Found a nice S&W 28-2 today

"Colonel Douglas Wesson (grandson of Daniel Wesson) worked with ballistic experts to come up with a new cartridge..."

Phil Sharpe and Elmer Keith had both been after S&W for several years to develop an even more potent cartridge based on a lengthened case.

Sharpe, particularly, did a lot of the initial ballistics work, especially with bullets that both he and Elmer Keith designed.

S&W was apparently at first a hard sell on the project, and didn't want to pursue it. They felt that the .38-44 was more than enough cartridge and, that in the middle of the Depression, it simply wouldn't sell.

I've seen several possible scenarios about how S&W finally decided to pick up the project, with the most plausible being that Sharpe cornered Wesson, either in writing or in person, and sold him on the concept.
 
Back
Top