Pawn shop 28-2... Im a sucker for old Smiths

Status
Not open for further replies.
Where do you guys keep finding all those nice old Smiths? The pawn shops in my area all have either flashy stuff or beat to crap sccy's, bersas & a few hipoints. The gun shops don't have anything either!
 
The 28 is a sweet revolver for sure. I purchased a new one in 77 and hadn’t shot it in 25 years. This week I pulled it out of the safe and started enjoying it again. I’d forgotten what a sweet gun it is. I guess in total I’ve not put 300-400 rounds through it and plan to put a lot more through it now.
 
The 28-2 6" was the first S&W I ever owned. While in the service I carried a .38 Spl for awhile. Promised myself when I got out that I would own one. At the time I knew very little about about guns. A friend offered to sell me a 28-2, a .357 mag. Told him I didn't want a .35 and wanted a .38 Spl. He had to explain to me that these 2 rounds are the same caliber.

I've come a long way since then. But the learning never really stops. Enjoy that 28-2, they are great guns. I still own 2 of them and they are among my favorites.
 
Where do you guys keep finding all those nice old Smiths? The pawn shops in my area all have either flashy stuff or beat to crap sccy's, bersas & a few hipoints. The gun shops don't have anything either!

I live in a large metropolitan city. Between pawn shops, gun stores, and big box stores I've got dozens of places to find cool stuff.
 
That's a nice revolver and an excellent price! S & W 28.jpg I have a 28 & 27 that I love to shoot. I put on a pair Pachmayer grips when I take them to the range. I'm afraid I'll drop it and break the wooden grips. I have also found that they don't like a steady diet of lead bullets or even SJHP. In my S&W's, tolerances between the forcing cone and the cylinder are so tight that it doesn't much lead buildup to cause a chamber to hang up.

I have 7 N frame Smiths all manufactured before 1980. They are things of beauty because of the craftsmanship and fit.
 
I bought my 28 4” for home defense. I’d shot since I was 5 years old and just big enough to pull the trigger with my dads help. At the time I only had black powder guns and had an attempted break-in one night while in bed. I decided at that moment a black powder rifle wasn’t the the best choice so the next day I went to the gun store.

I’d always loved the finish on the 27 but the cost was significantly higher. I labored over the 27 or 28 and wound up with my 28. A few weeks ago I found the receipt and seem to remember the price was something like $175.

A few months later I had an actual breakin while in bed and was happy I’d bought my 28. Fortunately I didn’t have to fire it but did have a visitor inside my home who came in through a window and had pulled the phone lines out and disabled them. I found a window pried open and a dirty footprint on the sofa in front of the window.

Shortly after this experience I sold my house and moved to a much better neighborhood.
 
C-grunt

Nicely done! I always liked the Model 28 with a 6" barrel, thought it looked "just right".
 
$600? I would have loved to pay that price for any of my three 28-2's. All three came with the ugly (IMHO, and too small) Magna grips. All three will be changed to some version of a target type grips, Altamonts on two of them, and I have a pair of S&W target grips that need some TLC to be nice enough to put on. I wish I could find the grips a friend's 29 had years ago. I don't have a clue if they were one-offs, or what, but I've never seen another pair like them. Bird's Eye Maple, with some grooving to put the meat of your hands into, and none of the too sharp checkering some people love. Just the look of them made them great, but they were really comfortable too. They got sold with the gun, and no pics of it were taken.
 
I think you did pretty good.
I love model 28s and am always on the look out for a good one.

This is my 1957 model 28 no dash.
I bought it is the late 80s early 90s, I don't remember when. I had no turn line at all and back then, no one wanted 28s at that time, I bought this one for $245.00.
Model 28 no dash.jpg
and I bought this unfired 28-2 about 5 years ago for $499.00.
28-2.jpg
They have gone through the roof since then.

C-grunt, if you got yours for $600.00 you did pretty good. Since I bought that 28-2 I haven't seen another model 28 anything since.
 
Howdy

The only thing I am uncomfortable with in your post is you think a revolver made in the 1970s is an old gun. As Lennie Briscoe on Law and Order used to say, I have ties older than that.

Just kidding.

I have three Model 28-2s, here are two of them. I wouldn't sweat the chipped grips, mine each have some chips in the grips, badge of honor.

This four inch Model 28 was actually refinished when I bought it, they didn't usually come with quite such a matte finish as this from the factory. This is the newest of the bunch, it shipped around 1973.

plrnRThXj.jpg




I have two six inchers like this. Not actually sure which one this one is. I know one of them shipped in 1965, I'm guessing the other one shipped in 1964. Whichever this one is, the other one looks just like it.

po403jWfj.jpg




Regarding the grips, with a big heavy revolver like a Model 28, I actually prefer Magna grips to big target grips.

P.S. Ya done good.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top