How Did I Do?

I put a lot of my climbing and repealing gear and other backpacking stuff I'm not using on craiglist. I was asking $325 or trades. Anyway I ended up trading all of the stuff to a collage student for a smith and wesson .357. This may have been a poor trade because I know every little about different models of revolvers and their value. To be honest I've never even been interested in revolvers until I held this one. It feels very balanced in hand and is comfortable. The little bit I know about older S&W revolvers is that the ones with the pinned barrels are worth more. (which this one has). Other than a little holster wear near the muzzle the blueing is in very good shape.
I think it is a model 13-1??

I had a feeling it was a safe trade. I kind of feel bad that it wasn't a fair trade for the other person, but I wont lose any sleep over it either. I went to the bx and picked up some .357 snap caps on the way home, so I could dry fire it at the house safely. This thing has the best trigger pull I've ever felt on a stock pistol the amount of machining and fitting of parts that went in to building this firearm is pretty impressive. I have held some newer S&W revolvers and they definitely do not make them like this anymore.

while I was cleaning this revolver this evening I remembered that he said it was his grandfathers gun. I kind of took a moment to think about that. This man obviously didn't know the value of what he had nor did it hold much sentimental value to him. This made me think about what it would be like to hand down a firearm to my future children or grandchildren. I care for the firearms I have acquired and have been pasted down to me. These items hold both sentimental and monetary value for me. If I passed down a firearm, I would like to know that it would be cherished and hold the same meaning to that person as it did when I owned it. I know I would be a little upset if I found out my grandson traded a nice handgun like that S&W for a bunch of items that over a decade or less will have become out dated or need to be replaced. Granted I'm only 23 years old but I'm starting to realized that I was raised differently than a lot of my peers and I have my parents and grandparents to thank for that.

The other thing I realized is that someday I want to get a S&W model 15 -1,-2, -3. Mostly because it had a long history with the USAF and I think the Beretta M-9 is inferior to my Sigs. :smiley_arrogant:

Huckleberry Finn said:

Should shoot .38 too, right?

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Yes, any .357 will fire the .38 Special. The .38 super and .38 Smith are different cartridges.

Sam do you know how to date S&W serial numbers?

hickslawns said:

Nice trade. Since he was trading for repelling gear it doesn't sound too.fishy. if he was selling outright for cheap I might think drug addiction. You think he was feeding you a line and it is just something he took in on trade? Did it function properly?

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He seemed like he was a trust worthy enough person. It functions perfectly, locks up tight and shoot pretty good too. The two flyers were from me trying to figure out were to hold on the target. The 6 in the center is probably what I can do constantly with it now at 7 yards. It is very controllable with both .38 Special and .357 Mag.



I did notice one really strange thing. I shot 75 rounds threw this S&W Model 13-1 then I picked up my Sig p229 and fired 50 rounds on my swinging steel plate. The motion of the slide cycling caught me a little off guard when I took the first couple shots with the sig.