Posted on 09/23/2009 6:19:16 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!
That is identical to the one I carry everyday. My only addition was to add a pair of Crimson grips. When it comes to reliability and easy concealment, the Model 36 is definitely a well aged winning design.
And as a journeyman craftsman, I'm a bit disappointed that another ten minutes of hand labor wasn't applied. Sometimes, that's the difference between confidence, and a joy to behold. Still, it's an extra bit of enjoyment for me, as I go over the item, and spot those areas that will benefit at least me, knowing I lavished some unneeded TLC on them.
The extra study and labor that goes beyond the Marine's Rifleman Creed makes it more than a tool, and more of an extension of your mind, just like your eyes and ears. I am not my eyes and ears, but would be much diminished without them. Same for any weapon I take into my heart and mind.
Modern weapons are designed for minimal skilled fitting, because those skills and crafts are scarce and expensive. I can trust my life to those designs, but I will always gravitate towards the ones I put hours, weeks, or months of my life into, if possible. The Creed says, "my weapon and I are brothers". For me, my weapon is just a handsome piece of design and craftsmanship when in the rack, and becomes an extension of me only when I use it. It's just kind of hard to comprehend the difference until you try it yourself the first time, or buy a custom-made weapon that someone else built for you.
I thought everyone stripped, honed and polished the sear and trigger points of their own personal weapons just as a matter of fact. Then as I grew older I learned that some people are perfectly satisfied with the store model. Why that is I don’t know but I do know that some people will buy a car or truck, drive it everyday, get the oil changed on schedule, never wash it and sell it when it becomes too expensive to operate. Me, I always change the tires, sometimes the wheels, add a winch and a ramp. I just continually mess around until I figure it can’t get any better.
I guess there will always be the them and us divide no matter how large or small the crowd is.
You, like myself, strive to find a good home for all scrap metal that goes boom ......:o)
Awesome little wheel gun. Carried a SW 37 air weight for decades as a ankle rig and cold weather weak hand pocket gun for traffic stops and strangers in range ......
Love those old snubbies !
Stay Safe !
Nice one WinMag, a classic that has found a good home. Liked your analogy to the pound puppy. Very nice find with ‘box ‘n docs’ even the cleaning kit. That must have been stored in safety deposit box.
Although I prefer the Model 38 to the Model 36, it’s all good when it comes to the old J frames.
Crimson trace grips are nice addition to a daily carry piece.
In the words of the late,late TV commercials, "but wait, there's more!". I took off the grips again, and closer observation showed the serial number stamped into the vey dense, dark walnut. Hard to see without looking at various angles under a strong light, but even finding the proper inked-in serial numbers is a treat.
Closer study showed that I was not seeing rust, but oxidized, congealed, high-quality gun oil from 1966. No drag marks on anything, although the Nanolube treatment is starting to add them in the proper places, and will slowly hone away the solid goo. It is now "touched", but only to bring it to the peak of its condition, which is its purpose.
But the biggest surprise came as I looked more closely at the bottom surface of the side plate, and the frame itself. The side plate interior was clean and businesslike, as would be expected from ordinary S&W craftsmanship of the era. But the interior surface of the frame was jeweled before bluing. Not the delicate, Swiss-watch-type jeweling to decorate the finest and most expensive shotguns, but a fairly coarse, but very workman-like treatment. To say I was stuned was the understatement of my month.
This is the oldest unfired S&W that I've been privileged to study. I don't know how common this was for a "working" weapon in the past. I've seen some very good machine work on current weapons when the CNC operator has sharp mills, and is ahead of schedule in his work, and wants to showcase what even a dumb machine can do. But never anything better than this, and only on mostly-hand-built luxury shotguns in the $5K and up bracket.
May St Barbara smile even more on S&W once they shake the dust of New England off their shoes, and establish a new Promised Land anywhere in Free America.
