Yep yep yep..... that’s a deal then.
I love old S&W’s. I panic when I see one being sold or traded....:o)
I agree on the time and money concept.
The ruger 44 carbines are nice. I have 1 NIB safe queen and 1 well used one I used to keep on a ATV rack all the time. It’s weathered and shows a lot of use yet still works great. Replaced the stock long ago with a boyds laminate that holds up well against nature. Action was rattle can rustolium’d which works very very well for a “working gun” ......
That Ruger was the perfect brush gun for deer hunting in Michigan, which is why I recommended it to my brother. I added a bit of then-high-tech by putting a Gen 1 Aimpoint red dot on it. State of the art, nobody had seen anything like it. Why did Ruger ever discontinue it?
I'm doing a complete teardown on Little Smith right now. OMG, every part is either investment cast, or sintered metal!!!!! Yeah, there's still a lot of machining inside, but so much of the internals are redesigned, and take advantage of some sort of short cut.
The operating principles are still the same, except for the damn hammer lock, but the change over the last 30 years is hugh. True, most of the manufacturing used today was just a lab curiosity back then, and the finished product probably works just as well, but it's not quite the same weapon.
It's just as well that I'm pretty well revolvered-out, because I doubt any dealer would let me remove the side plate to check out the quality of construction. The modest skills my father imparted to me can sometimes cause results similar to learning there is no Santa Claus.