Two triple locks

Well the silver medallion grips you have are a lot harder to find than the 1910 to 1920 gold medallion grips which were made in numbers approaching 100,000.

But the hardest to find will be those w/o medallions with the concave surface for #2064.
 
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Shipping Dates

As usual, shipping dates are all over the place, even for grips. My third model .44 letters as having been shipped with silver medallion grips 4/16/27
 
Good to know, thx.

According to the books:

2/11/1929 - Gold plate over brass recessed medallions ordered reinstated in wood stocks but with ‘convex’ stock circles;

3/18/29 changed to flush mounted, flat gold plated;

April 1929 finally changed to flush mounted, flat chrome plated over brass thru WW II.
NOTE: Large flat, flush mounted .500" chrome medallion in walnut K stocks c. 1930 and serial numbers in the 61X,XXX range are rare only because they were soon reduced in size to the smaller .400” size due to wood breakage on the Service stocks. Once the Magnas were introduced September 5, 1935 the .500” size would have been no problem on K frame stocks.


The main rule is, there are always exceptions!
 
As a lover and student of Triple Locks, I think I have come to the conclusion that during the 1908 to 1915 era, either (1) people did not wear socks or (2) at least if they wore socks, they did not have drawers to store them in.

Then again, the two of mine were not too shabby!

The first one (3976), a first year 7 1/2" target came to me because God was in his heaven, and all was right with the world! The time is 2000. I'm ready to buy a TLT. I figure I can get a nice one for $5500. Up comes an auction catalog---and there's a nice one. I register to bid, the auction lady calls, and were off and running! I'd told her I wouldn't be making any bids, to just tell me when it was time to buy the gun. About two seconds later, she says, "He's at $7000, do you want to go $7500?" "No Ma'am, thank you---I'm out!"

I'm licking my wounds for a couple of months, and the phone rings again. "Ralph, this is So&So, SWCA. I see in the Roster you collect targets." "Yes." "Do you have a Triple Lock?" "No." Do you want a Triple Lock?" "Yes." "Ralph, we have one, it doesn't fit in our collection, and we want to sell it---Ralph, it's the best one we've ever seen!" "For how much?" "$5500." "What's the least you'll take?" "$5250." "SOLD!!" It was the best one I'd ever seen too! (It sold during the liquidation of my collection during the last three years ending a year ago for $10,000!!)

The second one came along in 2016. I'm prowling around in David Carroll's back room, and here's a rug with a tag that says "Triple Lock-King". I open it up, and I am SMITTEN!! Here's a King Super Target Triple Lock----right out of that sock drawer you mentioned!! It went home with me--$9500. It too sold during the liquidation of my collection-----$8825---as in "Win some, lose some!"

Bottom Line: There are sock drawer Triple Locks out there, but you have to be looking for them----a little dumb luck doesn't hurt either!!

I posted some pictures of that one here. I'll hunt them up, and add their address if you want to take a look at a real sock drawer gun!

Ralph Tremaine

Okay, the title: A KING SUPER TARGET. The date: 02-15-2018. The place: In the early hand ejector section here.
 
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I don't think I'll ever see, much less acquire, two at a single gunshow again. I believe that I offered the seller a reasonable price to move them quickly. He accepted. Sounds like a win/win to me.
 
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