Hammerless Revolvers and My First Smith & Wesson

 I never cease to be amazed by gun folks. My last posting was on hammerless revolvers and when I went and got my mail that same week at the PO Box, I got my latest issue of American Handgunner and on the front are the “new” Smith & Wesson “hammerless” revolvers with a great picture (s) of the types I mentioned. I’ll note here that those of you who own and know S&W revolvers will note a hole underneath the top edge of the cylinder latch/release (some of you have already asked about this) that is for the lock they have built in for the sake of liability lawsuits on the “new” models of revolvers.

Back in the 70’s when I first became of age to purchase handguns; I started with Smith & Wesson revolvers. Revolvers were the basic Law Enforcement and military sidearms and semi auto pistols were few and far between (Colt Govt. Models series 70 and later series 80, Browning P35 Hi Power,  S&W Model 39,59 and a few Berettas were pretty much it.). S&W made revolvers of double action variety from .22’s to 44 Remington Magnum “The most powerful handgun in the world and it’ll blow your head clean off…..”(Dirty Harry) blue and nickel later stainless steel with wood grips were your options and some came with cardboard boxes and some with wooden presentation boxes all came with cleaning supplies/tools and a screwdriver. With S&W, the length of barrels always varied from 2” or 2 ½” or 3” or 4” or 5” or 6” or 6 ½” or 8 3/8”, and eventually a 10” version. The “snub nose” generic term covered all revolvers with barrels less than 4” in length. Colt had named models, Python, Lawman, Detective Special, Police Positive, Peacemaker etc. Ruger had named models also Blackhawk, Single Six, Service Six etc. These were the dominant and major USA manufactured firearms with extensive revolver product lines. Smith and Colt certainly dominated the “snub nose” and police revolver markets. As time went on product lines expanded and contracted along with, market share, politically correct corporate decision making processes, movie influenced buying trends, and The Brady Bill. Eventually Smith and Colt both ceased to exist in their original forms, and were sold to international consortiums such as Bangor Punta, and Fabrique Nationale.  Smith & Wesson stayed in Springfield Mass. And Colt eventually was closed down in Hartford Conn.  And actually ceased production for a period of time.

Semi auto pistols took over the Law Enforcement market and S&W got the lions share as they had the most extensive line of “acceptable” semi autos in their models 39 and (most issued) 59, but in this time frame plenty of revolvers in .38 and .357 were in police holsters and in the sales cabinets of gun retailers.  Fast forward to when Glock showed up in the 80’s and Sig and Beretta made big leaps into Law Enforcement and civilian markets and you also see that revolvers were less prominent on all fronts. Eventually both Colt and Smith & Wesson ceased to produce or greatly limited production of revolvers all together. Glock, Sig Sauer, and Beretta all took over the Law Enforcement market from Smith and Colt although Smith is now jumping back in hard with its new polymer framed M&P pistols and rifles. Semi automatic pistols are the rule in handguns offered to and issued to Law Enforcement personnel in a large variety of calibers, and sizes for differing job requirements in the field. The public has followed suit. Until now...

S&W has started” re-issuing “its tried and true revolvers. “What is old is new again.” Revolvers are back” big time”.  Five, six, seven, and eight shot capacities are common now as are hammerless models from more than just Smith and Wesson (I understand Colt is back a little bit). All the major manufacturers are producing them and polymer is starting to show up in their manufacture, and although they won’t replace the Glock 22 on duty belts, they are in many back up holsters and pockets, and civilian market buyers are gobbling them up. Guess what is happening in conjunction with the resurgence in popularity of revolvers?   PRICES ARE GOING UP FAST!!!!!!!!!

 I bought my first Smith and Wesson as I said in the very early 70’s. It was a Model 27 .357 Magnum (on the heavy N frame) with 5” barrel, presentation case and accessories, beautiful blue with wood grips for $385.00 and the gun shop gave me a box of Remington Jacketed Hollow Point (50 rounds) with the sale.

I paid $35.00 less for a 44 Magnum model 29 to a friend who was in need about a year later. I shot both at every opportunity and had many hours of fun with them in the fields and woods when that was still acceptable for practice. Ah the good old days. I recently have seen both of those models at Collector’s Firearms and at the Gun Show selling for $1000.00 +.  My ex wife and I both have Model 19 S&W’s of the 2 ½” barrel variety (she got the first one [in nickel finish] just by sayin “this is my gun” and it is.) mine’s blue and I traded a 6” Highway Patrolman .357 Magnum for it. I recently saw them selling for $750.00 at both locations as before and I originally paid $300.00 + tax for the nickel one some years back. Fast forward again to the “new” re-issued” or production revolvers from Smith & Wesson and you see they retail at just under the five hundred dollar mark in the small (J) frame versions and hammerless, and run up to well over a grand for the bigger revolvers  (357 & above calibers) brand new.  To be fair, Smith and Wesson had to re tool for the new models of varying alloy construction and when you cease production of a line of revolvers in particular; it is very costly to produce and market them again and that is passed on to us as consumers, nature of the beast in retail.

In my eye the old revolvers are “prettier” and the finishes are certainly nicer. I don’t want to get any more technical than I have, but be sure to understand that the “new” revolvers are drastically changed internally.

I have to teach with semi autos but I am at heart a revolver guy and I carry one as much as the other. I love to shoot them and they are sweet to do so with. They also force one to concentrate on the fundamentals of trigger control and sight picture/marksmanship………and they’re just plain fun to shoot.

Now if you think you are at any kind of disadvantage with a revolver for self defense, think again. If you think your 20 shot Whiz Bang polymer frame XYD gives you a “tactical” advantage over someone with a “wheel gun” remember the adage that goes “Beware of the man carrying a revolver; he probably knows how to use it.” Case in point would be a fellow named Jerry Miculek. Law Enforcement officer, world champion revolver shooter and record holder for the fastest time of reloading and firing a revolver  with 12 hits with reload on target in less than two seconds. Don’t believe? Look it up in Guiness, and watch him do it or Google it he does it on the History Channels TV show Extreme Marksmen and he does the same thing BLINDFOLDED!

If you are going to get a revolver do it soon all the manufacturer’s prices are going up as I pointed out before and they’re doing so rapidly.

Folks, these guns are just a lot of fun to shoot and are excellent defensive and teaching tools. You gotta have fun too. I do... with my revolvers.

REMEMBER!!!!!!!!

I have a scheduled practice session at Marksman Indoor Range in South Houston April 10th (Saturday) at noon.  Hope to see you there. 

See Ya, Eddie out