You Will Shoot Your Eye Out

In 1969, the decision-makers at Colt Firearms had to face facts. The company had survived WWII with mountains of 1911A1 pistols for the government then made it through the ’50s with an elegant new .357 called the Python, as well as an equally elegant return of the Peacemaker.

It had also managed to return the best of the pre-war revolvers, dropping the huge New Services and tiny Pocket Positives. Along with updated semi-autos like the Gold Cup (.45s and .38s) and Match Target Woodsman, it was a product line focused strongly on high-quality fit-and-finish and match-grade accuracy.

Colt sold a lot of guns, particularly when they started into the so-called “Commemorative” business. But the legendary first maker of revolvers in America did not have a truly competitive service revolver in their catalog by 1969.

The company did have two basic, six-shot, .38 Special models in the line, both originally designed in the early 20th century. The first, called the Official Police, had a medium-to-heavy frame and was made in a variety of barrel lengths.

There was also a smaller sixgun called the Police Positive, the frame of which served as the basis for such well-received models as the Cobra and Detective Special. Building any of these revolvers was a tedious process in which skilled craftsmen assembled guns from parts, which needed fitting in order to work.

Colt had the guys to do this, but time passed, and only a few new fitters wanted to take this on as a lifetime job. All the fitters were necessarily skilled enough as to deserve a fatter paycheck. In time, building a plain fixed-sight 4″ Official Police took just about the same hand fitting as a Python. Economically, this made no sense at all, and Colt began to look for a new way to make a new gun.

Enter the Mk III series of new medium-frame revolvers. They were designed to compete with Smith & Wesson’s K-Frame series and had more than a passing resemblance to them. Built from the ground up as a strong, modern, easy-to-build police service revolver, the Mark IIIs were the first handguns to make use of sintered metal technology in the crafting of the action parts.

While this system did work and lowered production costs, the sintered-metal construction was regarded with suspicion by too many customers. It matters little that the guys who bought and used the Mark IIIs were rewarded with great ergonomics, long service life and impressive accuracy. These Colts may have been quality handguns, but the design was probably too little and way too late. Even a similar series of guns called the Mark Vs was not well received.

When the Mark III guns were current, I owned several of them and fired others. The flagship of the line was the Trooper Mark III, a DA/SA revolver with hand-filling target grips, adjustable Accro or Elliason sights and a graceful ribbed barrel.

One of my fellow deputy sheriffs carried one of these guns with the (very) rare 5″ barrel. I confess to a sinful coveting of my neighbor’s goods, and although I tried to euchre that gun away from him, I failed. It was a fine example of gun-making, with superior balance and great trigger action. I did own and use an 8″ Trooper Mark III, which is large in my memory for its bewildering accuracy.

On several occasions, I had that Colt in the Ransom Rest and got twice-around, 12-shot groups measuring an inch at 25 yards. Usually, it was with Hornady’s outstanding 140-gr. JHP load. The gun was super-accurate and once even put six rounds into just over two inches at fifty.

To my hand, eye and experience, the Colt Trooper Mark III was a very fine service revolver. It just never managed to catch fire. And since the Mk IIIs were introduced at about the same time that capacity-minded shooters demanded semi-autos with bottomless magazines, they never got a fair shot at competition.

I cannot leave a story on the unappreciated Colt Mark III without mentioning a variant that always caught my attention: the Lawman Mark III, a basic sixgun with fixed sights, plain grips and matte finish.

It was an economy model, much like the original Official Police and Police Positive guns that were good sellers in the pre-WWII era. A solid gun, with the same basic action as the Trooper, the Lawman was aimed at the beginner market. There were few options, but Colt did offer the gun in 4″ barrel length, as well as a snubby.

The 2″ Colt Lawman was just possibly the ugliest firearm that Colt ever made.

It had a skinny little ejector rod sticking out of the beefy frame, a bull barrel with little grace or taper and a squarish front sight that seemed almost an afterthought. Most of all, it had a grip that was obviously rounded down from the standard square butt contour.

