Why buy a beat up S&W with compromised finish?

[rwsmith]

It's the internals....

It's the internals that make or break a deal with me. If I can get a high quality gun that is beat up and worn on the outside it just makes the price better. I have no reason to 'show off' my firearms and if do I have a few good examples.

No blue doesn't bother me, I wipe them with an oily cloth frequently and I've never had rust. Minor pitting, if it is stable, who cares?

 

[Bill Bates]

I like to shoot my firearms and I like thing a little on the old side. That means I buy used guns. I look for those nice old guns that were used and loved. You know, those old guns that show some of the wear and scratches that come from use but because they were loved tend to have been well cared for by their owners. Yes, give me that used well loved gun that was un-fiddled with. They tend to cost much less than the safe queens that only come out to be shown off to those that are impressed by that sort of thing.

Yes I do have a few of those safe queens which bought when the price was really right with the plan to part with them somewhere years down the road for a possible profit. I'm no fool. I'll jump when the gun gods smile on me but I still prefer my shooter guns. My shooters come at a cheaper price because someone else sucked up the depreciation. Most of them are now seeing a little appreciation now. I can use them and maybe turn a profit if ever part with them. That is a win win to me.

Those of us that buy those well aged beauties get to own and appreciate them. Our guns get to go out and play and we don't worry much about them loosing value.

Here is a good example, my well used, pre-Model 45 .22 Post Office gun. I paid well less than $1000 and much less than the two or three thousand we see those new in the box model 45 bringing. My old pre-45 gets shot and shot regularly. I get to own one of the Holy Grail Smith & Wessons and I get to take it to the range with no worries. What's not to love about that.

 

[jack the toad]

Guns like these have character and have probably been carried a lot and shot a little. Nothing wrong w/them.

+1
If mechanics are good, I find nothing wrong with them for what they are. Not collector grade or compromised finish but added character.

 

[vytoland]

my 1947 M&P snub, may not be the prettiest girl at the dance...but she can boogie woogie with the best of 'em....

 

[jtcarm]

So I can go shoot the bejeebers out of it without guilt.

 

[Tom_R]

I have a lot of really nice guns, including some real fine Smith & Wesson Revolvers.

However this model 28-2 was either a police officers gun or a Security a Guards gun.

It's well worn/well carried, but I cleaned it up and put a nice set of Kuracs on it as a pinned and recessed N Frame deserves better than Pachs.

 

[30-30remchester]

Because some of us find beauty in honest wear. The world if plum full of guns and knives that have never done anything. I collect US military knives and antique guns. In my collection is many stone mint examples. These do little for me. The knives and guns that have little finish left, and lots of scars get my motor purring. These have history in spades. Given the choice of a well used model or a mint example of the same model, I always take the one with history.

 

[brianfede]

Because some of us find beauty in honest wear. The world if plum full of guns and knives that have never done anything. I collect US military knives and antique guns. In my collection is many stone mint examples. These do little for me. The knives and guns that have little finish left, and lots of scars get my motor purring. These have history in spades. Given the choice of a well used model or a mint example of the same model, I always take the one with history.

I would love to see any pics you want to post of the antique guns. Recently shot a French Modele 1892 8mm. Pretty cool hinged revolver.

 

[Mark6005]

I have few not all smiths that are guns in the machine shed on the gator just good old shooters. An old m10 is my favorite but an old taurus never fails to fire. I don't abuse them keep them clean but never considered restoring them. a buddy calls them "truck guns"

 

[BC38]

"Finish challenged" guns that are mechanically sound and attractively priced are some of the best kind! Certainly some of the most fun.

No worries about lowering their value by shooting them, and if you put yet another ding in the finish or the stocks it's not a big deal - like it would be with a "pretty" or "valuable" or "collector" gun.

Personally when the finish is beat up enough to put them firmly into the good shooter category, I like to touch them up with some cold blue and then just shoot the snot out of them!

 

[Smith357]

I like to think everyone needs a couple of finish challenged shooters. Since I'm more of a shooter than a collector I gravitate towards the less than perfect shooter grade guns that can be had at reasonable prices. I like to carry my guns and use them eventually putting wear and tear on it that will adversely affect the "collectability". It sort of like buying a used car over a new one, drive that new car off the lot and the value drops, the used one has already taken that hit. Let others pay top dollar for the 98%+ guns that will get locked up in a safe to become nothing more than an entry on the spreadsheet.

