Although not entirely authentic, the .38SPL is a phenomenal shooter in this gun. Otherwise, great review. Kingston, NY 12401 Phone: 866.686.7424 Fax: 877.486.7278 Confession: I have been collecting S&W (and other brands) top-break revolvers since 1972, when you could get one for $25 (Colt SAAs were $200 then). (It turns out, I cant.) Many saw service in the Indian Wars, though they were reported in use as late as the Spanish-American War and Philippine Insurrection. We use a lot of titanium screws where I work. The latch on the Schofield can be operated with one hand while on horseback and empty cases automatically ejected. Includes Smith & Wesson Performance Center factory wooden display case. 2921, circa 1875, .38 caliber 7 inch barrel with fluted . Im just not a visual person. They contrast and set off the mirrored nickel well, and add even more class to a gun with a lot of attention to detail. Unsurprisingly, my hands were a little sweaty during a few of the courses of fire, and the smooth grips didnt help. Too many people think in terms of only what the CNC machine can do, and what tooling they can buy. Beyond that, it appears to be completely accurate, down to every marking and detail. . There may have been a few times when Schofield faced Schofield, as outlaws Jesse and Frank James and Cole Younger also elected to carry these Smith & Wessons. I doubt that they were anywhere near as good as now. Smith & Wessons No. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions. Note: Comment submission is temporarily unavailable while we make improvements to the site. HOME Our Story Who we are Based on Taylors & Co.s website, the $1,522 MSRP is for the walnut grips. I had the gun resting on bags on my shooting bench. Head to the range this week with American Rifleman staff as they discuss a trim little repeater from Savage Arms that comes chambered for the .22 WMR cartridge. You May Also Be Interested In. The cartridge was designated the .45 Schofield. You can legally mail order them. The only thing I did to pimp my revolver was to change out the wooden grips for after-market hard rubber ones. Featured Series Hunting Revolvers LOCATE DEALER GUNSMARTS OUR STORY THE S&W BENCH Shooting four rounds of five shots from each manufacturer, not a single one averaged larger than one inch at 25 yards. and yet I still want one! Sights: Blade Front, Rear sight on back of barrel The 4th was involved in the Geronimo campaign. I found a sucker and. To make matters worse, unlike the czar, the United States infantry was underwhelmed by the Model 3 during its early trials. 3 was used in Australia by police in the States of South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales so its just as much a part of the story of the forging of Australia as a nation as it was in the forging of the United States as a nation. 3 Schofield Revolver The U.S. Army adopted the .44 S&W American caliber Smith & Wesson Model 3 revolver in 1870, making the Model 3 revolver the first standard-issue cartridge-firing revolver in US service. They are an excellent choice for Cowboy Action shooting and equally at home down in Australia where Cowboy Action shooting has been locally re-modeled to become Colonial Action shooting. The Smith & Wesson Model 3 is a single-action, cartridge-firing, top-break revolver produced by Smith & Wesson (S&W) from around 1870 to 1915, and was recently again offered as a reproduction by Smith & Wesson and Uberti.. I shot 60 total rounds for accuracy with this pistol. It is a truly ambidextrous design. I have all manner of widgets for sporterizing a Mauser 98 action, more workholding for a Rem700 style action, tools to hold a bolt in a lathe, and dozens of hand-ground high speed steel cutting tools for the lathe to do a specific job. The gun is ready to fire again. Give a Joe something he can break and he will. The Smith and Wesson Schofield No.3 break top is copied by several makers, notably the Uberti company. He said when he got home looking under a . The Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson, Smith & Wesson Handguns and one of my absolute favorites, Age of the Gunfighter. The American was the first cartridge revolver adopted by the military in 1870, with a purchase of 1,000. Much of that time was spent making fixtures, jigs and tools to make the Model 12. Although Smith & Wesson is best known for its. Almost all of the early No. As an example of a battle where anything in hand became a weapon, let me take you to a Battle in Red Clouds War, the Fetterman Massacre, which occurred in north central Wyoming (about halfway between Buffalo and Sheridan, just west of I-90 you can ask for it in Google Maps) which happened on 21 December 