It's a technological anachronism, using modern operating and manufacturing concepts in a form that was already too expensive to produce even a hundred years ago, when the last hammer shotguns (except for costly custom models) were vanishing. The steel is modern, with barrels capable of handling any modern 3" shotshells on the market. The wood is a plain-grain, but very dense and solid, walnut. Except for the blued barrels, every exposed piece of metal is color case-hardened, done for no other reason but to show that the ancient art still isn't quite dead. The coloring is hard to show in a picture, but here's the best I could do.
Modern design concepts include rebounding hammers without a half-cock (always more of a danger than a safety), and a safety that could be engaged or disengaged with either hammer in either state. IOW, make things simpler, and therefore safer, because there are fewer ways to put the weapon into an unsafe condition.
The engraving is well done, but simple. It's somewhere on every visible part, even the steel buttplate. This could be considered a "middle class" shotgun, except the sidelock design was the most expensive to build, and the first thing to be abandoned as other designs came into being. And Europe didn't have much of a middle class, and they weren't encouraged to own shotguns, unless they lived in the countryside. To top it all off, everybody, regardless of social status, would consider "short" twenty-inches barrels "too American", and therefore crude and unsporting, when 30 to 36 inches was more a gentleman's shotgun. Of course, Americans had other requirements for a shotgun, including Mexican bandits, Philippine guerrillas, and heavily-armed domestic scum. Plus, there was so much mechanical innovation coming out of America that the newfangled pump shotguns could be equipped with short barrels too, providing massive firepower in a small package. A Marine from 1899, fighting the Boxers in China, would instinctively appreciate, and try to acquire, the Remington 870 pump shotgun with 14" breacher barrel, even over his brand-new 1897 Winchester pump shotgun with 20" barrel.
I can't conceive of any European manufacturer making a double this costly (less fancy embellishments) with this short a barrel, except as a specialized shotgun intended for game wardens of the state, or the local aristocracy. Their job was to control two- and four-legged vermin, while the elite harvested the sporting game reserved for their class.
A shotgun like this would have been the proximate cause of my paternal grandfather for bringing his young family to America during the hard years right after WW1. He ate well, and kept a lot of other poor country folks from starving in his sideline as a professional poacher. As he once told me, he wasn't worried about going to prison if caught, but was very concerned when he would have been released, because his father, the local game warden, would be waiting to really put the hurt on. A new life in America was much safer and simpler.
That CZ sxs looks like a twin to my Turkish Hugli, marketed here for awhile under Liberty II name. Got it for CAS.
Very good workmanship. Pulling the sidelocks was a trip back through time.
That's because it is made by Hugli for CZ, along with other types of shotguns. They're probably the source for CZ's walnut, or at least know how to track it down out there in Turkey. Always quality wood, sometimes absolutely stuning, which makes it hard for me to pass up, regardless of what caliber it is.
Oh, and the Colt Custom Shop SAA rig went to someone for $1200, NIB. That's a couple hundred less than current stock models. Fancy case hardening on the usual parts, with "blued" parts like the barrel some sort of black-chrome plating, or something very high-tech looking. Nothing like that existed in that era, but it even caused me to look two or three times, especially since the original buyer paid over $2400 for it, and only spun the cylinder once.
Does CZ USA do work on the Hugli shotguns? After the Liberty II distributor faded, I figured I had an orphan. Be nice to have a solid shop for it here in the states.
The Custom Shop Colt SAA sounds like a beauty, as well as a great bargain.
My only stroke of luck was with BP pistols. Had ordered a Pietta Remington NMA 1865 .44, blued finish. Liked it so much that after two weeks phoned EMI for another. Nice lady pulled up first order, paused for long moment and then told me that she was shipping the 1865 NMA with the next consecutive SN. A happy day.
I would assume so, they handle quite a number of Hugli models. I'm sure their web site, www.cz-usa.com, has more information.
Thanks
With an appropriate scope (and an Elcan is waayyyyy overkill) this weapon could keep all the rounds in the black to at least 100 yards.
