Run some searches here on TFL forums for the Smith & Wesson Model 10 Heavy Barrel. What we're talking about here is the gun that started it's legend back at the turn of the century. (no, not the year 2000, the one BEFORE) This was the Smith & Wesson Hand Ejector Military & Police, Model of 1905 and they settled on the 4th Change. This gun went on mostly unchanged, became the S&W Victory Model during WWII and was designated the Model 10 in the late 1950s.
This is the most popular, best selling single handgun model in man's history, some 6-million plus have been made and sold. That number means two things for sure... it means that it is a quality design that was good enough to be made & sold in outrageous volume. And it also means that it's "collectible" value is typically always going to be low unless the condition is MINT and/or it happens to have some rare collection of odd factory features.
That means we can all buy a phenomenal handgun that will last lifetimes with proper care and we can do it for chump change.
I've basically got four of them now, down one as a buddy of mine simply had to have a particular one. And I swapped another one to a different pal for one that he had. These are simply fantastic revolvers. As so darn many of them were built & purchased by all different levels of government/public agencies, many of the ones available on the used market are former issued duty guns. That means a lot of exterior wear, probably a lot of lint & dirt & filth, but an awfully well designed and built gun underneath the lowly appearance. My best shooter of the ones I own is a Model 10-10 from 1994, a former Ohio Dept of Corrections issued revolver. I paid just $250 for it, but I've had it for 3 or 4 years.