 

[jsfricks]

Sometimes you have to buy the finish challenged because the chances of finding a nice 1899 S&W 38 Special are next to impossible or cost prohibitive.



Or, it was carried a lot by a police officer in the 30's and it just looks right.

 

[shoot4skill]

Find them, fix them flaunt them and then shoot them. An old S&W never dies, it just goes back to the factory for refreshments. Seriously give that old shooter a new home and quickly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[OLDSTER]

finish challenged

Here's a good-old shooter. I wish it could talk and tell its story

 

[OLDSTER]

finish challenged

Here's another one

 

[oneminute]

Quite some time ago I traded into a model 49 that had very little bluing left on it. I have carried it daily.
I got it because I always wanted a model 49 and I wanted one I could get refinished and not feel bad about so I got it parkerized.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[model3sw]

There is such a GLUT of used guns out there that dealers are very willing to make deals on older, finish-challenged guns. As long as it is mechanically excellent and the price is right, go for it.

I have seen lots of guns that were just stored incorrectly missing splotches of blue. Nothing else wrong but blue is gone.

If blue is WORN off then inspect carefully for extensive wear. Check rifling, lock up. Some of the older K's are hard to open up. Buy those too. Somewhere in the late 50s S&W changed the direction the ejector rod screws on. The older ones would actually unscrew themselves while you shoot it extending the length of the ejector rod. It would then get very tight to impossible to swing the cylinder open. If you see hacked checkering on the ejector rod of a post war to pre 1960's K frame ... like someone grabbed it with a set of vice-grips, you'll know why. THERE IS A TOOL FOR THAT so you don't hack up the checkering on the rod.

There are collectors and shooters. I have a RM that was a service gun (ordered by a Sheriff in Louisiana in 1935 when new). It has dings from the lanyard, holster wear, a few wear spots of the blue through to the metal and some bumping marks / dings, etc. but is 100% mechanically excellent. I take that to the range to shoot it without worrying about lowering the value of these now VERY expensive revolvers. The other "safe-queens" have never shot as long as I have them.

Hey, if you guys pass some of the 1970s K-38s in single action only, buy them if the price is right. For you guys that don't know in the 70's S&W made a K-38 in single action only. I have seen them in 14-2 and 14-3 but those DASH numbers do not guarantee it is a single action only.

One way to tell is if you pull the trigger, the hammer drops forward about 1/16" while the cylinder rotates to the next stop. It is NOT broken. That is just was a Single Action only does when you pull the trigger without cocking. In single action it works just like any other S&W when cocked back manually.

While the K-38 single action only doesn't bring much of a premium at all now, I feel in the future it might.

S&W also make Single Action Kits for the K series center fire guns. Now, even those K single action kits are getting hard to find when they used to be all over the place for under $100. Now they are $200 or better.

 

[Fredo Batali]

I don't know why anyone would do such a thing. I question myself sometimes Here's my Colt New Service in .45 Colt and a rescued six-inch, M&P (had to replace the "bug screw").

De Oppresso Liber

 

[pharmer]

I got this 34-1 a couple years back and it's the most "finish challenged" of my S&W's. I wouldn't have one otherwise because I am unwilling to pay the price of a LNIB with accoutrements. Joe

 

[Biggfoot44]

When blued revolvers were actually used as intended the blueing gets worn.

When serious gun guys and gals aquired one back in the day , they would frequently replace the grips.

An already worn gun can be shot/ carried/ hunted with without concern or guilt.

I whip out the T-4 at the drop of a hat , but only had one get a store bought refinish. Non-factory nickle finish let me buy and shoot .44HE's that I couldn't have aforded if origional.

If I did refinish a sufficiently ugly gun , not likely to be valued as an collectable within my lifetime , I wouldn't bother with "mere" blueing. I'd get something either very durable, or colorful. My previous ugly M37 ankle gun received Hard Chrome. Someday of my my very ugly Service Sixed will get BLUE Duracoat. Not black or blue/black , but really BLUE. , like a royal blue. ( Clue the scene from Croc Dundee - " You call that a blue gun ? Now THIS is a BLUE gun."