Can someone Identify This Smith and Wesson Revolver?

Welcome to the Forum.

You have a Smith and Wesson Perfected Model

Here is a link where our resident expert Driftwood Johnson delves into some detail on them-
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/smith-and-wesson-perfected-model.801902/

They are quit rare. As Driftwood states they are not chambered for .38 Special, but the much shorter and less powerful .38 S&W cartridge. They can be valuable, though the condition of yours isnt great.

Highly recommend you have a qualified gunsmith examine this gun before you attempt to fire it.

Neato, thanks for sharing!

Someone has put a pair of Colt Police Positive grips on that Perfected Model. I did not know that was possible. You can buy reproductions of the original hard rubber S&W grips if you want, although the Colt ones look like they give a better grip. Also, any grips that will fit a Smith & Wesson J-frame round butt will fit your gun, so there are a vast array of very well shaped grips if you want to shoot it. The sights on the Perfected Model are tiny, but the one I used to have was quite accurate.

Beast_ said:

Great Thank You!

Click to expand...

I should have said thank YOU for putting up a picture. That makes things easy and fun.

Howdy

Thanks for referencing that old post of mine about the Smith and Wesson 38 Double Action Perfected Model.

Since I made that post, back in 2016, I have gotten my hands on a couple of more Perfecteds.

The 3 1/4" blued one on the left shipped in 1912. The 4" Nickel plated one in the center, which was the subject of the earlier post, shipped in 1917. The 5" blued one on the right shipped in 1913. This last one was refinished at some point, and I suspect the ivory grips are not original. Correction: Pearl, not Ivory.






Yes, the Perfecteds are a little bit tricky to load. You have to push the thumb piece forward at the same time as you lift up the barrel latch up. Just doing one or the other will not unlatch the gun.

Back around the time I made that earlier posting had a CAS match coming up that included a Pocket Pistol event, so I took the Nickel plated Perfected (the only one I owned at the time) to the range to see what it could do. Checking my notes I fired Remington 146 grain lead round nosed, Fiocchi 145 grain lead round nosed, and Ten-X 148 grain hollow based wad cutters. Yes, we are talking about 38 S&W, not 38 Special (or 38 S&W Special as S&W likes to call them). 38 S&W CTG is the way S&W usually marked these guns. CTG simply means Cartridge.

Like this:






This was the best target of the day, with the Ten-X wad cutter ammo. Notice how much stubbier and shorter the ammo is than 38 Special ammo. I had that box of Ten-X 38 S&W laying around for a long time, I wish I could find some more. Sorry, no idea how far out I set the target, most definitely closer than 50 feet. Probably way closer than 50 feet. Yes, all the ammo I tried tended to shoot low and to the left, at least in my hands. These were pocket pistols. Meant to be carried in a pocket and fired at close range. They were not target pistols.






The rear sights of most S&W Top Break revolvers were two raised nubs on top of the barrel latch.






Not exactly meant for precision shooting. The Top Break target revolvers had slightly better sights, but not much better from a 21st Century point of view.






So I brought the Perfected to the match and shot it in the Pocket Pistol event. I did not score very well because most guys are firing their pocket pistols as fast as possible double action. I don't remember now if I was shooting double action or single action, but I know I took a lot longer than most. I didn't care, I was just having fun shooting an old S&W Top Break pocket pistol.




While I'm on the subject of Perfecteds, I have something else to say that I believe is significant. Anybody who has read my posts about shooting antique revolvers knows I only shoot them with Black Powder. Particularly anything made before 1900. Yes, I know most believe that the ammunition companies specifically load cartridges such as 32 S&W or 38 S&W down so they will be safe to shoot in the old guns. Let's not get into that argument right now. But with the Perfecteds I am perfectly comfortable (get it?) shooting modern Smokeless ammunition in them. These revolvers were made well into the Smokeless era, 1909 until 1920.

No, they are not rare. There were 59,400 of them made, and I have no problem shooting them with modern Smokeless ammo.

Always fun when DWJ chimes in, very cool. I especially like the long barrelled one!

Rare is relative, I guess. Ive never seen a Perfected "in the flesh" myself, only in pictures.

That’s similar to the one my Grandfather found along the side of the road many decades ago, a 4” nickel plated .38 S&W.

That pistol is long gone. I held it-dry fired it a lot as a kid, but we never bought any ammo so I never fired it. Reading about the CAS shoot above I kinda wish it would’ve stuck around.

Stay safe.

Driftwood,

Your "ivory" stocks look a awfully lot like mother-of-pearl to me. Could you be mistaken?

Dave

Yup, not the first time I have been mistaken.

Pearl, not ivory. I did not take that Perfected out and take a close look at it before posting that photo.

Thanks for the correction.

I really like the look of those Colt grips on that gun, but if the O.P. does want to change to original style grips, I got a set of replicas from midwayusa that just required a little sanding on the back to get a great fit on my Perfected model.

The gun originally had a set of nice pearl grips, which I decided I liked better on my .38 Safety Hammerless.