Vintage S&Ws

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Gordon's post on Vintage Colts inspired me to take a family portrai of my vintage S&Ws. With the exception of the 1884-vintage .38 Double Action (which is and will remain unmolested) none of these guns were in collectible condition- several of them were pretty dismal in fact- when I got them and all have been modified or refinished to suit me. Every one of them is a shooter.

Top left: Nickle-plated .38 Safety Hammerless 4th Model with period Mother-of-Pearl handles and a grip adaptor, a Nickel Plated .38 Double Action 2nd Model (circa 1884)

Top Right: .32 Double Action with modern grip, .38 Double Action 4th Model with modern grip.

Bottom right: M1903 Hand Ejector with American Chestnut handles and a grip adaptor

Bottom Left: M1902 Hand Ejector with flat-checkered Walnut grips and grip adaptor.
 
The word vintage doesn't mean much without a year or date period attached, perhaps an ownership period. It seems what is meant here is "early" S&W. "Vintage" to me could as well refer to pre-lock system guns.
 
Vintage: A collection of contemporaneous and similar persons or things a period of origin or manufacture.
I think Mr Pierce has used the correct terminology. Firearms from the start of metallic cartridges through to the introduction of smokeless gun powder, all modified in interesting ways to suit the owners taste.
Personally, I like seeing old guns that are still shooters instead of safe queens. :)
 
Vintage: A collection of contemporaneous and similar persons or things a period of origin or manufacture.
I think Mr Pierce has used the correct terminology. Firearms from the start of metallic cartridges through to the introduction of smokeless gun powder, all modified in interesting ways to suit the owners taste.
Personally, I like seeing old guns that are still shooters instead of safe queens. :)
A closer reading of that definition would show that a date qualifier accompanies the term vintage, e.g. 1900 vintage, pre-lock vintage, pre-war vintage.
 
I choose not to parse or nitpick Tinker's choice of words. I admire his work with firearms, especially the faux bicycle/steampunk snubbies. Nice guns.
The question is what guns qualify as "vintage" to be included in this thread.
 
Nice little collection what do you shoot out of them load wise?
So far the .32s get factory ammo only. I've just started reloading the .38 S&W, and I'm shooting a Hornady 148 Grain HBWC on top of 2.5 grains of Unique with CCI small pistol primers. This is a nice mild load that performs well but is light enough to be kind to these old top-breaks. The m1902 gets standard-pressure factory .38 S&W, mostly (to this point) Freedom Munitions 158gr. CPHPs. These have proven very accurate- of course it helps that the barrel reaches halfway to the target... :D

I'll be reloading .38 Special soon and will likely use a hard-cast 158gr. semi-wadcutter loaded to standard pressure. When I can afford a set of dies I'll be reloading for the .32s as well, but I haven't yet settled on a load for them, but it will certainly use Unique powder since an old friend sent me four pounds of it when he found out I was starting to roll my own.
 
Ok , you have given me a good excuse to dig into the safe on a dreary March Sunday. Here is my trio of Old Vintage Pre-War Non-Safe Queen Smith & Wesson K Frame Revolvers ... of an old vintage.

Top to bottom : m.1902 ('03 man.) , m.1905 ('09) , K22 Outdoorsman ('31). Fun tidbit of useless information : Collective age of the trio of revolvers : 305 years. All are in splendid original working order and are a joy to shoot.


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S&W forum is an experts site, narrowly tailored to the discussion of one area of the firearms culture. THR is a generalist site, providing a broad net to sweep in people new to shooting and the RKBA, which the education in and support of is the main purpose of THR. Each provides a different service. We do not do forum wars on THR and criticism of other forums is one of the fastest ways to have mods close a thread. For all of us this can be simplified to the old rule of politeness: If you can't say something nice, don't say anything.
 
"S&W forum is an experts site, narrowly tailored to the discussion of one area of the firearms culture. THR is a generalist site, providing a broad net to sweep in people new to shooting and the RKBA, which the education in and support of is the main purpose of THR. Each provides a different service. We do not do forum wars on THR and criticism of other forums is one of the fastest ways to have mods close a thread. For all of us this can be simplified to the old rule of politeness: If you can't say something nice, don't say anything."

Well put , and thank you Radagast. Since you summed it up so nicely I will refrain from further response. Might even root through the safe for another old Smith.
 
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