Is this really a Model 10?

[Lester Polfus]

What's complicating this is that in late 2020 or early 2021, I'm going to start a series set in the immediate aftermath of WW2. The protagonist will have, among other things either a Heavy Duty or a 1917.

So it would be "research."

[Stephanie B]

Ditto. I think I might buy a shooter grade soon. I've vacillated on bidding on this one. The "non-functional" part on this one may just be decades worth of cack under the sideplate.

Edited to add: The fact that this one is North of three bills with several days left to go suggests to me that I'm not the first person to notice.

or rust or whatnot. Buying this one, especially for a few hundred dollars, is gambling.

[Wingate's Hairbrush]

Definitely 38-44 Heavy Duty 4"; enlarge the pic and you can see .38 listed on the barrel. No Model 10s (or for the era in question, pre-Model 10s/M&P .38s) were made with extractor shrouds until decades later (and the ones made are rare).

This would be a hard pass for me. Non-functioning can mean an easy fix or an impossible one -- or worse, lots of little fixes over time that keep appearing just when you think you've got the piece in order. Been there, lesson learned, no longer interested in rolls of the dice or open-ended fixer-uppers. YMMV. I love revolvers, but they are not the simple, problem-free devices commonly described as -- not if you use them.

I'd also pass because this is a post-WWII, post-interim, short-action HD, and if I were going to pick one up it would definitely be the long-action type and ideally a post-war interim HD with both the long action and the hammer block.

Save the money and put it toward a functioning, shooter grade Heavy Duty -- my guess is you'll come out ahead.

[Jim Watson]

Yup.
I have one gun I bought because I thought I was smarter than the seller and could deal with its flaws. Wrong. It is fine now, $145 down the road.

[Stephanie B]

I’m in the process of buying a few “work needed” guns, for less than that one.

[Lester Polfus]

Y'all are talking way too much sense.

The price has hit a point where it no longer makes sense, given the chance I'd need to pour money into it.

[Stephanie B]

Y'all are talking way too much sense.

The price has hit a point where it no longer makes sense, given the chance I'd need to pour money into it.

You just don't know about that gun. It may be a mater of taking off the sideplate, flushing out the internals with brake cleaner. and relubing it.

Or there may be a bunch of parts that need to be replaced.

Question is: Are you willing to risk four bills on it?

[Lester Polfus]

You just don't know about that gun. It may be a mater of taking off the sideplate, flushing out the internals with brake cleaner. and relubing it.

Or there may be a bunch of parts that need to be replaced.

Question is: Are you willing to risk four bills on it?

I'm guessing it's going to go for more than four bills. If I shop careful, I can probably pick up a shooter grade Heavy Duty for well under a grand.

It's not just the money, it's the time. Once I put a HPG lever gun light mount on my 1894c and a Bowen rear sight on the GP100, I will exactly ZERO firearms projects. All I will have to do is take them out and shoot them. A non-functioning Heavy Duty could easily turn into one of those lingering projects that is never quite done. Between 20+ hours of OT a month at work, my side gig, daddyin' and taking care of the six acres, I ain't got the mental space for that.

[Stephanie B]

Still at &360. So the next bid has to be $365.

$25 to ship puts that to $390, plus your local FFL fees. Nah.

I'm probably going to want to kick myself if it truly is nonfunctional because of congealed oil and other crud......

[Stephanie B]

Holy Mother of Dog, it went up $200 in the last ten minutes. $566 is a lot for a potential hunk of scrap iron.