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By Richard Dahl
I’m an old guy who really enjoys shooting and firearms. A collector of guns I’m not, but I am an accumulator. An accumulator is one who enjoys shooting and working on a great variety of firearms.
Before 1957 Smith & Wesson named their revolvers rather than numbering them and those named revolvers make up a fair number of my accumulation. Which brings us to the Target Masterpiece K38 in the photo above.
Last July I was in one of the local gun shops when I noticed an old Smith revolver that looked like it had been ridden hard and put away wet. Someone had painted the patridge front sight red, the rear sight white, replaced the grips with way too large grips with the screw head so buggered that the grips were loose on the frame.
The main spring had been bent so that it didn’t work correctly and the whole revolver was filthy. Nick came over and asked if I’d like to buy the old gun. I asked how much for that wreck. It was mine for $350.00 out the door.
Now comes the part that I enjoy, bringing an old gun back to life. I disassembled it, removed the paint, re-cut the screw slot, cut the grips down and refined them. Then I corrected the main spring, cleaned and lightly lubed and reassembled the revolver.
Now I have a very good shooting K38 which left the factory in 1955, (the year I graduated from high school), which loves the w/c loads that I feed it. From my prospective being an accumulator rather than a collector is both financially and enjoyability rewarding.
The other revolver is a model 610 with a five-inch barrel in 10mm. It was made in 1989 and I purchased it in 1992.
When I acquired it I disassembled and tuned it and replaced the front sight with a gold bead patridge sight. This revolver is a real can killer. Which means that it’s very good at hitting reactive targets, (bean cans, olive cans, tomato cans, etc.). I find shooting paper rather uninteresting so I go to the desert and shoot cans, bring them home and properly dispose of them.
The reloads are 200 grain cast bullets with enough powder for about 1000 ft/sec. Note that they are in 1/3 moon clips, which I find much easier to use than full moon clips. This model 610 is a very nice shooting revolver and any reactive target within 50 yards in in dire straits.
Being an old guy I shoot using a Weaver stance with my support hand index finger foreward on the trigger guard. I find that this lowers the handgun into my hands and gives me better control. You young whipper snappers, give it a try. You’ll like it.