What was your first Smith, and story behind it?

[Mike7.62]

I don't have any pics-I'm currently traveling-but my first S&W was an M1917 Army that my Grandfather carried in WW I in France, that he gave to my Father, who carried it during his Army service in Korea, and who allowed me to carry it around when I was younger while hunting and shooting, and which he recently gave to me. It's in very good condition considering where it's been, and I still bring it out and shoot it every year or so, just for old times sake.

I guess I broke tradition in that I was Navy and an aviator, and carried a 1911 when I was ACDU. That N frame would have been a bear to fit in an SV2, and the salt air would have killed it.

 

[RGMoore]

I used to keep a loaded 12ga shotgun in the bedroom closet. When my oldest daughter (now 33) was a toddler, I bought a 39-2 so I could keep clip and firearm separate locations but still have ready access. That was my first Smith.
One day I was reading American Rifleman and they had an article about a new revolver that S&W introduced called a 686. That was my first Smith revolver.
Still have them,

 

[BigBill]

At 61yo and never owning a S&W revolver I purchased a used S&W K22 masterpiece in 22lr w/6" barrel recently. Its an awesome quality revolver. I own many rugers all these years. While browsing my LGS he had the new S&W N Frames marked $699 on a few of them. The model 57 w/6 1/2" barrel in 41mag in nickel caught my eye, i always wanted a 41mag revolver plus in nickel which i like too. After buying the m57 i went back and got the m58 in 41mag too w/ 4" barrel in nickel finish too. Now a year later I found a NIB unfired S&W M29 in 44mag in blue for under $700. I wanted a nickel one but at that price i can't pass that up. I figure my next 44mag will be in nickel finish. Inbetween the S&W police 38's call me too.

 

[lebomm]

My first Smith was a pawn shop purchase around 1971. A parkerized 5" Victory Model with chambers reamed to .38 Spl. I soon tired of the swollen and occasionally split cases, and had a new .38 Spl cyl. fitted by a well-reputed local smith in Tacoma. Traded it off a few years later for a nifty little Mexican Mauser.

Larry

 

[smithnframe]

My first Smith was a model 25-5 with an 8 3/8 bbl that I bought new in 1985. I later needed some money and sold it to a friend with an agreement that when the funds became available I would but it back. But he wouldn't sell it back and I have been trying to replace it ever since!

 

[medxam]

My first Smith was a Model 15 4" Combat masterpiece bought for the princly sun of $67.50, brand new in 1963. Fantastic weapon! Unfortunately, I sold it so that I could but a very lightly used 4" Colt Python in 1969 for the princly sum of $150.00. Still got the Python and it is a keeper!

medxam

 

[medxam]

I forgot to mention that I replaced the Model 15 4", and added a pre-15 4" along with a pair of 15's in 2" in both blue and nickle! The 15's are all keepers!

medxam

 

[ol' geeser]

my first S&W was my first handgun purchase...I was 17 and really flush with summer job hay hauling money. Back then, in this area, it paid 10 cents a bale split three ways and the guy that owned the truck got the extra penny for gas...that was 46 years ago BTW...we had a goal of 1000 bales a day and usually made it...good excercise for football players dontchano

One "rain out" day I went into a pawn shop in Longview and paid the then princely sum of $125.00 OTD for a 6 inch model 19 and a Lee Loader. Oh, the education I received.
At some point I returned it to S&W and had a 2.5 inch bbl. installed and they even returned my 6 incher. It had to find another home when my daughter made her entrance some years later...

Hundreds of rounds went thru that thing, learned to use the Lee Loader to save money...my right hand was almost a solid callous, but I remember the feeling when my first coyote fell in front of it to one of my reloads...been "sick" to varing degrees ever since....Even passed the disease on to my son...

 

[dlbx2]

My first S&W revolver was a model 14 K-38, no target extas, six inch barrel. Along comes Dirty Harry. No 29s to be found in my area, and no internet to find one. Traded the 14 for a 28 six inch. Why? N frame with a ramp front sight, six inch. Sort of looked like a 29 if you looked at it out the corner of your eye. Hung on to the 28 until my local gun shop/auto parts store got in a 629. I traded the 28. S&W recalled the 629 due to possible cylinder issues. Somewhere in there I bought a six inch 19. Next came a cased 29 unfired bought from an estate sale. After that, I lost count. Oh thats right, you wanted the first one ONLY!
DLB

 

[Invictus357]

My dad had Smiths so I know them well but I never bought one for myself until 12 years ago.