1866. (60) 96% agree - Would recommend. Shot different. & COS EX along with a re-stamping of the guns serial number. I dont think the screws are color cased. The Smith & Wesson Schofield was and still is a well-liked revolver; in fact, many shooters and collectors consider it to be the best of all the top-break revolvers made by S&W. Among other notable figures, both Jesse and Frank James used S&W Schofield revolvers. Theodore Rooseveldts Smith & Wesson is preserved at the NRA National Firearms Museum. Which, for those of us who are revolver fans, is how we like to see cylinders turn: into the window or clockwise. As a former Joe myself, I hate to admit it, but the big army was probably right. Other than the Unique making the nickel finish filthy, I never had any issues with reliability in any way. I think from now on instead of listing the MSRP I should just do it by how many Glocks you could buy with that amount of money. You can also enjoy hickok45 shooting one below. The grips on this short run release are a synthetic resin made to look like mother of pearl. 3 at Ubertis website if you click here. It was during its early trials and use by the US Army that then Major George Schofield took an interest in the sidearm. Beyond the even and smoothly polished nickel, take a look at the screws. Gun #: 919781247 Seller: Wildwood Inc $1,395.00 Full Details 1 Image (s) A RARE US .45 SMITH & WESSON SCHOFIELD FIRST MODEL REVOLVER, SERIAL NO. Its actually heavier than that, measuring at 3lbs 10oz. A few guns were made for the civilian market, but the vast majority of Schofields were military guns. Id like to get one of these, perhaps a plane jane version can be had for much less. Overall * * * * Some tookthe extra step of nickel plating them as well, just like some of the operators did. Did shooters in the latter part of the 19th century really like a nickel finish on their guns? Just two years later Smith & Wesson would further refine the Model 3, incorporating Schofields designs in their New Model No. Florida, Maine, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania received fewer than seven guns each. Top breaks really do it for me but the only one Ive got is a Webley. Its a great look back into history at one of the competitors of the Colt, and one of the foundations of the Smith & Wesson legend as well. Most of those guns were almost certainly sold to other cavalry officers, and as a result Schofield started to build a foundation of support for the Smith & Wesson design. In 1875 The military ordered 3,000 of the new Schofields in what would be a relatively short-lived contract and put them in the hands of the 4th, 9th, and 10th cavalry. The Model 12, as many know, was a very nice pump shotgun released by Winchester in 1912 through 1914. But only a few thousandths. She had no issues at all, other than it was a little heavy for her. In the early 1880s the Benet type (internal) cartridge primer was retired and the modern Boxer type (external) primer was adopted for all future military production of revolver ammunition. A quick tip off to some fakes is the stamping of the company name. When the well-worn Schofields were declared surplus, Wells Fargo stepped up to purchase these revolvers, shortened their barrels and issued them for many years to their agents and employees. Whenever I see a professional head shot poster I look closely in the models eyes. Some time ago in another gun magazine, a writer said something to the effect, "Although Smith & Wesson's Model No. RARE CIVILIAN Antique SMITH & WESSON 2nd Model .45 Cal. He is a contributing editor for The American Rifleman and serves on the Board of Directors of the Smith & Wesson Collectors Association. My only beef with the screws is that theyd look better if they were timed. I shot a total of 200 rounds through this revolver for testing. This mod is opted-in to receive Donation Points. Sadly, he ended his life with one of his own revolvers. The Schofield Revolver was a top break single action revolver produced by Smith and Wesson . The bodies of the dead men were mutilated eyeballs gouged out and put on the ground or on rocks, faces smashed in, genitals stuffed in mouths, etc. Plus a bit extra. Cavalrymen would have been issued walnut grips on their service revolvers, and these authentic grips are available from Taylors & Company as well. Smith & Wesson 32 & 38 Target Grips. This revolver from Taylors & Company is chambered in .38 Special, a cartridge that wasnt available in the Model 3sfrom the factory. It feels much lighter and theres no way I would change a thing about it. This is the case with Wells Fargo Schofields, with faked markings not uncommon. I, another gunsmith, have figured out only about