Why so few blued revolvers?

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UberPhLuBB

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There are very few blue revolvers made by Smith & Wesson and Taurus. Dan Wesson has more blued revolvers available than those two combined.

Why are there so few? There are far more revolvers that are blackened some other way, but hardly any are true blued. I want a good, blued revolver but with so few options I'm having trouble.

Smith & Wesson lists it's dark revolvers as either "black/gray" or but it's clear from all the pictures that they are NOT blued. Taurus has a few that actually are blued but not enough to make me consider them.

I'm pretty sure I want a blued 4" in .357 magnum, large or medium frame.
 
It's more expensive for them to do a nice blue job, and so they skimp now--cheaper and easier to do a matte or something. And everyone apparently wants stainless, probably so they don't have to take as good care of them or something. Sort of sad--nothing as purty as a blued gun...
 
First most buyers chose the stainless steel models by a wide margin over the blued models. It's just plain business sense to drop what isn't readily selling.
Second the polishing required to get a good blue takes manpower which equates into dollars. Why spend so much money making a revolver that's not a big seller?
 
"There are very few blue revolvers made by Smith & Wesson and Taurus. Dan Wesson has more blued revolvers available than those two combined."

No flame or argument intended, but I still see a lot of blued Taurus revolvers. At least in the calibers I'm interested in. But the shiney deep blue black on a Taurus steel revolver makes me wonder how it's done. It almost looks like an older S&W annodized LW,..no? At any rate for looks gimmee an older S&W or Colt blue. For praticality since more states than ever have some form of concealed carry I guess stainless rules.
 
Give it five more years. When somebody refers to a "blued revolver," most people will think the questioner is referring to the sky-blue revolver that's sitting alongside the shocking-pink auto in the dealer's display case.

What's this world coming to????!!!!! (Reference scene from "Goodfella's" where Joe Pesci's character shoots the bartender).
 
So where the heck do I go for a nice blued revolver? Seems my only option is a used Dan Wesson but I don't find them very attractive, and are the DW wheelguns even compatable with "L" and "K" S&W style grips, which there is a wide variety of? I've always believed that you get what you pay for (to a point), so Taurus isn't really an option.

I don't want a flashy, shiny revolver. I want a blued revolver with nice grips, something I can look at and think "that's classy," not "that's badass."
 
The used market has something from everyone not just DW. Also you can't interchange stocks/grips from different brands. The medium frame DW doesn't use panels. It's grip frame is just a short stub that slides inside a solid stock/grip.
 
Those Korths look nice but they are far above my price range.

Ruger is another option but I don't see many grips offered for them.
 
There are millions of used S&W revolvers out there, you need to do a bit of looking. Of my S&W collection of over 30 revolvers 75% are blued and with one exception all were bought used.
 
Python.jpg

While I love blued revolvers, a matte stainless finish is just FAR more practical for a working gun.

All my blued guns stay in the safe these days. A working or carry gun is gonna get beat to hell...at least in my job.


Sheep
 
Blue is pretty. Stainless is practical. I own over two dozen revolvers and have gotten rid of all but three of of my blued guns. I'd rather shoot them than spend time cleaning them.
 
There is so much class in a blued gun, but I am a finicky, snobbish gun owner. I am totally comfotable admitting it: if I get ONE NICK in the bluing, I am tempted to send it out to get reblued. Hoster wear is a travesty to me, and I know a lot of people love it for the character it adds, but in my eyes, it's a worn looking gun - period.

This is the problem I face, because my blued guns get babied, even at the range. For this reason, stainless just makes more sense when I want something to carryi n harsh climates, or put in a holster.

When stainless get scratch, you just get a little sandpaper, work it out, and play around until it's concealed to your liking.

When bluing get's scratched or nicked...it's an eyesore.

Obviously, some other people have come to the conclusion that bluing is just too much work for a working gun, and the factories have responded. I agree that bluing is beautiful, but keeping it up is difficult.
 
I have an old shotgun that was given to me by my brother when I was a teenager....it was also his first shotgun. I've been trying to find a decent place to reblue it and completely refurbish it, but to no avail. From what I understand, not only is a quality blue job much more time consuming and labor intensive, many places got away from it due to the stringent EPA regulations as well. I'm no chemist by any means, but from what I was told by an old timer gunsmith, the stuff they use for bluing is pretty caustic stuff. He said all they do is parkerizing now, and/or some sort of coating they use for a look that is a bit more shiny. I can't remember what it was called.
 
I LOVE the deep blue steel S&W and Colt revolvers and Colt 1911's, but like Six-Gun does, I definitely tend to baby mine. That doesn't mean I don't want to have them or shoot them, because I handle and shoot them often... but I give them extra care to keep them looking great and unblemished and I look at that as part of the pride & price of ownership for gorgeous blued guns.

29-2_RF8441.jpg


I also love and enjoy stainless and hard chromed guns. They don't need as much coddling to keep nice and stainless is very easy to finish "refresh" if needed. Very practical.

CSCG8459.jpg


So, I love them both and enjoy having both types of finishes. I just give the more "knock around" jobs to my stainless guns and keep my blued ones around for home and RV protection, where they don't ride in holsters nor do they clonk around in glove boxes.
 
From my point of view at least, the Smith and Wesson Model 10 is a classic. It's blue, and while not a .357, simply exudes history and class. I would think a set of Ahrends or Miculek grips would look just fine on one.

Jeff
 
Dhart, that 29-2 is just the kind of thing I'm looking for.

Is there a place I can look through older S&W and Colt models? A place with pictures to compare models?
 
You can try a Google search... I know there are some sites which list and compare models. You can also search the internet gun sale forums (which is where I buy most of mine.)
 
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