S&W K-22, 17, or 18 Nickel?

rballi

Age, value, worth, model,etc. on 4" Pre Numbered K22. Serial Number is K 228###. Is it a K22, 17, or 18? I'm pretty sure it has been re-nickeled but how do I know if it was nickel to begin with. Sights, trigger, hammer, and ejector star are all nickel too. The barrel is pinned and the serial number matches on the butt, under barrel, and on cylinder.Take a look at the gun on these two pages: http://content.communities.msn.com/rballipics/shoebox.msnw?Page=4 http://content.communities.msn.com/rballipics/shoebox.msnw?Page=5 Roy

ladr

A pre-numbered gun is a K-22, the 4" barrel gun is called a conbat masterpiece.The same gun numbered would be a M-18.I was unaware S&W made that in nickel and I will check by book at work and get back with you.Those revolvers are keepers anyway.[This message has been edited by ladr (edited 01-29-2002).]

ladr

Checked my book and the guns was never offered in mickle.The term K-22 refered to all the K Framed 22's/The 4" was called the Combat MasterPiece.The 6" and up was refered to as the Target.The refinish job hinders the value somewhat.Hell of a good shooter.

ladr

Hell, we both could be. The S$W website could be checked. Get the phone off there and call the answer man.I am curious now and checked every reference I have and still could not find it.And I agree with Pig, would not be the first time the book was wrong.

JudgeColt

Blue was the standard finish on Pre-M18 and M18 revolvers, but Smith did offer special order finishes quite regularly in the 1950s, so it is quite possible that there were nickel revolvers sold that were cataloged as blue only. However, this revolver is not one of them. The poor polish job is easily visable from the pictures. Note the rounded corners and edges, and the general loss of the usual "crispness" associated with revolvers of this period. As mentioned, the hammer and trigger were never nickeled from the factory, because nickel is too soft to hold the sear surfaces. Flash chrome was used on hammers and triggers of early stainless guns in order to better match the color, but that was never done on nickel guns. This is just another example of someone spending money to reduce the value of a particular gun.

rballi

Thanks for the info. I traded for it and expected it to only be a shooter, not a collecter. I think the whole gun was dipped rather than parting it out. It still goes bang.Roy