find then very nicely broken in by then. Actually many of them are unfired. Just curious is C&R but not antique helps with the searching.