My 3 inch 357 pics.

[lq9crew]

Hi all!

Long time lurker here, new poster. Thought I would share some pics of my new purchase, a model 65-5 Lady Smith. Got a fair deal on it and jumped on it. It's not perfect and missing the original grips, but for the price I could not pass it up.





Here is my SP-101 3". This was purchased new this Febuary. The polishing project is still underway!




Here they are together. they seem to be getting along pretty well so far!



The pics are not as good as they could be, I am still learning the ins and outs of a new camera. Some of the pictures posted on this site are amazing.

Thanks for looking.

 

[tekarra]

Nice pair.
I sure do like the Ladysmith.

 

[TFin04]

The 65 lady smith is one of my favorites. I can never find one though so I settled on a 2.25" model 66 a while back. I love the K Frames...

 

[lee n. field]

Almost picked up a 3 inch Model 13, some years back, that looked very much like the Ladysmith. But for turning up to have a sprung crane :banghead::banghead: it would have been mine. Felt perfect in my hand.

 

[Confederate]

Ah, 3-inch magnums! I've always wished they were more popular. I've never understood people who want 2-incher revolvers. Even when I was a kid, they just didn't look right. The extra inch makes all the difference.

One of me favorites is the Ruger Speed-Six. Ruger made a bunch of 3-inch .38 Spc. and I got two at a very, very good price years ago. Had both of them reamed out to .357 and put Pachmayr Compacts on them. Because the gunsmith who reamed them was a stickler for perfection, he did the job precisely, which made those two fixed-sight guns two of the most accurate magnums I have. If you drop a bullet into each chamber, it will catch in each one. (Many times, especially in Taurus revolvers, the bullets will just plunk out through the bottom of the chambers. Many of the early Smith 686s were so well manufactured that they, too, caught all the bullets.)

Anyway, 3-inchers look cool and they shoot well and are easy to carry. Oh, and the action is like glass.

 

[phoglund]

Very nice looking pair. I like the three inch guns myself although my three inch guns are both .44 caliber, one .44 Special and one .44 Magnum. There is something just right about a three inch barrel.

 

[Deepsix]

You stated, with reference to your SP-101, that "The polishing project is still underway." I'm a newbie and ponder the meaning of such remarks when I encounter them. How does one polish anything that shines like that Ruger?

 

[lq9crew]

Thanks for the complements guys!

The three inch K frame does look just right and balance nice in the hand. The ladysmith cought me of guard, when told about the gun by a friend of the seller, I was under the impression it was a J frame. I was happy to see this K frame instead. The price I paid for this, would have been a good buy for a J frame LS.

Deepsix-The amount of polishing you see here is one evening worth. It is still not as good as could be, and will get better in the future. It still has some light scratches in the surface, and it's not polished evenly everywhere.

 

[DistantHorizon]

Deepsix, the forum search function is alright for questions like you've got, though it sometimes takes a while to pick through the results & find what you're looking for.

Just searching for "polish", I clicked on the first link that looked promising, about halfway down the first page of search results:

How do you shine and polish stainless steel???
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=267448&highlight=polish

I'm sure there are better links, but that's just the first one I clicked. Oh, and welcome, I've been around here a few months, so I guess I'm a newbie too. Noobs gotta stick together!

 

[2ndamd]

Nice looking SP101. Looks like the polishing job is going well.

 

[Blacksmoke]

Did not the "Lady Smith" start out as a blued J Frame? I bought some years ago for my wife. It was .38 Special, 1.875 inch barrel, five shot. It looked to me like the old "Chief's Special" rebadged.

I agree with the three inch tube and have been trying for two years to get a gun smith to put a three inch barrel on mine. My wife gave it back to me in favor of a Colt Detective Special.

 

[Catherine]

Sweet looking guns. Congrats on your new firearm!

Thanks for the pictures, folks.

For a 'short' barrel I prefer the shortest being 3 inches long too. I do NOT like shooting a barrel shorter than 3 inches long. I like the LOOKS of that barrel for a 'small gun' plus the COMFORT level in anything 3 inches long or LONGER when it comes to NOT beating myself up in recoil, better shooting for ME in hitting MY target, etc. It is a personal
preference of mine. I shoot better with a 3 inch and longer barrel in ALL of my handguns. It is EASIER on me in all ways when it comes to my 'hands/wrists' and bad left arm. I shoot with 2 hands 95% of the time. I know that I should try to shoot with only 1 hand more often as some people say. That is for another 'thread' though!

My former S&W Model 60 had a 3 inch barrel. My S&W Model 317 - Kit Gun has a 3 inch barrel too.

Catherine

 

[pogo2]

Ditto

I also like a 3 inch barrel on a .357 revolver. About a month ago I bought my first one, a S&W model 66-4 with 3 inch barrel. My other snubby revolvers are all 2.0 to 2.5 inches. The 3 inch version balances and shoots very well.

 

[FullEffect1911]

Wow i really like that lady smith and the model 66. If I ever come across one of those in a 3" or 4" I'll have to pick it up.

 

[jack the toad]

Congrtas on getting the LS.
Both the 65LS and M66 are excellent.
The 65 is what I'm wanting to find a good deal on.

 

[papajohn]

Nice to see so many fans of three-inch guns...........except that you folks make it hard for me to find them!

I think the 65LS is one of the best ideas to come out of Springfield in a LONG time, and I hope it stays in the catalog long enough for me to get one. I have a police trade M-65-3 that I love dearly, the trigger was easy to work over and is deliriously slick. A buddy got me hooked on the 3-inch guns 25 years ago when he let me shoot his M-66, I've been trying to finagle him out of it ever since but he refuses to sell it. So I settled for the 65, and now prefer the fixed sights to the adjustables.

As for the shooting part, I can't hit a bull in the butt with ANY 2-inch gun, but I can shoot a 3-inch as well as a four, and I shoot those pretty well.

There's something downright handsome about a 3-inch 357. I'm glad to know others share my fondness for the barrel length, even if it does ruin the market!

PJ

 

[GingerGuy]

That's a good looking Ruger.