Gun show find...

In the world of shooters, I constantly run into people who complain about gun shows. The guns aren’t free. Ammo prices are no better than they find on the internet. New Glocks are no cheaper than they are at Gunmart.

If this is what you are looking for at a gun show, then you are probably going to be disappointed.

For a collector, on the other hand, there is probably no place more exciting. Comparing a gun show to, say, your local gun store or an internet auction site is like comparing an African safari to a canned hunt over a baited field. At the gun show, you never know what you’re going to find.

This time around, I had a specific mission. A local dealer was going to be set up, and he was holding a gun back for me. It was a 1955-vintage K-22 Combat Masterpiece. I needed a shootable medium-frame .22 Smith with a 4” barrel to use as a trainer for my fighting K-frames, and I had a military-marked Remington 12 gauge that was gathering dust; the trade should be fairly straightforward.

After a little confusion, I found his table and, after a brief flurry of paperwork, for me the show was over. Now I was just going to be following BobbiX and Shootin’ Buddy around, putting noseprints on showcases and drooling over guns I couldn’t afford.

I ran into Frank W. James and we chatted a bit (this was especially cool because Shootin’ Buddy had just picked up Farmer Frank’s book Effective Handgun Defense and let me borrow it; I was planning on reading it when I got home…) Then we bumped into Caleb and wandered through the rest of the show as a group.

When we finally got to the far end of the huge 1500-table show, we made our final plans. Bobbi was out front, examining the Sistema she’d just picked up. Caleb and I would loiter at the end of one aisle while Shootin’ Buddy completed a personal errand, then he would pick up a half-case of .22LR and we’d rendezvous with BobbiX and split.

While Caleb and I were waiting for Shootin’ Buddy to return, my Smith Sense (closely related to Spider Sense) caused me to glance down at a handgun a guy was carrying past.

Huh. A nickel taper-barrel 4” Smith.

With fixed sights.

And a shrouded ejector rod.

Cue heartbeat: (Thump… thump… thump…)

What kind of Smith has a tapered barrel and a shrouded ejector rod?

It’s not an M&P… or a Model 13… Damn those wretched plastic faux stag grips. Is that an N-frame? It’s hard to tell; the guy’s paw is huge. It looks like a medium frame, but…

“Excuse me sir, what do you have there?”

(ThumpThumpThump…)

“Oh, this? It’s a S&W Model 21 in .44 Special…”

(THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP)

“...it was my dad’s. He was a probation officer. He bought it off a retired cop.”

I tried not to gulp visibly. “Uhhh… Shame it’s been re-nickeled. How much were you needing to get out of it?”

“Oh, I know it’s a little ugly, but it sure shoots good. reckon I need $350.”

(TH--THUMP!)

Oh jeez. Oh jeezojeezojeez. I don’t have a dime to my name, but they will never let me into the SWCA if I let this go by… Please gawd let Shootin’ Buddy still have some cash on him…

“My friend should be back in a minute and… uh… he might be interested.”

“Okay. You know, this is a neat old police gun. It’s got the guy’s badge number engraved on the back…”

Shootin’ Buddy got back. I passed the gun to him, and as the guy was telling him how much he wanted for it, I turned my back to the dude and tried to flash subtle hand signs at my friend, hoping he’d realize I was indicating the gun was worth at least five bills and not signaling for a curveball low and away.

The deal was closed.

I knew I had in my hand, at the very least, an ultra-rare and elusive Smith Model 21. Perhaps a Model of 1950 .44 Special Military Model.

When I got home, I broke out the Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson and got to deciphering…

Wait a minute… It has a mushroom-head ejector rod… And no “S”-prefix on the serial number… This is a pre-war gun. With a shrouded ejector rod, but not a Triple Lock…

It’s a .44 Hand Ejector 3^rd Model; aka the “Wolf & Klar” model, so named for the distributor that ordered them. With what appears to be “something.P.D.” and a badge number factory-stamped on the backstrap. 300 four-inch .44 HE’s were shipped to the Providence, Rhode Island PD in the 1930’s, and this gun’s serial number falls into that date range…

I need to get a Roy Jinks letter on this gun.

Maybe you didn’t get a good price on a Kel-Tec 9mm at the gun show this weekend, but you can’t tell me that good deals can’t be found there.

Because you’d be wrong.