Picked Up A Few New (Old) S&W Revolvers

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AndrewNS

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Just purchased these revolvers from a fellow Nutter / fellow member of my shooting club.

**If anyone has the S&W book that lists the history of the firearms please post anything you can find about these, I would love to have the info! Also, if anyone knows approximate value I'd love to know that too. I'm sure that I got a great deal, just curious as to how great.**

First is a S&W Model 17-3 K22 Masterpiece (.22lr). It has the wide target hammer and wide target trigger. Serial #8K727**. It is in very good condition, only a few small knicks in the wood on the grips and very slight wear on the end of the barrel.

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Second is a Model 14 K38 Target Masterpiece (.38 S&W Special). It has the wide target hammer and regular trigger, it also has gold color lettering on it (not sure if this is something special or not...). Serial #K3134**. It is in excellent condition, only slight wear on the end of the barrel.

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Very nice guns, I'm jealous!

And no, DO NOT try firing .357mag out of the 38 Spl. (I don't think it'd chamber, but I could be wrong). It's the other way around, 38 spl out of .357mag.
 
lister said:
Very nice guns, I'm jealous!

And no, DO NOT try firing .357mag out of the 38 Spl. (I don't think it'd chamber, but I could be wrong). It's the other way around, 38 spl out of .357mag.
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Ah, ok. Excellent, thanks for the info. I'm not really familiar with the .38 Special / .357 Mag calibers yet, just had the oppertunity to pick these up for a great price and help out a friend who needed the cash so I jumped on them.
 
You've got the classic pairing right there. The 14 you have is also called the Combat Masterpiece. Which likely explains the gold paint in the stamping since it was one of S&W's premier guns of the day. Lots of them saw use in the popular bullseye competitions that were shot frequently in the 50's and up through to recent times.

The K17 was the companion gun for cheaper practice or rimfire competition. The idea was to have two guns that felt the same and handled the same.

A classic ammo for the 14 is a 148gn HBWC pushed by 2.7 to 2.9 gns of Bullseye powder. Recoil with such a load is light, leading is non existent and the holes it punches in target paper looks like it was cut with a clean edged paper punch.

For the 17 you'll want to play around with various ammo but you WILL find that the chambers are formed rather snugly so the cheaper bulk ammo will need a fairly firm press to seat it so the rim primer will fire instead of simply having the hammer finish seating the round. One ammo option that I found works well in mine is CCI Standard Velocity. And needless to say you'll find that the accuracy is a little better with ANY ammo that comes in separate little boxes instead of just loose in a bulk box since the bullets don't get bumped around and become loose or tilted in the casings. The chambers are so snug that it's worth bringing along a .22 bore brush on a short handle. During a longer session with a high round count you'll need the brush to clean the chambers at least once so the ammo can be seated and you can eject the casings without driving the end of the ejector through your hand. Some folks get the chambers polished out a little due to this. But there's a likely effect on the gun's accuracy by doing so. Easier and smarter to just make a brush and short handle part of the range gear.

The 14 is a .38Spl only gun. It won't take the longer .357Mag casings simply because the longer magnums will still be sticking up when the edge of the casing hits the chamber throat edge. So not to worry.

It shouldn't hurt the gun but I'd avoid the use of any sort of +P ammo. But anything in a regular .38Spl in jacketed or lead is fine. As I posted the classic match load uses the HBWC bullets but finding that can be a bit of an issue and it's not cheap when you do find it. But if you are into reloading it's not too hard to find the bullets and Bullseye powder.

There's info out there on dating S&W's but I've never looked into it.

17's in that shape seem to be selling for around $700 to $800. Some are asking more than that but we see them reposted time after time. The 14 is likely somewhere in the same range but don't quote me on that one.

If you're into revolvers you have a very classic pairing there. Even to the point that I'd want to bring along a nice soft cloth that they sit on when not in hand to protect them. Said cloth being laundered frequently to avoid grit in the weave.
 
Hi
Very nice find indeed. They should give you years of fun.

On the value they are probably both worth about the same money with the 17 being a bit easier to sell. On the low side $500.00 to the high side $750.00. Just my two cents on this.

Graydog
 
Thanks again for the info guys!

I am into reloading, so I will be getting dies and components for the .38 Special. I'll start with the load mentioned 2 posts back and work from there.

As for value, I'm just curious, as these guns are now members of my 'never to be sold' list.
 
Post # 10 is pretty accurate. The model 14 will handle +P loads just fine. It sure performs like a champ with hollow base wadcutters as it was the load of choice back then but will handle any .38 special load.

As for value, I would give a slight edge to the model 17 given they are in the same condition. Looking at yours, I would say $700 for the M17 since it has the target hammer & trigger, strangely it has the magna grips and not the target grips (would have the target grips, value would be close to $800). The M14's a $100 less so around $600 again strangely it has the target hammer & grips but the .265" serrated service trigger. I suspect that the trigger on the M14 and the grips on the M17 were changed at some point.
 
I've seen quite a few pictures of folks showing off old 17's and K22's that were stock with the Magnas. I don't have any idea of when or why or how the target grips were put on some guns.

Even though I have big hands I find the target grips to be WAY too fat around the mid and lower area. But the Magnas are too small for me. I seem to end up shooting the best with Hogue grips.
 
BCRider said:
I've seen quite a few pictures of folks showing off old 17's and K22's that were stock with the Magnas. I don't have any idea of when or why or how the target grips were put on some guns.

Even though I have big hands I find the target grips to be WAY too fat around the mid and lower area. But the Magnas are too small for me. I seem to end up shooting the best with Hogue grips.
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Sure, seen them too. The fact is that both OP's S&W's have target features. M17 have the target hammer & trigger but lack the target grips & M14 have the target hammer & grips but lacks the target trigger. Pretty rare for a factory gun that came out of S&W's during those years that had the target options. The guns normally had all the target options unless custom ordered.

Andrew, you could contact S&W to have more info on your two guns if you want to know if they came out of the factory this way.
 
Harry Callahan said:
Sure, seen them too. The fact is that both OP's S&W's have target features. M17 have the target hammer & trigger but lack the target grips & M14 have the target hammer & grips but lacks the target trigger. Pretty rare for a factory gun that came out of S&W's during those years that had the target options. The guns normally had all the target options unless custom ordered.

Andrew, you could contact S&W to have more info on your two guns if you want to know if they came out of the factory this way.
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I know that the grips on both of them are not original. The target grips on the Model 14 I had and put on it, and the Model 17 most likely came with the target grips also, but the previous owner didn't have them any more.
 
RacerRick said:
I have both of those guns. You will love shooting them.
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I already do, the Model 14 is one of the most accurate hand guns I have ever fired. The gun is so well balanced that there is little to no kick and target re-aquisition is fast and simple.

As for the Model 17, I already had one of them and love it, that's why I bought this one. Now I have a pair of them... :)
 
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