Is this a Franken-10?

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bikemutt

bikemutt

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Ran across this odd-looking Smith model 10 at a pawnshop yesterday.

Says it's a model 10-8, has a very serious looking 4" bull barrel. Round butt, Smith grips. Bobbed hammer. Polished or hard-chromed cylinder, trigger and hammer. What appears to be a tapped sight with further taps for a scope.

Seems hard to imagine this is a Smith original but who knows?

Anyway, they want $399 for it. My guess is it's had the snot shot out of it as it's loose about everywhere and the bore is pretty leaded.

It handled real nice.

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It's an old PPC gun, was probably a helluva shooter in it's day. I have a frankensmith PPC gun that is in the process of being turn into a house gun for my wife. It's a M10 with a 686 barrel and a bunch of other mods, including the same Bo-Mar sight rib as in your pics. Once it's done I'll have way too much in it but it'll be one slick custom and stupidly accurate. I'd be tempted to give that piece a new home for the right price but it would have to be $300ish, it's a niche item that has no real collector value, original value, or competition value, it's just a cool range gun.

BTW, those old PPC guns saw a lot of use but usually all light lead loads, not a lot of stress or wear. I bet that one would be good as new with just a little tightening up.
 
It might be a PPC gun. Most have 6" bull barrels under their Bomar ribs but this one might be a personal preference, lower cost rig with factory barrel and "Coverup Rib", or allowable under an earlier rule book as a loophole "service revolver."

It has a number of stainless or plated parts, kind of a Frankengun besides the Bomar rib.

These guns get shot a lot, and even though with light wadcutter or medium semiwadcutter
loads, the wear adds up.
 
Seems a bit high for an otherwise interesting gun. Close inspection might show it to be as well worn as it looks. Someone, at some time walked away from all that work for a reason.
 
I was going to say, it looks like someones pin gun. Used for shooting bowling pin matches. 399 sounds like a bit much but it looks like a nice gun.
 
At one time (and maybe still) the Practical Police Course (PPC) game had a sub-division for "service pistols," that required a 4" barrel. This gun is hardly a service revolver as the term is usually thought of, but if tightened up is probably capable of interlocking shots into a single hole at 50 yards. Since demand is limited I susect it won't move at the asking price, but if that should drop to under $300.00 and you can accept the DAO trigger system (that can be changed back to SA/DA), one might find this gun will shoot rings around what is often found at most shooting ranges today.

I would let it sit at the dealers, and if it doesn't move in a month or so make a cash offer if you still want it. :evil:

Hondo 60: It wasn't made to look good, it was made to kick-butt in a dificult shooting game, and it probably did just that. Proof is in the performance, not the looks.
 
4" PPC style guns were popular with some police officers into PPC for use as duty guns. Could be one of these.
 
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