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S&W 19-3 38 Special??? Still Confused
vega75
Member Posts: 132 ✭✭
I have a S&W 19-3 6" bbl that is marked .38 Special. However the Cylinder is countersunk so is it a .357 like it is supposed to be??? I have a 14-3 which is 38 and cylinder is not countersunk. Thanks, Harry
After 6 replies I still do not know what I have!! There is no ejector rod housing but cylinder is counter bored for the .357.Even if the barrel is a .38 , is it still safe to shoot .357? The gun is identical to my K38 except for the model # stamped on crane and the fact that cylinder is counter bored
After 6 replies I still do not know what I have!! There is no ejector rod housing but cylinder is counter bored for the .357.Even if the barrel is a .38 , is it still safe to shoot .357? The gun is identical to my K38 except for the model # stamped on crane and the fact that cylinder is counter bored
Comments
Years back when I was in the business. Distributor sent us a 586 that was double marked on the barrel. Like the stamping machine hit the barrel twice, but out of register. Couldn't believe something like that was passed by the final inspection. It looked really bad, cosmetically.
If they let something like the above, through inspection. I wouldn't be a bit surprised about a Model 19, with a .38 special marked barrel.
Yes, mismarked caliber stamp.
No, M14 barrel on M19 gun.
There was one like the latter on the S&W board but a 19-0.
I figured somebody wanted a 6" M19 before S&W offered them from the factory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_&_Wesson_Model_19
As mentioned above, you can look at the barrel to see what/which caliber its "supposed" to be by the presence/absence of an ejector rod shroud. For illustration see below. The top gun is a Smith 27 (not 19), but it has a shroud over the ejector rod that "should" be present in any model 19. The bottom gun is a Smith 14 in .38 special that does not have this shroud:
In any of these cases, assuming your gun was assembled correctly it still should be perfectly fine to shoot.
In general, this sort of thing comes up pretty often.
A gun store owner near the Smith factory in Springfield MA told me that he sees mismarked guns, and never catalogued variant guns, walk though his store at least several times per year. To prove the point, he brought out and showed me a gun marked Smith model 10 that would chamber .357s.
Apparently, there are a few potential explanations for these sorts of things. Some of these are just random factory errors/mis-stamps that aren't caught by quality control. (I've heard these referred to as "Monday morning specials", implying that the factory workers, still hung over from drinking the night before, make these sorts of mistakes). Some of the odd variant guns are probably either prototypes or rejected custom order guns that "get free" of the factory. Some of these odd guns are undoubtedly assembled from spare/leftover parts by factory gunsmiths, then taken home for personal use. There was a time when that sort of thing was OK by the factory. . .the workers paid for the extra/spare parts and so long as they used the factory tooling during off hours, no problem.
Edit:
quote:After 6 replies I still do not know what I have!! There is no ejector rod housing but cylinder is counter bored for the .357.Even if the barrel is a .38 , is it still safe to shoot .357? The gun is identical to my K38 except for the model # stamped on crane and the fact that cylinder is counter bored
The better term for this is "recessed" cylinders. (IE "counterbore" more accurately refers to a recess cut into the muzzle end of the barrel of a rifle or other gun). In any case, the presence or absence of recessed cylinders does not by itself indicate what caliber is correct for your gun. Smith and Wesson put recessed cylinders into all its older .38 special guns too, and IIRC this practice stopped in the early 1980s. This is wrong and I'm embarassed [V]. I just checked, and apart from a few rare exceptions, only the rimfire and magnum guns had the recessed cylinders. If this gun is labelled as a model 19, has recessed cylinders that fit .357, then there is your answer. Its highly likely to be a .357 model 19 that has been rebarreled with a model 14 6" bbl to create a 6" bbl gun from a more common 4" bbl one.
So now the question is what caliber is your gun actually in?
If you place factory loaded .357 magnum rounds into the gun's cylinder, can you close the cylinder? That's going to be the functional test as to what caliber the gun is built for. If .38 special rounds fit into the gun, but .357 magnum rounds don't, then you have a .38 special gun with a mismarked frame (ie a model 14 marked as a model 19).
If .357 magnum rounds will fit into your gun and you can close the cylinder, then you have a .357 gun (ie a model 19) with a .38 special barrel. Again, this particular "wrong" barrel might have been installed at the factory, or it might have been put onto the gun afterwards (ie to replace a damaged/worn barrel, or just as likely, to turn a 4" barrel model 19 into a 6" barrel gun).
Either way, assuming the gun was OTHERWISE put together correctly, and the barrel installed properly, it should still be safe to fire with .38 special or .357 magnum ammo. . .or at least as safe as any K-frame .357 magnum gun. So far as I know, there is no qualitative difference between .38 special and .357 magnum Smith and Wesson barrels. To the extent that there is any difference between .357 and .38 guns metallurgy, its going to be in the cylinder and frames. Assuming your gun has a .357 magnum cylinder and frame, it should be safe to use .357 magnum ammo.
Really?
I don't have but three .38s that old, but they represent all frame sizes, J, K, and N, and none have recessed rims.
So I would say it is a M19 with a M14 or M15(Older model) barrel that was marked in 38 Spl and did not have the covered ejector rod but had the correct target front sight to match the Adjustable rear sight on the M19 receiver.
A picture would help as would the serial number then it could be looked up in the Standard catalog.
It should be safe to shoot.