What can you tell me about my Dad's spoon...

[A930Rocket]

What can you tell me about my Dad's spoon? Pictures when I get home.

It's at least 50 years old I'm thinking.

On the box end:
Smith and Wesson
38 Chiefs Special
Nickel * * Round Butt * * 2 inch

On butt of gun:
78xxx

Inside the yoke: 97257

Right side below cylinder:
Made in USA
Marcas Registradas
Smith & Wesson
Springfield, Mass

On right side of barrel:
38 S&W SPL

On left side of barrel:
Smith and Wesson

The grips look to be plastic and are white with brown accents. A larger grip would help fit my hand. Are they interchangeable?

Any other places to look on it for info/numbers:

[Jim Bremner]

remove the #'s from the butt of the spoon on the post. What spoon, I don't have any spoons.

[futuresoptions]

Sounds like a cool keepsake... From a tactical point of view, unless you're 5ft in front of your target, you ain't gonna hit it...

[mossguy]

Grips sound like they might be stag.

[A930Rocket]

It's probably not worth much, but looks too nice to shoot. I'll just save it for old times sake.

Some pix...

[mossguy]

Artificial Stag. Nice spoon! Go ahead and shoot it. I doubt that you can affect its value by using it.

[HardDrive]

Originally Posted by mossguy

Artificial Stag. Nice spoon! Go ahead and shoot it. I doubt that you can affect its value by using it.

This.

Nice gun. Wonderful keepsake.

Nothing wrong with shooting it a bit. Clean it afterwards.

[targa911S]

What they ^^^^^ all said. Nice spoon. I like .38 SP myself.

[lm6y]

A quick Google search showed a five digit serial number with the beginning of 75001 would be about 1956 or so.

S/N 75000 ended in 1955. 117770 started in 1957

Head over to the S&W Forums, and ask. I'm sure someone will be able to tell you.

[ODDJOB UNO]

appears to be a nickel model 60. as far as the grips..........find some hogue combat grips for it. may have to cut and trim them but they are real nice to behold.

go buy a 250 rd box of remington 158gr's and go blasting.


or sell it to me if ya dont like it.

go to smith und vesson.com get their telephone # call them with serial # and they will tell you when it was mfg'd.

[azasadny]

My father is giving me his S&W Model 60 that is like new in box, never been fired! Great little wheel gun, especially since it belongs to your father!

[Joe Bob]

I have that same model in .357. Will never go out of style, jam or fail to knock something down. Surprisingly accurate.



BTW, if you have $50 burning a hole in yer pockets....COA. http://www.smith-wesson.com/wcsstore/SmWesson2/upload/other/LOA.pdf

[ODDJOB UNO]

the secret to these smiths is to have them "buttered" up as far as the trigger action. once ya do one you will be amazed at how they shoot. also chamfer the cylinders for yer speed loaders to just drop in effortless.

i have done this to all my smith wheel spoons and would not even think of using one without doing the action job.

the gunsmith.com has a nice menu to follow for any capable smithy to follow.

grandma has a model 60 lightweight with lazar beam grips

daughter has model 60 blue frame

her daughter has model 60 stainless


and i have a poo full of model 60's in 38 and 357. ya just cant HAVE ENUFF

MODEL 60's!



samo drill with my model 29 and 629. once ya spring for the "butter" job, you will flip at how nice they really can be.

[John Rogers]

Everybody gets excited by the semi-autos and forget they can jam, stove-pipe, forget there is not a round in the chamber, etc,etc. Revolvers do not have those problems! I was leaving the hospital a year or so ago and was walking out next to a CHP sergeant and noticed he had one of the S&W 327 TRR8 8-shooters. I mentioned that you hardly ever see anyone without a SIG or Glock and he noted he liked the idea of being able to just pull the trigger again if there was a miss-fire! We have two of the old school Colt detective specials at home.

[Jim Bremner]

Originally Posted by john rogers

Everybody gets excited by the semi-autos and forget they can jam, stove-pipe, forget there is not a round in the chamber, etc,etc. Revolvers do not have those problems! I was leaving the hospital a year or so ago and was walking out next to a CHP sergeant and noticed he had one of the S&W 327 TRR8 8-shooters. I mentioned that you hardly ever see anyone without a SIG or Glock and he noted he liked the idea of being able to just pull the trigger again if there was a miss-fire! We have two of the old school Colt detective specials at home.

Wait, if a revolver has a FAIL to fire and you pull the trigger a second time it will not strike the primer of the failed to fire round. It will turn the cylinder to the next round.

If my 1911 fails to fire on a round I can pull the hammer back for a second go but I train with snap caps mixed in with my normal ammo mixed in the mags. Fail to fire = pull slide back and eject failed ammo and fire good. 2,500 rounds and the only fail to fire my 1911 have had was once one of my sons loaded a round in the mag back-wards! 45acp chambered 75% of the way.

I'll keep the 3 second reload on my 1911 over the longer reload for a revolver.

I have had failure to feed with aftermarket 10 round mags. The same mag works in my Marlin Camp 45 but fails to work on my 911. It jams the whole action up and is a PIA to remove. The 3 "bad" 10 round mags are tapped around the bottom so that I know that they do not work with my 1911.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by Jim Bremner

Wait, if a revolver has a FAIL to fire and you pull the trigger a second time it will not strike the primer of the failed to fire round. It will turn the cylinder to the next round.

Wait - that's exactly what we want to happen, and I'm sure what the old trooper was getting at. With absolutely no fiddly-dicking around whatsoever, there's another (presumably good) round under the hammer. Us revolver guys are not looking for a second go at the one that just failed. We'll leave that to you semi-auto guys. The revolver man (who can just keep yanking the trigger) will have three or four rounds in you before you get things squared away again.

Originally Posted by Jim Bremner

If my 1911 fails to fire on a round I can pull the hammer back for a second go but I train with snap caps mixed in with my normal ammo mixed in the mags. Fail to fire = pull slide back and eject failed ammo and fire good. 2,500 rounds and the only fail to fire my 1911 have had was once one of my sons loaded a round in the mag back-wards! 45acp chambered 75% of the way.

I'll keep the 3 second reload on my 1911 over the longer reload for a revolver.

The vast majority of civilian self defense situations are settled long before that first reload would ever enter the picture.

A930Rocket, you are a lucky man. Beautiful little revolver. You can't possibly hurt it by shooting it, so you might as well. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by its accuracy and all around shootability. Those are really fun little guns.

[Jim Bremner]

When my Dad was looking at pistols the first thing that I thought for him was a 4" 357 revolver.

We went to the range and it didn't mesh with him Flames coming out of the gap between the cylinder and barrel bothered him. He tried Glock, Hk,Sig,CZ75 ( I really thought that I would like it. Ended up with a 1911 fitting him best.


It was his first pistol since a 22 magnum derringer. I always wondered if the 22 magnum was any stronger than the 22 LR out of a 2" barrel.

[A930Rocket]

Thanks for info guys and I'll take it sooner or later to the range.

One more question - It's a J frame from what I've read, correct?

[ODDJOB UNO]

yes its a "J" frame. when you call smith they will give you production date blah blah. ask for an owners manual usually free or damn near free.

also you can look at smith und vesson .com and see if that particular model will accept +P rounds.

think very very hard and FIND OUT FER SURE if it WILL ACCEPT +P rounds before using them. or it will GO KA BOOM and HURT LIKE POO! like really really HURT!

[A930Rocket]

What's a +P round and what's the alternative?

I'm spoon knowledge impaired.