Here's a quote from (and a link to) a short summary piece (unsigned) about the 19 that appears at a blog called freepatriot.com (
http://freepatriot.com/model19.php), where there are many pix, too.
The Smith & Wesson 19-3 is one of the more common Model 19s out there. This is not a bad thing. Smith & Wesson realized they had a good thing there, and made a ton of them between the 1960's and 1990's.
The Combat Magnum
In 1899, Smith & Wesson introduced the new sixgun and new cartridge that were destined to be the hands down favorites of several generations of peace officers. The cartridge was the .38 Special in the first K-frame, the new sixgun that would be known as the Military & Police Model or simply the M&P.
Originally the M&P was chambered in both .38 Special and .32-20. During the time between the World War I and II, we would see the M&P evolve into the .22 Outdoorsman, the K-22, K-32 and K-38 revolvers. After World War II, the latter three became the Masterpiece Target sixguns, and we also saw the arrival of the .38 Combat Masterpiece, a beautiful 4" peace officer's sixgun, as well as the same revolver chambered in .22.
In 1954, Bill Jordan of the Border Patrol was asked by Smith & Wesson to design the ultimate peace officer's sixgun. Big Bill looked at the Combat Masterpiece and said "Why not chamber it in .357 Magnum?"
The engineers went to work and the Combat Masterpiece was fitted with a longer cylinder to fill in the frame window more completely, that cylinder was chambered in .357 Magnum and a .44 Magnum type heavy bull barrel with enclosed ejector rod was added. The Combat Magnum was born.
The 4" Model 19 would be made in both bright blue and nickel and, as Jordan proposed, was definitely the perfect peace officer's sixgun. As new .357 ammunition arrived that ate forcing cones alive, the Model 19 would be given a bum rap. Jordan said just use it with .38 Special loads for practice and carry .357 loads for duty and there would be no problem. He, of course, was right.
In the 1960s, both a standard squarebutt 6" Target Model and a roundbutted 2[1/2]" Plainclothes Model would arrive. Regardless of barrel length, for most of us the K-frame grip frame is the easiest to stock. I prefer the Skeeter Skelton style stocks on my K-frames. These were developed by Skeeter with simple modifications of the Roper grips.
Both the .44 Magnum and Combat Magnum project went on side-by-side with the first guns of both models being delivered in late 1955. What a banner year that was! It was also the year that the Ruger .357 Blackhawk and the Colt .357 Python arrived. Somebody was doing something right!
Now a look through the Smith & Wesson catalog shows the Model 19 has joined the Model 27 and Model 29 and it is gone.
As a traditionalist, I miss the old sixguns. Gone is the deep blue in which one could see one's ancestors, all the way back to there and then some. Gone is the nickel plating, done only as Smith & Wesson could, that reflected a thousand sunsets. Gone are the silky smooth actions that no one has ever been able to duplicate on any other line of double-action sixguns. [1]
Features
The "Pinned & Recessed" features are some of the best parts of old Smith & Wesson magnum-caliber revolvers. How cool is it when the case heads go flush with the cylinder?
The small pin on the barrel/frame junction is the barrel pin. It helps prevent the twisting forces of the bullet that tend to unscrew the barrel. Truly needed? Probably not, but it's nice to have.
The small screw on the topstrap is the screw securing the rear sight leaf to the frame. Don't mess with it. You could mess up the threads or the sight leaf.
Look for flame-cutting on the topstrap or case outlines on the recoil shield. The absence of these means the gun was fired very little. That's good.
The small device behind the trigger is a factory installed "trigger-stop" It's meant to limit the amount of trigger travel in single-action mode for competition. Under heavy double-action shooting, like what police would use in a self-defense situation, the stop would get loose, rotate, and jam the trigger back. This happened MAYBE one in a million, but that's not good enough for cop guns, so Smith & Wesson redesigned the stop. Yours should have the newer stop. These problems were happening in the late '50s / early '60s guns and were corrected by the '70s. (Much of the following information from [2])
The gun is sought after because it is simply the finest .357 Magnum ever made. Actually, according to it's creator, Bill Jordan, it's a ".38 than can occasionally fire .357." He envisioned a gun police could carry often and shoot little. ".38s for practice and .357s for business."
The model 19 is, in my not-so-humble-opinion, the best balance of power, practicality and handling anyone's ever seen. Medium frame: easy to carry, handles and points like a dream. Powerful Caliber: drops badguys DEAD, with the option of soft-shooting .38 Special. The Model 19, or "Combat Magnum" as it was originally called, was the Gold Standard for police sidearms from it's introduction in 1955 until the "wundernine" revolution of the 1980s. Accurate, powerful and ergonomically perfect. What more could you ask for?
