whatnickname
Member
Every once in a while you just get lucky. Model 14s and K38s in decent shape are going for $900 to $1000+ on GB these days. Followed this one for ten days and no one was bidding on it. My guess for the lack of interest was the grips that are not correct for the gun and, appear mismatched, along with a somewhat incomplete description on the part of the seller…no mention of timing and lockup. Starting bid was $600…waited until the last few minutes and won the item for $600 + tax and shipping.
The finish is in about 98% condition. The seller forgot to mention that the gun was out of time and that someone had really done the gunsmith trigger special on the springs. In all fairness to the seller, I didn’t ask about the lock work either…show a little interest on things like this and some of these guys will get someone to run the bid up on you. Someone had clipped about 1/3 of the rebound slide spring off. Of course that caused the trigger not to return…no problem for whoever did this. They reshaped the hammer spring by putting two permanent bends in it to reduce the spring tension. Hammer spring looked like a piece of abstract art. I doubt the gun would have ever fired Winchester primers reliably.
Not to worry. I keep a fair number of spare hands in my shop as well as a wide range of hammer and rebound slide springs. Replaced the hand, hammer spring and rebound slide spring (#12 Wolff spring). 20 minutes of cleaning the crud out of the lock work, replacing the hand and springs and she’s back in time. 2 pound trigger pull that breaks like glass. The serial number shows the date of manufacture to be 1946…the first run of the K prefix guns according to the Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson. The action feels like she’s operating on ball bearings. I love the old 5 screw guns!
The finish is in about 98% condition. The seller forgot to mention that the gun was out of time and that someone had really done the gunsmith trigger special on the springs. In all fairness to the seller, I didn’t ask about the lock work either…show a little interest on things like this and some of these guys will get someone to run the bid up on you. Someone had clipped about 1/3 of the rebound slide spring off. Of course that caused the trigger not to return…no problem for whoever did this. They reshaped the hammer spring by putting two permanent bends in it to reduce the spring tension. Hammer spring looked like a piece of abstract art. I doubt the gun would have ever fired Winchester primers reliably.
Not to worry. I keep a fair number of spare hands in my shop as well as a wide range of hammer and rebound slide springs. Replaced the hand, hammer spring and rebound slide spring (#12 Wolff spring). 20 minutes of cleaning the crud out of the lock work, replacing the hand and springs and she’s back in time. 2 pound trigger pull that breaks like glass. The serial number shows the date of manufacture to be 1946…the first run of the K prefix guns according to the Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson. The action feels like she’s operating on ball bearings. I love the old 5 screw guns!
