My new Smith&Wesson Outdoorsman--I need parts.

[musher]

Well, I pulled the trigger on a new (to me) Smith. This might be getting to be a habit.

I haven't gotten my mitts on it yet, but my wife is gonna pick it up for me when she visits her sister. I've just gotta wait one more week...

When I asked you all for some help identifying this gun a couple of months ago, it was pointed out that the grips and rear sights are aftermarket replacements.

It's probably a silly question, but what are my chances of locating the correct sights and grips to put this gun back into factory trim? Any suggestions on where to look?

 

[StrawHat]

Try Gunparts (Numrich) for both the sights and the grips.

You are calling it an Outdoorsman but it looks more like a Highway Patrolman Model 28.

 

[musher]

It's chambered in 38 special, not 357.

I checked Numrich, nothing for the model 23, but I'm not too sure which other models might have had the same parts.

Any help there would be appreciated. I'm guessing they used the same grips/sights on other N frames, but I'm not sure about that.

 

[444]

I can't help you but I am jumping on this thread in case you get an answer.
I have the version of that gun with fixed sights. I forget what they are called now. Anyway, I have no stocks for mine either. I am only interested in getting something that at least looks original.
I may end up getting something exotic that seems to look good with a gun of that era. I see old stocks at gun shows with stuff like Pesos inletting into them or something like that. I may end up going that route if I can't find a set of original looking S&W stocks.

 

[musher]

444 I think that'd be the 38/44 heavy duty.

 

[Shade00]

The Smith & Wesson .38/44 Heavy Duty and Outdoorsman used the old style grips until about 1936, when they switched to diamond magnas. If you are looking for authentic-looking old-style grips for an N-frame, Smith & Wesson makes a reproduction of what you desire. Click here - you will want the square butt N frame grip. I'm drawing a blank on a source for diamond magna - any S&W N-frame square butt magna will work, so there's always Ebay. Originals will be sickeningly expensive.

 

[musher]

OK, Mine looks to be from the early 50's (S822xx), so if I'm reading you correctly the proper stocks would be square butt diamond magna?

 

[Shade00]

Correct, musher.

 

[musher]

Thanks!

Any clues on what I should be looking for in terms of a factory rear sight?

 

[josephthreedogs]

Sigghts from a model-28 will fit and be of the right finish.

 

[444]

Here is a bad picture of mine:

 

[444]

 

[huntershooter]

Any "N" frame sight will work on your revolver.

 

[musher]

You know, looking at your naked gun 444 makes me wonder if my new gun had a 'round butt' conversion done on it.

It sure doesn't look square in the picture. These guns were all square butt, weren't they?

 

[444]

I have no idea.

 

[Shade00]

musher, all .38/44s had square butts. If you could post a picture of the gun without the rubber grips we could probably help.

 

[Peter M. Eick]

Here are 3 od's with original grips and sights. Yours is like the top 2. They are both 72,000 series if I remember right.

Here is my shoot post war OD, with original grips and sight. This is 50 shots, offhand at 15 yrds.

I hope that answers your question.