Friday, January 3, 2014

Well...the Second Miracle of 2014.

  My step-dad had a pistol I don't remember ever seeing before.  It's an old Smith and Wesson 38/44 HD in nickel with pearl grips.  He bought it and carried it in a brief career as an LEO near Corpus Christi during the late 40s or early 50s.  He decided to give it to me, and he and mom decided to turn custody of Dad's 1940-41 pre-K-22 over as well.


Gorgeous gun, like most old S&Ws.  Going to have to shoot it.  Was loaded with wadcutters.  I'm sure it fires and functions.  Quite a functional artifact to have in hand!

Update:  Shoots right to the tip of the front sight blade.

5 comments:

Old NFO said...

That's a pretty one!!!

Anonymous said...

Well scored. It nice when people pass on firearms to family members who will appreciate them.

Gerry

Paul said...

Robert,

Check to see if it was rechambered to .357 magnum. Many people did that to them.

Long time ago when I was a kid I had a .38/44 HD just about like the one you have. It DID have chambers set for .357!


But hey, why the pearl grips. Surely you know how Gen. Patton felt about that?

Gladorn said...

That is a beautiful revolver!

Sadly, all of my grandfather's firearms "disappeared" when he passed away, so I'll never get a firearm handed down to me. (We believe our great-uncle took them, but that is neither here nor there.)

Congrats on the awesome gift!

Anonymous said...

Thumb cock it and then see if the cylinder has any 'wiggle' in it. Some of these old guns had bad lock up which can lead to shaved and inaccurate bullets and if it stops out of alignment the recoil and boom factor goes way, way up.