It is a factory nickel K-frame born 1981 (hat tip Roy Jinks, who was in when I called). S&W logo was moved to the left side of the frame to facilitate engraving. Blued, in various barrel lengths, used by U.S. military, various state and local police, FBI, IRS-CID, Hong Kong Police, and many more. Mostly .38 special, but a small run was chambered in .357 magnum. This one sports a pinned barrel, eliminated in 1982. Gas ring changed from yoke to cylinder in this dash.
I received the revolver as a present in 2010. On the first dry fire trigger pull, the tip of one of the prongs on the mainspring claw broke off and the wheel gun became nonfunctional. I replaced it with a factory rated Wolff, also a new strain screw, and installed a slightly reduced weight rebound spring. Cleaned and polished it with nickel-safe products and lubed her up. I put on official S&W store checkered rosewood boot grips, available here. Likely good to go for another 30+ years.
A J-frame in the pocket may be more comfortable, but a K-frame is more comforting. Much easier to shoot, and has that “extra” round. Model 10-7, 2 inch. A .38 caliber M&P of the 20th century:
Shown with K5 thin Kydex pocket holster made by FIST, see here. Rides perfectly in the top pocket of several well-known brands of tactical/cargo pants and shorts. Ammo of choice is current loading of Federal Premium 125 grain NYCLAD® HP (P38MA).
Mmm.
Consider the Eagle Grips Secret Service grips as well. A bit slimmer and still a solid grasping shape. http://www.eaglegrips.com/guns/Secret-Service-SW-KL-Frame-Rou.html
Agreed, especially for pocket carry. Thanks for commenting.
Good to see folks still running Nyclads; it sort of validates my impression of them being a valid choice for non-plus-P guns in this day and age where virtually every .38 Special carry load is +P.
A revolver is not the newest, shiniest, bestest CCW gun out there but they just plain work and isn’t that the whole point in a CCW handgun? Six shot snubbies and the Ruger SP-101 series seem to be the ugly ducklings of the snubby world. People turn up their noses at them but no can ever really give a reason why.
You had me, right until Nyclad 125gr
No idea why that load is so popular besides myth.
I bought a bunch of it when it first came back on the market since it was regular pressure. Shoots to POA in this Model 10. I had been looking for the Federal Gold Medal 148 grain HBWC. In small 357’s or +P 38’s, I use the Speer GDHP 135 grain, #53921.
From looking at Doc Roberts’ testing, and seeing a few WC shootings, I’d go with the WC over the Nyclad. It often fails to mushroom, especially in heavy clothing events, and when it does it tends to fail to penetrate well.
The non-+P Hornady Critical Defense is a better round if one needs to go standard pressure and doesn’t want to go the WC route, but in a model 10 I wouldn’t bother personally.