I went to a gun store and spoke to an incredibly stern saleswoman packed full of attitude.

She said Smith and Wesson are traitors to gun owners and I should never ever buy their products.

She insisted I should buy a Ruger SP-101 as it's a better gun anyway.

I told her I wanted to purchase a (I believe) 5906 she had on display.

The whole transaction was terrible.

You could cut the atmosphere with a knife, while listening to her mutter stuff like "it's my right to own &@&!ing guns".

Her face was like this >=|

So after filling in the paperwork and handing over my hard earned cash, I walked out with my new gun. I also felt her eyes on my back, trying to vaporize me with eye laser beams or something.

Was a rather weird experience.

I now buy guns elsewhere

 

[Rogue686]

Cool stories so far everyone

And that's alright, we don't mind hearing about each Smith one has owned I love stories.

 

[625smith]

66-1

Here is my 66-1 that has a recessed cylinder but no barrel pin S/N 114K2XX. I bought this revolver used from my friend who is also an FFL. This was the first new gun that he sold as a FFL. The fellow that he sold it to new later traded it in to him. The 66 was sold again to another customer. Once again the 66 was traded in but this time I took possession and have owned it since 1987. I just might have to take this one with me.

 

[AveragEd]

My first S&W revolver was also my first handgun. In 1974, I decided from reading magazine articles, primarily Skeeter Skelton's, that I wanted a 4" Model 19 with a target hammer and trigger. I went to the closest gun shop I could find in the Yellow Pages; that shop didn't have one but offered to order one for me.

Months passed and I soon became impatient, so I called gun shops in Philadelphia, the closest large city to the area of south-central Pennsylvania when I lived. Well, Baltimore is a little closer but I thought there might be problems buying one out-of-state. Lock's Philadelphia Gun Exchange said they had one and would hold it for me until my wife and I could drive there the following Friday evening. I think it cost $144.95 but I can't say for sure.

I loved that gun and shot it a lot using target loads. I shot 50 rounds off-hand at 25 yards at an NRA 25-yard target three times each week with the goal of putting all 50 in the black - and actually did so three times! Then I started handloading magnum ammo for it and learned the hard way that K-frames don't like a steady diet of hot loads. Empty cases became harder and harder to extract so I sent the gun to S&W for repairs. They replaced the cylinder under warranty and everything was fine again.

That is, until the hard extraction condition returned a few months later. S&W replaced the cylinder again but said it was the last time they would do it under warranty. I thought it sucked that a gun marked ".357 S&W Magnum" couldn't handle the ammo marked on the barrel and sold it. I bought a Colt Python and never had an extraction concern again.

Of course, I aged and became wiser and more knowledgeable about guns. I now own two 617-0s, three 66s, four 686s and three 629s - all no-lock, non-MIM pieces. And no Colts.

Ed

 

[fyimo]

My first S&W revolver was a 686 bought in 1982 when I was having a conversation at work after I moved to Colorado in 1981. I was complaining about the Michigan handgun laws back then where I lived and they asked me if I had a Colorado drivers license and I said yeah I do. At lunch time the took me to a gun shop close to work and said if you have no record you can go in there and buy a handgun.

Long story short the guy that took me was a revolver guy and right away he was all over this 6 inch 686 and told me all about how great they were. So I bought it and the next night he and I went to the range and we shoot it and the love affair started right there.

Of course I've strayed and bought semi autos and still own a bunch of them but my revolvers do out number the semi's.

Not the original because I sold it to a friend but my no dash 686

 

[JeepinSoldier]

In 1984 I was a 17 year old high school senior. I had fired plenty of rifles but not a centerfire handgun.

A family friend who was a parole officer took his sons, my brother and I to the desert outside Tucson and we shot .38 wadcutters out of his carry S&W Model 19 4". I shot it very well in single action and raved to my parents about what a cool gun it was.

A year later I had joined the Army and was serving in Germany. My parents diddnt have much money, but they saved and sent me a used, but like new in box Model 19-3 4" through the post office for Christmas 1985! Diddnt know you are not supposed to send guns thru the mail overseas. Caused quite a stir but things were more relaxed then. I was allowed to keep the gun, registered and in the arms room.

The CO allowed me to check it out and take it to the local German Shutzenhaus. I let the local Germans fire .38's and .357's out of it and they really enjoyed it as they almost all had .32 acp's or 9mm's. To get it back to the States I had the Neu Ulm rod and gun club send it to an FFL in Tucson - care of my Dad as I was still not 21 yet. I still have that Model 19

Lately I was looking for a stainless .357 for carry in the Colorado mountains. I diddnt want to mar up the Model 19 in a holster. I found a 3" Model 65 in a pawn shop and knew it was the one. Now I have caught the 3" K frame sickness and in short order have also purchased a Bud's 3" Model 10 .38 and traded for a 3" Model 13.

 

[S&WOkie]

My first revolver...Victory Model 38S&W.

I picked it up at LE seizure auction for cheap because no one knew what it was.

 

[sarge1967]

My first was a 586 with a 6 inch barrel. I bought it to shoot PPC matches with. I kick myself for selling that gun. Heck I kick myself for selling any of the guns I have had to in the past. But loosing jobs and divorce will do that.

 

[Fat Old Guy]

I'm pretty sure that my first S&W revolver was the 29-2. I was visiting home for either Thanksgiving or Christmas and I had visited my favorite local gun shop. In the case was a nearly perfect 29-2 with 6 1/2" barrel. Ooooo. Dirty Harry. Didn't buy it and went home a couple days later.

Thought about it for a few weeks. Kept thinking about it. I was a basketball referee and I remember that it was after a game, I was sitting in the parking lot. .. . still remember the school . . . . and I decided that I wanted that gun. Pulled out my cell phone and burned a few minutes to called that gun shop back home and put money on it. Mailed my FFL the next day and a week later it showed up.

Probably 20 years earlier, in the same shop, a pre-29 five screw caught my eye. I really wanted that gun but the price was $400 which was a ton of money for a college student, at least back then. Still think about the one that got away. Still think about the cute redhead with green eyes that got away too.

 

[Springfan]

Like medexam, my first S&W was a 4 in. Model 15, purchased new in 1967 from Lorant's Sporting Goods off Youree Drive in Shreveport, LA. I was torn between that one and a Model 10 with heavy barrel, also new. The salesman, a young man with an attitude (in those days if you went to LSU or planned to go to LSU or had a sibling at LSU it was expected that you would have an attitude along with a madras lined wallet sticking out of the back pocket of your wheat jeans), let me know that sights were not important on a handgun, but I bought the 15 anyway, and what a grand time I have had with it. I shot it in informal pistol matches in Longview, Texas, then more formal matches in Gainesville and Ocala, Florida. This was back in my drinking days, and one Friday evening I assembled several beers, some screwdrivers, and some hard Arkansas stones. Next morning to my surprise the Model 15 had the best trigger I have ever felt on a revolver. Decided that was my first and last try at that. It originally came with diamond Magnas, which I traded for some Herrett's Shooting Stars or Troopers, can't remember, then those were replaced with Goodyears in the Pachmayer period, now I believe it wears a set of period correct factory targets. What a great firearm.
It's downstairs in the safe with its buddies, waiting for some more range time.

Fat Old Guy, your post reminded me that I took the Model 15 with me to Gainesville, Florida, where I taught discussion sessions and labs at the University. At the beginning of fall quarter 1968 there was in one of the classes I taught the sweetest, prettiest, smartest girl I had ever seen. I did not let her get away. After 43 years she still puts up with me and my S&Ws. But the Model 15 was instrumental in my getting that first date. Turns out her room mate's boyfriend was studying in my program, and after a celebration of some kind at the Red Lion one evening, he and I went to my apartment where I showed him how accurate the Model 15 was with Speer primer-powered plastic bullets on my indoor range with stacked beverage cans as targets. He was flabbergasted and next day arranged my first date with his girlfriend's room mate. I suppose if I had bought the model 10 things would have been different. 

    

 

[Barnacle Bill]

A few years back,1951-55, I was a young Aviation Ordanance man,stationed in the Territory of Hawaii and we used to go out and hunt Mongoose on weekends.I used a (Pre) model 10 ,38 Special (I think) that belonged to the Navy; but at any rate I could not count on a good head shot every time and sometimes the little rascals got away.(Audy Murphy I am not)
so I went in to town and bought a 1950 target model in 45 ACP. I think it was $67.50 at the time,and it worked fine

Then I learned we were being sent to Kodiak,(Territory of Alaska) and decided I would need more power,so Raffled off the 45 ACP,and bought a new Pre 27-6 in.for $116.50.If I remember right,at that time I was makeing about $200.00 am month. I still have the pre 27, but have been sorry more than once that I let the 45 ACP go.,I am almost always sorry after I sell a good S&W,so am learning not to do that anymore.