Peter M. Eick
Member
Range Report for a Unique Gun.
Our subject today is a 1939 Smith and Wesson “Registered Magnumâ€.
The gun was a custom piece and was built as part of the “registration†program that Smith and Wesson had for the early 357 Magnums. For those un-familiar with the “Registered†magnums, when Smith and Wesson brought out the 357 magnum it was a custom piece. Each revolver had to be ordered via a dealer and then the revolver was hand built at Smith and Wesson to the purchaser’s specifications. Some 5500 odd revolvers were built under this program before it was stopped in approximately November of 1939. The sample in this report came from the very end of the “Registered†program. The picture below shows what the “registration numbers†look like. The REG-53** is the registration number. The number below is the assembly number and the serial number is on the barrel, cylinder, frame, hammer and a few other places like the grips.
These guns were made with a quality of workman ship that is not commonly seen any more. For example, look at the checkering on the humpbacked hammer below:
Or another example of checkering is the top strap shown below:
Or look at the side cuts on the hammer:
Finally something I wish all revolvers had, a hold open latch to keep the cylinder open when loading, cleaning or just playing with it.
I have heavily lubed, cleaned and relubed the gun several times since I bought it and now have fired 979 rounds down it. The magna grips are fairly difficult for me to shoot well. They really need to have more “bite†for me to shoot them with great accuracy, but I think I did pretty well all in all.
The range conditions were 15 yards, either double or single action shooting, and when shooting single action the gun was rested. Double action was from a two hand modified weaver stance. All targets have 50 shots into them. The trigger pull has changed dramatically since I purchased the gun. It is now registering a consistent 2 lbs, 8 onz for single action and 9 lbs 9 onz for double action. I believe that the cleaning, soaking in oil, shooting and cleaning again is getting a lot of old varnish out of the gun.
The ammunition used was a moderate 357 magnum load. The brass was Starline, cci-550 primers, 158 grn Lasercast SWC, 13.5 grns of 2400, col of 1.555, crimp of .3775. Out of the Registered at 10 feet this gives a mean of 1166 FPS, a SD of 12 fps, and a spread of 28 FPS for a 20 shot string.
In double action at 15 yards I had a pretty good target going but I really started to fall apart at about round 35. The last 15 shots were pretty wild. So the following picture is for a 15 yrd target, 50 shots, double action, 2 handed modified weaver stance:
The gun seems to pull slightly to the lower left when you are aiming a 6 o’clock hold for conventional target shooting. The 3 obvious flyers were the last 3 shots. I should have just tossed them in the dirt because I new they were going to be bad prior to taking the shot. In double action mode, I found that the cylinder once it got turning would just “float†to lock-up and then you could easily control or break the shot at the last instant.
Now for Single action. These targets are 50 shots each, off a bench, fired single action with one hand holding the gun. The loads are the same as above. The rest was a rabbit ear leather sand bag that I use for rifle shooting. I was sitting at the time.
The revolver shoots very well, and the recoil is not that noticeable but one must be very very careful with the trigger squeeze. It breaks very sharply and quite light compared to most handguns I have shot. One complaint is the sight picture. I found them very difficult to get a clean sharp image on the target. I tended to loose focus on the front sight because the back was just not as sharp as I would have liked.
In summary, this is an excellent example of a "shooter grade" Registered. This gun was refinished at the factory in July of 1944 so it does not have the collector’s value of a more pristine Registered would. I think it was an excellent birthday present to me (thanks Carrie) and I really enjoy shooting it. My final comment would be that everyone should try one out and really appreciate how nicely fitted and made these guns were. It kind of puts most of my modern (post 1960) guns to true shame for the fit and finish that were undertaken.
This revolver was and is a testament to the raw skill and quality of the Smith and Wesson company and I hope that some day they could make something like it again.
Our subject today is a 1939 Smith and Wesson “Registered Magnumâ€.
The gun was a custom piece and was built as part of the “registration†program that Smith and Wesson had for the early 357 Magnums. For those un-familiar with the “Registered†magnums, when Smith and Wesson brought out the 357 magnum it was a custom piece. Each revolver had to be ordered via a dealer and then the revolver was hand built at Smith and Wesson to the purchaser’s specifications. Some 5500 odd revolvers were built under this program before it was stopped in approximately November of 1939. The sample in this report came from the very end of the “Registered†program. The picture below shows what the “registration numbers†look like. The REG-53** is the registration number. The number below is the assembly number and the serial number is on the barrel, cylinder, frame, hammer and a few other places like the grips.
These guns were made with a quality of workman ship that is not commonly seen any more. For example, look at the checkering on the humpbacked hammer below:
Or another example of checkering is the top strap shown below:
Or look at the side cuts on the hammer:
Finally something I wish all revolvers had, a hold open latch to keep the cylinder open when loading, cleaning or just playing with it.
I have heavily lubed, cleaned and relubed the gun several times since I bought it and now have fired 979 rounds down it. The magna grips are fairly difficult for me to shoot well. They really need to have more “bite†for me to shoot them with great accuracy, but I think I did pretty well all in all.
The range conditions were 15 yards, either double or single action shooting, and when shooting single action the gun was rested. Double action was from a two hand modified weaver stance. All targets have 50 shots into them. The trigger pull has changed dramatically since I purchased the gun. It is now registering a consistent 2 lbs, 8 onz for single action and 9 lbs 9 onz for double action. I believe that the cleaning, soaking in oil, shooting and cleaning again is getting a lot of old varnish out of the gun.
The ammunition used was a moderate 357 magnum load. The brass was Starline, cci-550 primers, 158 grn Lasercast SWC, 13.5 grns of 2400, col of 1.555, crimp of .3775. Out of the Registered at 10 feet this gives a mean of 1166 FPS, a SD of 12 fps, and a spread of 28 FPS for a 20 shot string.
In double action at 15 yards I had a pretty good target going but I really started to fall apart at about round 35. The last 15 shots were pretty wild. So the following picture is for a 15 yrd target, 50 shots, double action, 2 handed modified weaver stance:
The gun seems to pull slightly to the lower left when you are aiming a 6 o’clock hold for conventional target shooting. The 3 obvious flyers were the last 3 shots. I should have just tossed them in the dirt because I new they were going to be bad prior to taking the shot. In double action mode, I found that the cylinder once it got turning would just “float†to lock-up and then you could easily control or break the shot at the last instant.
Now for Single action. These targets are 50 shots each, off a bench, fired single action with one hand holding the gun. The loads are the same as above. The rest was a rabbit ear leather sand bag that I use for rifle shooting. I was sitting at the time.
The revolver shoots very well, and the recoil is not that noticeable but one must be very very careful with the trigger squeeze. It breaks very sharply and quite light compared to most handguns I have shot. One complaint is the sight picture. I found them very difficult to get a clean sharp image on the target. I tended to loose focus on the front sight because the back was just not as sharp as I would have liked.
In summary, this is an excellent example of a "shooter grade" Registered. This gun was refinished at the factory in July of 1944 so it does not have the collector’s value of a more pristine Registered would. I think it was an excellent birthday present to me (thanks Carrie) and I really enjoy shooting it. My final comment would be that everyone should try one out and really appreciate how nicely fitted and made these guns were. It kind of puts most of my modern (post 1960) guns to true shame for the fit and finish that were undertaken.
This revolver was and is a testament to the raw skill and quality of the Smith and Wesson company and I hope that some day they could make something like it again.
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