Except the ergonomics of the Kriss makes it feel like it was designed for aliens, and the all-plastic trigger mechanism just plain sucks. Even with a big chunky, heavy scope, the balance point still seems to be forward of the handguard. There isn't much real estate forward of the magazine well to find a comfortable place for my left hand, unless I stretch my arm waaaay forward on the faux suppressor. At least I had the foresight to get the silicone rubber insulator from a real suppressor before putting over a hundred rounds through it. That hollow steel tube was HOT.
Add to that the long, creepy, plastic-on-plastic trigger pull, and the odd shape of the extended stock, and I'm not yet ready declare the Kriss operational for my purposes. It's still accurate, and has a super-low recoil with fast recovery, but I can't get comfy, yet, with something where the top half, and rear, of the weapon is just hollow plastic and air. Back to the drawing board, and the range, once inspiration strikes.
Afternoon WinMag - well, that Kriss does look like a fugitive from the SF network, but apparently will do the job as intended.
Quiet in this part of theshire, planning on seeing the Hobbit part II this week. Need to see a movie this year.
Watched “gravity” this morning.... Good flick, was a free viewing so didn’t even buy the popcorn..... Good fiction. Keep yer eye on the fire extinguisher and Sandra Bullocks Buttocks .....:o)
Gonna go see Bad Grampa next..... That’s a BBQ and Brew Show this evening...
Stay safe !
Yep, nobody ever looked so good getting in and out of a space suit, unassisted, as she did. It was like her putting on bunny PJs, but easier. Must have been a new model, no inner suit(s), all she needed was her T-shirt and black Lycra short shorts. :)
I had a lot of issues on how orbital mechanics, and zero-G physics were treated, but didn't want to yell at the screen with other people in the theater.
Spoiler (at long last)!
Anybody catch the allegory of life evolving? She swam to the surface of the swamp, and started breathing air. Crawled through the mud on the shore, caught her breath, and started to crawl the rest of the on hands and knees. Then stood upright, walked a few more steps, and finally marched over the dune to whatever civilization was waiting for her on the other side.
They should have used subtitles for anybody who didn't get it. :)
i did catch that …… kept mumbling salamander …..salamander…..salamander…...
Oooooo, that’s a mighty pretty piece of hardware you have!
I consider it a "work in progress", and I think I've made a few improvements in the last few days.
With its accuracy established, it's back to the more appropriate Eotech, which can also co-witness with the backup sights. And a Yankee Hill folding vertical handgrip makes a decent horizontal forearm that gives me more range of motion for my left hand. My carpal tunnel gets a vote in this matter, and approves.
It's still a heavy piece of hardware, but if I still need to experiment with balance, I can fill the hollow pistol grip with lead shot, or cut away some of the plastic reinforcing ribs in the underside of the stock, and use JB Weld to glue in some tungsten rods.
But this right here has proven to be a big step forward as is.
Quite a bit of "new" old Smith & Wessons have been coming in. They're all fairly common items, for their day. But after 25-95 years, their new or near-new condition makes them exceptional.
The S&W Target Masterpiece is still available in their limited-production "classic" series, along with their modern counterparts in stainless steel. Still, little corners are cut to keep the price down, as fine a target .22 as it is.
This Model 17 was made in 1977, not exactly the high point of Smith's corporate culture. Still, except for the most plain "fancy" grips I ever saw, this is the first weapon that flat out declared it was female. I remembered the old horseman's saying, "you command a gelding, ask a stallion, but must negotiate with a mare". Especially one of noble descent, as she most plainly indicated. For her debut on the range, I found some much fancier grips than the plain hunk of wood she was forced to wear from the factory.
After ordering her something more appropriate, and formal, she rewarded me with this first shot:
Of course, the other 49 rounds (I used match-grade ammo, no cheap McBullets for her) was her way of showing me that she's all ready for upper-level dressage, so it's up to me to bust my own butt to be worthy of her talents. At least she knows she'll be pampered outside the dressage area.
Now if I could just coax her to tell me her name, or a suitable nickname. :)
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