Name the K frames please?

"Very difficult to even begin shopping or looking for these if you don't know what size you'll need."

Wish I still had the old package I came across in a box lot of gun stuff...

Figure they were mid 1950s...

It didn't have frame sizes or model numbers.... It had a list of S&W models that it would fit.

Not hard at all.

Just required more package space.
 
Okay, but how many Models of revolvers were S&W cataloging in the mid-1950s... versus the 70s, 80s... 90s... :p
 
OK...

Just K frames...

From the Standard Catalog.

K-22 Masterpiece
K-22 Combat Masterpiece
K-32 Hand Ejector
.32 Military & Police (1948-50 only, may have still been trickling out for a couple of years afterwards)
.357 Combat Magnum
.38 M&P post war production
.38 M&P Airweight (not the military Aircrewman)
K-38 Target Masterpiece
K-38 Combat Masterpiece


Nine variations, so a decent number. The .38 M&P Airweight would have been the odd one out, though, as early production guns had a thinner grip frame and required separate grips.

I didn't count up the number of I, Improved I, or J frames from the same time period, but it would have been a bunch more.

Unfortunately, Supica and Nahaus don't really address when the frame designations really began to enter the public consciousness.

Obviously there were 'hints' to consumers with the introduction of the K-22, K-32, and K-38s, but I've never seen any period information that tied the K to the factory designation for the frame size.
 
Originally posted by Sevens
Okay, but how many Models of revolvers were S&W cataloging in the mid-1950s... versus the 70s, 80s... 90s...
Click to expand...

From the list on Handloads.com, S&W was producing 35 different models of revolver when model numbers were introduced in 1957.

http://handloads.com/misc/Smith.Model.Changes.asp

Also, it's worthy of mention that while grips, speed loaders, holsters, and other accessories are usually (though not always) interchangeable, there are three distinct sub-models of J-Frame:

Chief's Special- traditional DA/SA with spur hammer
Bodyguard- DA/SA with shrouded hammer
Centennial- DAO with fully enclosed hammer (sometimes referred to as "hammerless)

Also, S&W has made at least one L-Frame revolver with a Bodyguard-style shrouded hammer: the M296 .44 Special.
 
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12 heavy brl 38 fixed
Click to expand...

Nope.

The model 12 (actually a KA frame) was a fixed sight aluminum framed airweight 38 special.

Early versions used a frame that was slightly thinner than a regular K frame.

While they look identical, regular K frame grips will leave a gap between the frame and the ears of K frame Magnas.

I believe regular K grips fit the later model 12's.
 
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