DHart
Member
I've been buying guns for awhile and have a bunch of goodies. But something really weird happened to me with this one gun model in particular...
It all started when I decided to buy a Detective Special... a gun I've wanted for decades and finally got around to buying.
I found what looked like a really nice one and bought it (GunsAmerica). As it turned out, this first DS was so perfect, so flawless, so absolutely gorgeous, I felt I just had to buy another one to shoot because I couldn't bring myself to put any noticible wear on this first one.
So, some time passes and I'm looking for another one to be a shooter. I find me a second used one on GunsAmerica, hoping it might already have a tiny bit of noticible wear on it, or at least a little dirt. It arrives a week or so later. No such luck... I got another one that looked NIB, dang it! Flawless! Arrrrgh!
So now I've got these two gorgeous beauties on my hands... each so beautifully perfect with their deep Colt bluing that I can't bear to mess with either them (though I did shoot them a little bit, not that you'd notice or anything.)
SO, finally I decide I must set out once again for some more battle weary troops... and just last week I received my third and fourth copies and thankfully, mercifully, neither of these two are quite so "perfect". They've both seen a little bit of decent use.
One in fact looked pretty nice at first glance, but had a ton of lead in the barrel and decades of dirt imbedded here and there and inside the pumphouse. I felt great, though, about carrying them around and shooting them both because they weren't "perfect"! That's the key element here.
They are also great because I felt comfortable (in fact I felt I NEEDED to) strip them down to bare bones, tear them completely apart, really get to know the innards, clean away decades of grime and dirt, lube them up well, give the exterior bluing a thorough Flitz cleaning and spruce them up. Those Flitz covered pads came up yellow brown for what seemed like hours!
Well, I did all that and what do you know? Now my third and fourth ones look and feel almost new, except for a couple of very minor finish blems. And now I really understand the inner workings of the Detective Special... what makes them tick... it's really nice to have learned that as well.
Turns out the slightly used, not-so-perfect versions have provided me more interest, knowledge, fun, and now, useability, than the LNIB versions ever could have.
So now I have two queens to "Watch", and a third one to shoot and carry "blue" and a fourth I'm going to send for a brilliant, new, bright hard chrome finish and then put it to work also!
I just don't know what the value of having the two identical safe queens really is, though. I don't plan to ever sell them and I'm getting all my use and enjoyment from the two "used" ones! Go figure. I guess at least it's nice to know they're tucked away in their pristine states somewhere in the lower rear of the safe, if i ever want to oogle over them.
I can't wait to see the bright polished hard chromed DS... I think that will be a wonderful little carry gun. Hard chrome is unbelievably hard stuff, I should be able to use that gun a heck of a lot with little, if any, effect on the finish.
Oh yeah... there is a fifth one in the works... something about these little buggers is just too danged irresistable to me!
Yes... I know I've become a hard-core, card carrying, Detective Special geek! (Still love all my S&W's too, though!) ;-)=
One more thing... you CAN handle and shoot these things, doing it with some care, and still keep them in extremely fine condition!
Safe Queens? Ah... who needs them! A good used gun is much more valuable! ;-)=
It all started when I decided to buy a Detective Special... a gun I've wanted for decades and finally got around to buying.
I found what looked like a really nice one and bought it (GunsAmerica). As it turned out, this first DS was so perfect, so flawless, so absolutely gorgeous, I felt I just had to buy another one to shoot because I couldn't bring myself to put any noticible wear on this first one.
So, some time passes and I'm looking for another one to be a shooter. I find me a second used one on GunsAmerica, hoping it might already have a tiny bit of noticible wear on it, or at least a little dirt. It arrives a week or so later. No such luck... I got another one that looked NIB, dang it! Flawless! Arrrrgh!
So now I've got these two gorgeous beauties on my hands... each so beautifully perfect with their deep Colt bluing that I can't bear to mess with either them (though I did shoot them a little bit, not that you'd notice or anything.)
SO, finally I decide I must set out once again for some more battle weary troops... and just last week I received my third and fourth copies and thankfully, mercifully, neither of these two are quite so "perfect". They've both seen a little bit of decent use.
One in fact looked pretty nice at first glance, but had a ton of lead in the barrel and decades of dirt imbedded here and there and inside the pumphouse. I felt great, though, about carrying them around and shooting them both because they weren't "perfect"! That's the key element here.
They are also great because I felt comfortable (in fact I felt I NEEDED to) strip them down to bare bones, tear them completely apart, really get to know the innards, clean away decades of grime and dirt, lube them up well, give the exterior bluing a thorough Flitz cleaning and spruce them up. Those Flitz covered pads came up yellow brown for what seemed like hours!
Well, I did all that and what do you know? Now my third and fourth ones look and feel almost new, except for a couple of very minor finish blems. And now I really understand the inner workings of the Detective Special... what makes them tick... it's really nice to have learned that as well.
Turns out the slightly used, not-so-perfect versions have provided me more interest, knowledge, fun, and now, useability, than the LNIB versions ever could have.
So now I have two queens to "Watch", and a third one to shoot and carry "blue" and a fourth I'm going to send for a brilliant, new, bright hard chrome finish and then put it to work also!
I just don't know what the value of having the two identical safe queens really is, though. I don't plan to ever sell them and I'm getting all my use and enjoyment from the two "used" ones! Go figure. I guess at least it's nice to know they're tucked away in their pristine states somewhere in the lower rear of the safe, if i ever want to oogle over them.
I can't wait to see the bright polished hard chromed DS... I think that will be a wonderful little carry gun. Hard chrome is unbelievably hard stuff, I should be able to use that gun a heck of a lot with little, if any, effect on the finish.
Oh yeah... there is a fifth one in the works... something about these little buggers is just too danged irresistable to me!
Yes... I know I've become a hard-core, card carrying, Detective Special geek! (Still love all my S&W's too, though!) ;-)=
One more thing... you CAN handle and shoot these things, doing it with some care, and still keep them in extremely fine condition!
Safe Queens? Ah... who needs them! A good used gun is much more valuable! ;-)=
Well... you know what you have to do! 
