Old Smith 38 ID

[Rick O'Shea]

Old Fuff,
The hammer is just as you described.
The ser# looks like S8556XX.

I shot it this afternoon, and it is a joy.
Smooooth trigger; just real clean.

I'll try to post some attachment pics - still new to this digital camera stuff (I do better with 60-year-old mechanical objects).

The target is DA at 7 yds. (I'm still learning). The gun obviously shoots better than I can hold.

Don't make 'em like they used to, do they?

Regards,
Rick

 

[Old Fuff]

Yup! The shape of the hammer gives it away. You have a pre-model 10, .38 Military & Police, Transitional. These had the pre-war "long action" combined with a positive hammer block safety which previous commercial long action revolvers didn't. Thus it is safe to carry with the cylinder fully loaded. It was likely made during 1947, but it could have been early 1948.

At this point either you or a gunmith should completely disassemble the gun and clean out what is probably a fair amount of goo, gunk, and dried varnish from old oil. Then relubricate and put it back together. If you wish you can substitute a modern stock mainspring for the one that's in it. These were made during World War Two, and on the heavy side to insure reliability under the worst of circumstances. If (or when) you have the gun apart notice part or all of the serial number is stamped inside the stocks. This proves that they were individually fit to that particular gun.

It would appear that the revolver is seriously defective, as only three (3) shots went through one hole...

 

[Rick O'Shea]

Thanks, Fuff.

Actually, my "function check" yesterday was to see how it felt after doing all of the above.
I did a thorough internal and external clean, a very conservative version of the Jerry Miculek trigger job (more of an inspection; things were pretty smooth already), and replaced the stock springs with Wolffs.
Needless to say, I'm pleased.

And yes, the "gun" has a long learning curve ahead .

And I'll even make the usually unspoken confession, that out of 50 rounds, this was the only target I would dare post a picture of...

Thanks for all the help and information,
Rick

P.S.:
I was up late last night with that dadgum camera and the computer trying to figure out how to post pictures.
In the end, I think I was prouder of that than of the target.

 

[Old Fuff]

Well it's clear that the gun can put ALL of its shots through one hole, if it can do it 3 times out of 6.

Now if the shooter will just get with it...

 

[SaxonPig]

OF- You're right. I wasn't looking at the hammer I was looking at what I thought was the "dimple" under the cylinder release but that was just a shadow.

 

[Rick O'Shea]

Well it's clear that the gun can put ALL of its shots through one hole, if it can do it 3 times out of 6.

Now if the shooter will just get with it...

Nail on the head. And it drives me absolutely crazy.

I'm trying to stay at 7 yds until I can consistently put anything I can shoot into one hole. Then I'll move to 10 yds, then 15, etc...
It's just starting to happen that I get good groups like that, and while encouraging, it's very frustrating as well.

What DID I do on those three shots that I didn't do on the other three?

If the answer is more practice, then at least I've got a sweet little gun to do it with.

Front sight-squeeze,
Rick