I am really really really tempted to buy this. I don't know if the price is too high but it is NIB. I've always been attracted to .45 ACP double action revolvers and this M25 Model of 1955 is making me considering whipping out the credit card. Thoughts?
https://www.gunsinternational.com/gu...n_id=102527509
I guess my only concern is, I would want to shoot it quite a bit and I imagine spare parts and smithing are scarce. Are there ways to mitigate these issues?
Im not aware that there are issues with that or sure where the rumors began unless you are only willing to buy parts directly from the factory for some reason. They do have many parts still available from the factory, but theres tons of parts available used, and some aftermarket parts like hands and cylinder locking bolts. I see barrels and cylinders and every other part on both gunbroker and ebay regularly when I look, and most are pretty reasonably priced if you look a bit. Working on Smiths isnt rocket science by any means, theres lots of people that know how if you dont want to do it yourself.Originally Posted by SwampDweller
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
Price seems right and you can't go wrong with an old Smith. The actions are incredibly smooth. It will hold up to more .45s than you will ever shoot out of it.
Good luck and good shooting.
Steven
Link for the stock maker? My Google fu is week today.
Semper Paratus,
Steve
He's an old dude on the S&W Blue forum that posts under the username "44magget". No website or anything like that.
I hope to have something fun to post here soon™. I wrote some time ago about the tribulations I had with a Lew Horton S&W 629 Carry Comp that had one chamber which shaved excessive lead/jackets when fired. S&W examined the gun and said tersely it was "within specifications" and I sent it down the road with the defect noted. To me it was the perfect large frame carry gun with fixed sights, round butt and the 3" barrel. It was very accurate for 5 out of 6 chambers, shooting the then plentiful .44 Spl Silvertips.
I ran onto a newer version, a 629-6 version and broke my vow to never buy an internal lock gun,. It will be plugged and vetted with Lost River's 240 grain Keith Style lead Semi Wadcutter at 1,200 FPS for field use and some .44 Spl Underwood full wadcutters for social duty. At that point I'll probably get rid of a sweet old 5 screw Hand Ejector that someone cut to 3.5", beautifully machined in a set of Micro sights and mounted an unusual checkered rib with ramped sights.
Can't lie, I'm pretty stoke at having another Carry Comp after doing about 20 years without!
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If we have to march off into the next world, let us walk there on the bodies of our enemies.
I hope to have something fun to post here soon™. I wrote some time ago about the tribulations I had with a Lew Horton S&W 629 Carry Comp that had one chamber which shaved excessive lead/jackets when fired. S&W examined the gun and said tersely it was "within specifications" and I sent it down the road with the defect noted. To me it was the perfect large frame carry gun with fixed sights, round butt and the 3" barrel. It was very accurate for 5 out of 6 chambers, shooting the then plentiful .44 Spl Silvertips.
I ran onto a newer version, a 629-6 version and broke my vow to never buy an internal lock gun,. It will be plugged and vetted with Lost River's 240 grain Keith Style lead Semi Wadcutter at 1,200 FPS for field use and some .44 Spl Underwood full wadcutters for social duty. At that point I'll probably get rid of a sweet old 5 screw Hand Ejector that someone cut to 3.5", beautifully machined in a set of Micro sights and mounted an unusual checkered rib with ramped sights.
Can't lie, I'm pretty stoke at having another Carry Comp after doing about 20 years without!
We need pics of the Hand Ejector.
Semper Paratus,
Steve
^^^ What he said! ^^^
Last week I picked up an item I won at a local auction house. It is pretty special. This is a NIB unfired 520, part of the original NSP run, not an overstamp 58 like @SouthNarc just picked up. In 2000 my long time gunsmith, mentor of sorts, and dear friend Harry Deal, Birmingham's best gunsmith (and some would say our last good one) passed away suddenly. Most of his collection was auctioned off a year later and I picked up a well used 1911from that auction that I still shoot often.
His widow passed away last year and his only daughter found one more whole gunsafe of stuff that she just sent to the auction house here. I had to have this one, and bid at a level I was certain to get it. It has his original receipt in the box from McCain Uniform, which was Birmingham's cop shop for decades, Galls finally bought them out a few years ago. The receipt showed Sgt. Harry Deal, Birmingham PD, $200 out the door including tax in the summer of 1980. Harry went on to be a Lt. and Captain before he retired after 22 years with Birmingham PD and became the police chief of Calera, AL a town south of Birmingham. When he retired from that he went into full time gunsmithing. His skills and talent were exceptional. He was also a great guy to be around and helpful to all his less experienced customers like me.
I will never bring myself to sell this because of the history. Since I am a member of the S&W collector association I will probably use my privilege to get it lettered. It goes in the estate sale since I have no one to pass it on to, my nephew is not a gun person, and he or Mrs. Fatdog will just turn it over to my Gunbroker consignment seller locustfork or Woodlawnboys with the rest of whatever is left.
So to maximize the value it would just go in the the back of the safe with a fresh coat of Ezox and get wiped down once a year. That is what you would do to preserve the value. That is certainly the rational thing to do based on its condition, history, etc.
But the truth is I want to go shoot it. Hell I might even carry it since I have a nice Kramer holster for these things.
By doing so and making it part of my shooter battery, I probably drop the value by +40% but quite honestly in the context of estate dollars that is really nothing, not even round down dollars to Mrs. Fatdog or my niece and nephew some day.
So help me out here tribe, do I shoot it or put it up for some S&W collector some place to own and just look at some day, what say yea PF?
Last edited by fatdog; 12-17-2023 at 08:45 PM.
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