Good news from the gun show...

One of the seven guns I acquired this past weekend was a S&W K22 Masterpiece with a three digit serial number, making it a very early production gun...I had a hunch it was special when I looked it up at home and saw it was manufactured in 1946, one of the very first postwar sporting arms...It's blued, 6" barrel, all numbers match (barrel, frame, cylinder, extractor star and even the walnut grips)...It came with a period correct and model specific box that may or may not be original (they didn't print serial numbers on boxes in those years)...

So playing a hunch, I asked S&W's official historian, Roy Jinks, today when this gun shipped from the factory...S&W does not keep records of dates of manufacture, only shipping dates...He looked it up and said this one shipped March of 1947, two months after I arrived on the scene...That makes this gun not only very valuable in its own right, but it is now my birth year gun...Somebody roll out the cake, and light the candles!...:party:...Ben

[Note: It can be scene in this group photo of the weekend haul at the top left of the first pic...Its box is second from the top in pic two...The third photo is a newly remanufactured Marlin Camp Carbine in .45 ACP which I've been looking for diligently for some time...Most of the vintage Marlins I find are close to paperweight status with cracked stocks from the heavy recoil...I bought this prototype rebuild from the manufacturer for less money than I see on most of the originals I've found...]

Attachment 38337 Attachment 38338 Attachment 38339

The prototype carbine is a lot different than the original. Are they making them like that now?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mike

The prototype carbine is a lot different than the original. Are they making them like that now?

---

This is just one designer's idea...The only part of the original Marlin is the lower receiver with trigger assembly, M-14 style safety and magazine well...It takes standard 1911 magazines...It keeps the original Marlin S/N but the similarity stops there...I just took a chance with it because the maker (who has a manufacturer's FFL) was in a dollar crunch, and the price was right...I ordered some iron sights for it...The straight tube collapsible stock won't let me get my head low enough for a good sight picture, but I think I have that figured out...I'll know when my parts come in...:rpg:...Ben

Very nice Ben :cool:

There is one of those camp rifles NIB on Gun Broker now, you could make it a pair:pimpgrin:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dave Grubb

There is one of those camp rifles NIB on Gun Broker now, you could make it a pair:pimpgrin:

---

This one?...Judging by the bids, it's already priced beyond what I paid...It's all yours, Dave...:nono:...Ben

That's it Ben and thanks for the invite---but I'm more into guns with two barrels these days :hatoff: