[ejohne]

A friend has a prewar .38/.44 heavy duty with a King front sight and custom adjustable rear sights. The gun is in nice condition, but I don't know whether the custom sights add or detract from its value. He is asking about $550.

[Mike Irwin]

Could be a good price, depending a LOT on the condition of the gun and how well the King sights were installed.

If the sights were actually installed by King, it could bring a nice premium with some collectors.

[ejohne]

I'm curious why the owner would go to all the effort of adding these custom sights when the .38/.44 outdoorsman was available in the same time period.

[Mike Irwin]

Probably availability.

There were about 11,000 HDs made prior to WW II, but fewer than half that number of Outdoorsmen -- only about 500 a year, on average.

It may have been either impossible or extremely difficult to find an Outdoorsman.

Let's face it, too.

King custom target sights are a lot nicer than the stock "field" style adjustable sights on an S&W Outdoorsman.

[Old Fuff]

Over the years I have examined a small number of .38/44 Heavy Duty revolvers with adjustable sights that were made that way at the S&W factory as well as some with King Gunsight adjustable rear/and front sights. Usually the King front sights had colored plastic inserts or beads while the rear sights were white outlined. As today, some users wanted adjustable sights on their holster guns. The “Outdoorsman” target model was only cataloged with a 6 ½” barrel, and it couldn’t be shortened because the front sight was part of the barrel forging. However the standard 5” (and later 4” also) Heavy Duty barrels could be modified to take either S&W or King target style front blades.

The target-grade 38/44 Outdoorsman was made up on what was called the “NT” frame and the backstrap was serrated. The Heavy Duty was made on the fixed-sight “N” frame and usually had plain straps. All but one of the .38/44 Heavy Duty revolvers I examined with factory adjustable sights has the serrated backstrap indicating it was made using an “NT” frame with a modified Heavy Duty barrel. King modified guns were usually built on standard Heavy Duty revolvers.

King also made a ventilated rib that extended from the back of the topstrap to the muzzle, and incorporated both an adjustable rear and custom front sight built into the rib. When the rib set-up was used a longer barrel could be shortened to any length that didn’t come between the rib’s posts.

Any of these guns that were made by S&W and/or modified By King have a collector’s value. Those done by other gunsmiths using King’s sights are not as desirable, but it’s often hard to tell who did the work.