Last Thursday (22nd July AD 2021) a friend of mine called to inform me of a 'old' .32 ACP pistol in the display at a shop in the next town. He knows I collect .32 ACP (7.65mm browning) pistols. As he called me to late to make the run, I went up the following day (Friday) and looked. The pistol in question was there, but it was a post WW2 pistol, made in Czechoslovakia (then communist) and made by essentially the same manufacturing plant that morphed into CZ after the demise of communism. That makes the pistol too new for me.
However, in the same 'used' gun case was a revolver that caught my eye. A two inch barreled M&P with a pinned barrel and stocks with diamonds around the stock screw holes. Looking at it, it is a model 10-5 revolver with spots of surface rust and as filthy as - fill in the blank. So I bought it and took it home.
Some penetrating oil and very fine steel wool took off the rust, leaving not bare metal, but 'blotches' in the blueing. Cleaning removed somewhere between 17 grains and a couple acres of dust and concealed oil.
It is a fine looking old revolver. The blemishes in the few places in the blueing are not hard to see, but not as obvious as some. There appears to be no holster wear around the muzzle and leading edge of the cylinder, just the blemishes on the top of the barrel and top strap. Leads me to believe it was probably left in bureau drawer most of its life.
Good old reliable sidearm.
And I thought I quit collecting Smith revolvers...
