Help ID this Revolver

B

Brownjoe

CGN Regular
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My Uncle passed away a couple weeks back and left me all of his firearms. Most of them are pretty common but this revolver I haven't seen before. I know it is a S&W in 357mag but im not sure of the model. It also has some sort of aftermarket sight and something under the barrel I have no idea what is it. I have included pics of every marking you can see on the frame/barrel. Thanks for any info you have.







 
It is a Smith and Wesson "L" Frame 586, done up as a PPC target revolver by MD Charlton. Murry did maybe thousands of these over the years for the guys shooting PPC matches. Usually, as this one is, with no single action, double action only. I'm not sure if he removed the single action sear, try pulling the hammer back by hand and see if it will go into the single action notch, if not then it's double action only.


Scott
 
Open the cylinder. The model should be stamped inside on the frame where the cylinder hinge meets.

Whatever the model number is, this gun appears to be one of the guns that Charlton customized into a target pistol years ago. I gather your Uncle was into precision target shooting competition. Not sure what the value would be, but it's a really nice find.
 
m39a2 said:
It is a Smith and Wesson "L" Frame 586, done up as a PPC target revolver by MD Charlton. Murry did maybe thousands of these over the years for the guys shooting PPC matches. Usually, as this one is, with no single action, double action only. I'm not sure if he removed the single action sear, try pulling the hammer back by hand and see if it will go into the single action notch, if not then it's double action only.


Scott
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Scott. It is DAO. I have never owned a revolver before and will probably end up selling it. Any idea what something like this is worth?
 
Brownjoe said:
Thanks for the info Scott. It is DAO. I have never owned a revolver before and will probably end up selling it. Any idea what something like this is worth?
Click to expand...

OP,
Can't tell if it's a L frame as previously suggested or a K frame, which was a more common conversion, from the 70- late 80s. The bull barrel makes IDing hard due to a lack of scale.
As highlander said, open the cylinder and look at the frame at the crane. The model and series should be there.
Custom PPC guns are super accurate. The DAO trigger is super light and smooth and a joy to shoot. However, one thing you should know is that most are tuned to shoot extremely low charged 148gr wadcutter rounds in .38SPL. Others may chime in here but I've never shot a PPC tuned revolver with anything but 148gr HBWC and so little powder that you can almost see the bullet leave the gun!

PS the worth depends on the market demand. PPC shooting seems to be decreasing in popularity in recent years. I've seen not quite as nice examples listed here for around $600 but they were K frames. L frames should fetch a bit more. However, if I were you, I would keep the gun. It looks well made, MD Charlton is a very good smith for this type of gun. You can use it to teach newbies as there is virtually no recoil due to the weak round and heavy barrel.
 
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I have a similar gun, as noted built by Murray. The DA should be about as good as it's possible to get, but the exact load for this gun is very specific. 2.9 grains of W231 under a 148 grain HBWC (or reversed BBWC) sparked by a Federal small pistol primer (this is a must, the gun is not guaranteed to fire with other brands of primer). With that load, even in my hands, the gun will shoot 10 ring on a PPC target all day at 25 yards - better shooters do the same at 50. They are truly hand crafted functional masterpieces, built by one of the top revolver smiths in the world. Before you sell it, do yourself a favour and take it shooting, it'll show you what you're capable of.
 
These pistols are a bit hard to sell these days, Thou I have been selling more wheel guns last while.
I have used that load that was listed for many years in my revolvers and a smith 51 I use to shoot
in my personal range. After all, how much power , speed does it take to make a hole in paper, and a lb. of powder lasts a long time.
To all you Glock guys out there, shoot a gun like this sometime and you will be surprized
A lot of these where built up on model 10 S-W, k frame.
P.S. I would think $500.oo- 600.oo tops for a k , more for a l frame.
You never get the money back that is spent on these guns.
 
marshall said:
These pistols are a bit hard to sell these days, Thou I have been selling more wheel guns last while.
I have used that load that was listed for many years in my revolvers and a smith 51 I use to shoot
in my personal range. After all, how much power , speed does it take to make a hole in paper, and a lb. of powder lasts a long time.
To all you Glock guys out there, shoot a gun like this sometime and you will be surprized
A lot of these where built up on model 10 S-W, k frame.
Click to expand...
Or the M-15 Combat Masterpiece. I've heard the latest gen of PPC shooters have chosen the L frame as the base gun hence my uncertainty of what the OP's gun origin could be.
PS. I'm a Glock guy but I was shooting around the time when PPC was the rage. And, yes, these guns are not your stock DA revolvers! The accuracy is phenomenal. The last one I shot a year ago was a K-38 M Charlton gun and off hand, I was hitting clay pigeon pieces at almost 50yds!
 
Still Alive, Good points, I was talking about all the new guys out there that have to have a 9mm or 40, 45 as their first pistol and
wonder why all the hole are god knows where, 22 rf are not cool and wheel guns are for us "old guys", I could tell a story about the
little fellow that just had to have a s-w 500 , but that is for another time.
BTW about 5 years ago , I saw a old fellow shoot off hand, my stock 38 python at 50yrds into the 10 ring on a 25 yrd pistol target.
I can do that with a bag and scope.
 
marshall said:
Still Alive, Good points, I was talking about all the new guys out there that have to have a 9mm or 40, 45 as their first pistol and
wonder why all the hole are god knows where, 22 rf are not cool and wheel guns are for us "old guys", I could tell a story about the
little fellow that just had to have a s-w 500 , but that is for another time.
BTW about 5 years ago , I saw a old fellow shoot off hand, my stock 38 python at 50yrds into the 10 ring on a 25 yrd pistol target.
I can do that with a bag and scope.
Click to expand...
Funny thing Marshall
It seems there are the good old days WRT to marksmanship as there are to other things.
Older regular shooters seem to understand marksmanship and the skill and practice needed to attain it. We started on .22s, worked on sight picture, trigger pull etc. Younger and new shooters just want to make loud noises and big holes on paper then wonder why they don't hit anything!
 
Well said.
getting back to the original post , these gun are priced all over the chart, but I don't see them selling for high price,
unless you can find some one that really wants that gun
The same can be said for 38 super 1911's, $1000,s into them and no sales for them.
 
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