half of the tools he made what they were for, etc. It is absolutely gorgeous, and shoots well, but too pricey. My time to draw and fire six shots into the same 10-inch circle at 15 yards averaged 4.56 seconds. If you require a personal response, please use ourContact page. Smith & Wesson Schofield revolvers are single-action top-break cartridge revolvers named after Major George W. Schofield who redesigned the locking mechanism of the S&W Model No. I just didnt realize how precise that really was. DG, I got really tired of reviewing the same functional, but unattractive guns. The finish is perfect throughout the gun, down to the tiniest parts. It became the standard cartridge of the Army, though the Colt 1873 still was the main issue side arm of the Army. Veteran, army medic, proud Texas son. so expensively wrong. In Army tests of this era, S&W Americans and Russians passed the firing and functioning criteria, but were criticized for their complexity and number of parts. Smith & Wesson 1st and 2nd Model Schofield Revolvers (San Francisco Police Department Marked) Roy Jinks Documented. He chose to look at the problem not by walking in an infantrymans boots, but from the perch of his 10th Calvary saddle. Reintroduced in 2000. The Schofield was quite a popular handgun in the old west, and may have been used by General Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. 3 more cheaply and so they simply made their own copies. Corral fame are among others who are reported to have carried Schofields. The first S&W revolvers to be chambered in 38-40 Winchester (similar to the modern-day .40S&W) came out in 1876, but Smith & Wesson didnt start chambering pistols in .38SPL until 1898. But they rarely agree with each other. Unfortunately, at 25 yards, they lay about three inches to the left of the target. He came across the gun many years ago in an auction and was told it belonged to the James gang. I used a bunch of blue screws today. The company made its humble start in 1963in Gussago, Italywhen Giuseppe Pietta made a commitment to produce guns as authentic and true-to-original as possible. Wrong. While the Colt Model 601 was the first AR-15 to be mass-produced, there were several design variations that came before during the platform's development. You can buy some gun tooling (eg, from Brownells), but theres tons of gun tooling a gunmaker or gunsmith has to make, because it cannot be purchased. Schofields served alongside Colts in the U.S. Cavalry, and for a time, much of the .45 pistol ammunition issued in the frontier army was a shorter cartridge tailored for the shorter Schofield cylinder. Thats not my usual procedure, but it didnt seem fair to lead the bore up really good and then test for accuracy with commercial ammunition. MSRP: $1,522.00. Jon Branch is the founder and senior editor of Revivaler and has written a significant number of articles for various publications including official Buying Guides for eBay, classic car articles for Hagerty, magazine articles for both the Australian Shooters Journal and the Australian Shooter, and he's a long time contributor to Silodrome. Unfortunately, modern has come to mean semi automatic these days 3 revolvers reads like a roll of the royalty of Americas wild west and includes Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Wyatt Earp (who used one during the OK Corral gunfight with the Clanton gang), Pat Garrett, Lil Miss Sure Shot Annie Oakley, and 26th President of the United States Theodore Rooseveldt. It was not until Major Schofields changes were made to the design in 1875 that the US Army decided to order Smith & Wesson No. That lighter weight Remington round scored 3/4. Jesse James was known to carry two pistols on him, one a Colt and one a Schofield. 3 Schofield, a Colt 1873/1973 Peacemaker Commemorative, and a. The vast majority of the 9,000 guns went to the U.S. Army. You will find these Uberti replicas of the Smith & Wesson No. Smith & Wesson began in 1852 with the partnership of Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson. Now, if I was going to just have 1 sidearm, a 4 .357Magnum is what Id do (and I will likely end up doing just that). Today 02:49 AM by Toyman. Just for visual effect, I moved to shooting steel. Theyre not as strong. Jesse James carried serial number 366, and serial number 273 is reported to have been used by a James Gang member, possibly Jesse. I need a no3 in my life. Their investigators were, in particular, seen as the professional gunslingers of the day. You have entered an incorrect email address! Nickel plating can be pretty and durable, or pretty and easily chipped. Except they made a little oversight. Best. How, then, did I miss the paper entirely?