Guy Miner
Master Loader
- Apr 6, 2006
- 17,500
- 4,691
Long ago I thought the .357 magnum Model 19, particularly with the 2.5" barrel was about the coolest handgun ever. Eventually I bought one, hard used, and used it even harder. It was my outdoors companion. Easily carried on my belt while I prowled the Cascades hiking, hunting, fishing, skiing or on my mountain bike. Felt well armed while I was carrying it.
Returning home from the range one day I found the entire rear sight assembly was missing! :shock: Not in the range bag. Not in the truck. Went back to the range where I'd been shooting it, and no rear sight to be found. Apparently it worked loose and fell off at some unknown point. Dang. I shelved the well-worn, but still cool revolver for a while. Called my old friend Scott King, a local gunsmith and he mentioned that he had some used sights, and one might be found that would work. This morning at his shop, we combed through the old sights, found one that fit, and OUTSTANDING! My old .357 is back in action!
I asked him about re-bluing the old revolver and he had two cautions. The first was that he couldn't match the original S&W blue, that it just wouldn't be as good as new, and the other was that it would cost about $250... We left it at a simple sight replacement. The Model 19 is just going to have to get along without a re-blue for now.
Doggone I'm glad I've got my old revolver back in action! :grin:
Guy
Returning home from the range one day I found the entire rear sight assembly was missing! :shock: Not in the range bag. Not in the truck. Went back to the range where I'd been shooting it, and no rear sight to be found. Apparently it worked loose and fell off at some unknown point. Dang. I shelved the well-worn, but still cool revolver for a while. Called my old friend Scott King, a local gunsmith and he mentioned that he had some used sights, and one might be found that would work. This morning at his shop, we combed through the old sights, found one that fit, and OUTSTANDING! My old .357 is back in action!
I asked him about re-bluing the old revolver and he had two cautions. The first was that he couldn't match the original S&W blue, that it just wouldn't be as good as new, and the other was that it would cost about $250... We left it at a simple sight replacement. The Model 19 is just going to have to get along without a re-blue for now.
Doggone I'm glad I've got my old revolver back in action! :grin:
Guy