Marko Kloos
Inactive
Thanks to our recently acquired Standard Catalog of *&* (Second Edition), I finally figured out the origin of my oddball Model 19-5. It's a 4" variant with a round butt, which is odd, since the 2.5" guns usually have the round butt, and the 4" ones uniformly have square butts. There are round-butt variants out there which have been rebarreled to 4", but mine does not seem to be one of them according to gunsmith expertise.
There was only one variant known to me with a 4" RB configuration, which was the 1965 Office of Naval Intelligence M19, but those were marked ONI on the left side of the frame. Mine has no markings, and is a 19-5, which wasn't even made until 1983.
Turns out there's another variant which fits the Wanted poster perfectly: a 19-5 variant with a 4" barrel and a round butt, with no markings, made in the 1980s for the U.S. Department of State. I'd say we have a match...
Here's what mine looks like:
There was only one variant known to me with a 4" RB configuration, which was the 1965 Office of Naval Intelligence M19, but those were marked ONI on the left side of the frame. Mine has no markings, and is a 19-5, which wasn't even made until 1983.
Turns out there's another variant which fits the Wanted poster perfectly: a 19-5 variant with a 4" barrel and a round butt, with no markings, made in the 1980s for the U.S. Department of State. I'd say we have a match...
Here's what mine looks like:
