Safe shooting

Simple Man

Is there a way to safely shoot a unproven gun? I brought a Smith and Wesson that is over sixty years old. There are no gun smiths in my area. Kenny

Hawk Carse

There are used gun checkout procedures published here and there like:
{Elsewhere}

Of course it would have been best to do the inspection before you bought. But sixty years is not old for a name brand gun and it must have been at least superficially sound to attract your attention.

nononsense

Hawk Carse,

I copied the link supplied and e-mailed it to the Original Poster. This is the procedure to use in the future per the Posting Guidelines.

Best.

Simple Man

Thanks nononsense, I got the post. Kenny

beantownshootah

quote:Originally posted by curlyrai
Is there a way to safely shoot a unproven gun? I brought a Smith and Wesson that is over sixty years old. There are no gun smiths in my area. Kenny


There is always the long string on the trigger and hide behind a tree technique. [;)]

In general, I'll say if the gun looks externally OK (not abused), and all the parts look intact (eg barrel, forcing cone, cylinder), and the gun has a tight lockup (check each chamber individually, also check for "end shake"), and the mechanical function seems OK, and you have no other specific reason to suspect the gun isn't safe, I'd assume it is safe to fire ordinary ammunition in its caliber.

Its pretty hard to mess up a revolver in such a way that the gun will be unsafe, that won't be apparent if you do a close check.

Gunsmiths have a more attuned eye for looking at these things, but they don't have magic powers.

In general, not only do WWII era (or earlier) guns shoot fine, lots of people believe that the older Smiths are better, in the 'they don't make them like THAT' anymore sense of days of hand-finishing. A 60 year old gun is still a modern gun in most every sense, particularly from a reputable American manufacturer like Smith and Wesson.

slumlord44

One way to look at it, not necessarily the right way, is that if it did not blow up the last time it was fired, and the gun looks good, why would it blow up now??

jhimco

What about having it checked by a competent gunsmith- that sounds like an idea.quote:Originally posted by curlyrai
Is there a way to safely shoot a unproven gun? I brought a Smith and Wesson that is over sixty years old. There are no gun smiths in my area. Kenny