I carried a 3" Model 13 for an off duty gun when I first started in L/E back in the 80's. It made a good companion to my 25-5 and the Mod 36 I carried as a BUG.
I have my wife's model 65, but I am saving that for my daughter to use in the next couple of years. I was actually looking for a old model 13, but the SSR just called out to me. I guess I am having a mid life crisis..........I suppose the SSR is cheaper than the $103,000 Corvette I was drooling over at the fair.
Just a Hairy Special Snowflake supply clerk with no field experience, shooting an Asymetric carbine as a Try Hard
"If I had a grandpa, he would look like Delbert Belton".
I've been wanting an SSR ever since encountering one by chance at a gun show. Just haven't been able to justify spending the money.
There's just something about shooting a good wheelgun...it's a lot like driving a good classic car.
My 2" Model 12-2 is old enough and nice enough that I'm worried about shooting it much with anything heavier than mild wadcutters. I've seen enough early Airweights crack the frame at the barrel threads to give me a permanent case of the 'noids regarding S&W's learning curve with aluminum frames.Originally Posted by Tom Givens
I meant to buy another, slightly newer one to do more shooting with, but in the interim, folks have decided that anything old that says "Smith & Wesson" on it is worth a mint...
Last edited by Tamara; 10-22-2012 at 07:41 AM.
A lot of this was my justificaiton for the SSR. Feels like a 19, it has a lock so I can't really love it, and I can shoot the piss out of it without a care in the world of maybe ruining something I can't fix. My "needs fixing" Mod 58 is a great example of what happens when you shoot the piss out of these things.
Wayne and I shot the SSR this weekend. It is a god example of why I wanted adjustable sights. You can move stuff around to just drop rounds on top of each other in the "X" on a B8. Low recoil with Winchester WHite box value pack .38 SPecials. Overall, I am happy as heck with the SSR. It is very shootable right out of the box, and has some potential for some personal upgrades as time goes on without ruining a older gun.
Just a Hairy Special Snowflake supply clerk with no field experience, shooting an Asymetric carbine as a Try Hard
"If I had a grandpa, he would look like Delbert Belton".
That's exactly why I want to find a "soulless steel" K- or L-frame to serve as a range bag gun like my 22/45 does. I'd constantly worry about a blued one and wind up unzipping the bag every couple hours to check on it.
Why did Smith & Wesson mostly stop making blued revolvers?That's exactly why I want to find a "soulless steel" K- or L-frame to serve as a range bag gun like my 22/45 does. I'd constantly worry about a blued one and wind up unzipping the bag every couple hours to check on it.
The SSR is a nice package. Nothing like a 3" K frame, but nice none the less.
I'm not much of a wheelgun guy, having grown up on bottom feeders, but I have learned to appreciate what they are. Probably the best one of the limited selection I've experienced was a pretty basic gun, all told. It started life as a model 10-8 heavy barrel .38, used by armed security at the Arizona Republic newspaper. When the libs running the paper disarmed all the guards, they sold off the guns. This one had been kept in a desk and almost never fired, so it was in great shape. The new owner sent it to Nelson Ford to have it converted to DAO and the action polished. The weight, balance, and feel are just remarkable. The gun shoots like a dream, and wadcutters feel like a .22LR. It was the first time I shot a DA revolver and said "Man, I'd like to have one of these."
Because people mostly stopped buying them. Blued revolvers are fun to coonfinger and "Ooh!" and "Aah!" over, but soulless steel is a lot more fun to shoot and neglect.
(Having worked a gun counter during the dying days of the carbon steel portion of the S&W catalog, I can tell you that if everyone bemoaning the absence of the blued guns had actually been buying them, they never would have left the inventory.)
I had a bud trade me a model 67 for a 681. Always wanted one of those and finally got one. Shoots to the sights really nicely.
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