Smith & Wesson M&P 38 Spl.

[vmtz]

http://www.nmia.com/~daykin/fal_files/sw_mp1.jpg

New toy. Built around 1919 or 1922

Fr. Vince

[shlomo]

I see you've been getting into some of the older, historical pieces.

New direction?

[vmtz]

Seems to be.

Fr. Vince

[shlomo]

I see you don't have much to say about it. Very well, then.

[vmtz]

they just seem to be catching my interest lately. I took it out today and shot it. It is a nice shooter, but the sites are hard to see.

Fr. Vince

[shlomo]

I'll bet that the sights are hard to see--thumbnail front, and a notch rear, in nickel.:eek: Nice to see you heating up the old girl again. Just be gentle.

I like the old stuff myself. I used to like to collect, shoot and mess around with .32 autos made from around 1900 to 1925. A lot of really odd and interesting mechanisms to study and play with. I still have a couple around, but play mostly with rifles these days.

If you get any other old and interesting stuff, you oughta post something about it. A lot of the kiddies on here don't know anything about stuff that was made before Mylie Cyrus hit puberty. You'll give em some history.

[BUFF]

Vince:

Be mindful of the type of cartridges you fire in this gun. Smith & Wesson didn't begin to heat treat the cylinders for all their revolvers until 1925 or so. Jacketed bullets at Plus-P pressures would likely crack an old, brittle cylinder.
I would limit my shooting of the M&P you have to standard pressure, lead bullet loads. No jacketed hollow points, no Plus-P or Hi-Speed stuff.

The very best ammo choice for this gun may well be one of the good commercial 148 gr. hollow-base wadcutter target bullets loaded to 'mid-range' pressures. One of the commercial loads from Winchester, Federal or Remington-Peters would prove to be very accurate and also very gentle on your Smith & Wesson Military & Police revolver.

If you are building your own cartridges, I would obtain swaged lead bullets from Speer and/or Hornaday, some Bullseye, Unique and 231 powders and assemble low velocity, low pressure cartrdges.

While double ended or hollow base wadcutters are fine for paper, you may find that using the swaged round nose and semi-wadcutter bullets may give you more long range plinking enjoyment.

My nice old K frame target pistol is a Smith & Wesson .38 Hand Ejector Target Model 1905, Second Change. 6-1/2 inch barrel, round butt, plack plastic S&W stocks, with those tiny little adjustable target sights. It was made in 1908, I bought it from a retired deputy in 1990. Those tiny sights make it a real challenge to shoot good groups.

I sometimes shoot the 148 grain hollow base wadcutters from Speer and Hornaday in this gun, usually powered by 2.8 grains of Bullseye. Top of bullet seated just slightly below case mouth with a good roll crimp. For a bit more thump, say, on rabbits or ground grizzlies (ground squirrels or picket pins), I use the Speer and Hornaday swaged 1158 gr. SWC loaded over 3.5 gr. of Bullseye, 5.0 gr. of 231 or 5.4 gr. of Unique.

[vmtz]

The book we looked at said that they heat treated them starting at serial # 3xx,xxx, I don't recall the exact number, but was was like 20,000 less than mine.

I shot 160 gr molycoated lead round nose bullets over 3.7 gr of Universal.

It is a good load, but I don't think it is too hot.

Fr. Vince

[Hoot G]

Sweet!

According to the Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson heat treating cylinders on the M&P began in the ".38 Military & Police Model of 1905 -4th Change", approximately s/n 316,648.


Speaking of old S&W revolvers, that was a long time after this old ".38 Military & Police 1st Model / Model of 1899 Army-Navy Revolver" (shipped to a hardware store in New Orleans in 1901).

http://homepage.mac.com/hoot/.Pictures/1899/7095.jpg


Yours is a lot prettier!

[vmtz]

Thanks, mine is SN 357,XXX.

Your's is pretty cool. Nothing like some honest ware to make a firearm interesting.

Fr. Vince

[shlomo]

Originally posted by vmtz
...honest ware...

Fr. Vince

You do this just to raise my blood pressure, don't you?

[vmtz]

Who me?

Fr. Vince

[shlomo]

Yes, you.

Good thing there's only two letters in J.D. It means ya got at least an even chance of getting that right.

[vmtz]

Oh wear o wear r u?

Fr. Vince

[Hoot G]

If only they could talk! I imagine there are some tails better off untold though...

:biggrin: @ shlomo

[shlomo]

U mean "untolled", don't U?:wink:

[Hoot G]

It was late. I was tired. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

:D