Grips were checkered walnut and rather thick for a snubby. A few years into production, Colt changed the barrel to shroud the vulnerable ejector rod, and that helped a bit, but the grotesque skinny butt, sitting off at a goofy angle, was too much to like.

A partner showed me his off-duty gun one night, and I was intrigued. A Lawman III 2″ with no modifications, the gun felt very good in the hand. Gripped high for double-action shooting, the grip shape put my trigger finger in exactly the right place on the trigger for a smooth, sweeping 11- to 12-lb. pull.

Also, I found that the gun was just as accurate as the target-sighted Mk IIIs I had machine-rested earlier. I went shopping and found one at a good price. As a shooter who almost always changes something on every revolver that comes along, I changed nothing on this one.

Right out of the box, the snubby Colt Mk III Lawman did everything it was supposed to do and was obviously designed by somebody at Colt who knew his business. Good things happen when form follows function. Who knew?

Many years ago, I was honored to be a guest at the Smith & Wesson factory in Springfield, Mass. To say that I was struck emotionally would be a big understatement. I began collecting and shooting Smith & Wesson revolvers more than 50 years ago, and the opportunity to visit and see the inner workings of this iconic company was almost a religious experience.

Among the thoughts running through my mind that heady day was, “I wonder if the guys who developed the Hand Ejector series of revolvers back in 1894 had any idea of how well they would be received?”

The Hand Ejector revolver originally came in two frame sizes, .32 and .38. Inside the factory, they were known as the I- and K-Frames. It would be decades before the factory nomenclature of letter frame designations would be divulged to the public via gun writers.

A bit more than a half century later—1949 to be exact—Carl Hellstrom, the first head of the company not from the Wesson family, had the engineering department revamp the I-Frame in order to produce a smaller .38 Special revolver. The changes involved slightly increasing the size of the I-Frame and changing from a flat mainspring to a coil mainspring.

This new frame was designated the J-Frame, and in October 1950, the first J-Frame .38 Special left the factory. It was introduced to the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACOP) at its conference held in Colorado Springs that year. A contest to name the new gun was conducted at that conference. Because it was designed as a plainclothes man’s weapon, the name “.38 Chiefs Special” was the favorite name and it stuck. Eventually the .38 was dropped, and everybody just called it a Chiefs Special.

Initially, the Chiefs Special came with a 2” barrel, but by the end of that first year, a clamoring among policemen pushed Smith & Wesson to begin offering the revolver with a 3” barrel. Sales were brisk, but the small, round-butt grip frame made the revolver difficult to control with duty ammo. Two years after its introduction, the factory began producing a square-butt version of the Chiefs Special for those whose hands were larger than average.

The first Chiefs Specials had fixed sights, but beginning in 1955, a target- or adjustable-sight variation was made in limited runs. It has been produced off and on over the years in round- and square-butt versions with blue or nickel finish. The year 1957 brought about the numbered model designation for Smith & Wesson products, and the Chiefs Special was given the Model 36 name.

Smith & Wesson has always been at the cusp of innovation, and in September 1952, it began making the Chiefs Special Airweight with a frame made from aluminum with blue (anodized) or nickel finish. It was later given the model number 37. This revolver was originally submitted to the Air Force as a pilot’s companion—weight being an almost overwhelming factor for anything that flies—but despite its 10 3/4 oz. weight, the M&P Airweight was give the nod by the Air Force because it’s easier to shoot. In March 1953 a square-butt version of the Model 37 was offered with either a 2” or 3” barrel.

Another interesting wrinkle in the J-Frame series is the Bodyguard Airweight, introduced in 1955 as an aluminum-framed pocket revolver and given the model number 38. The Bodyguard Airweight featured a rounded extension of the frame that shrouds the hammer to prevent it from hanging up when drawn from concealment.

There is a slot in the top of the shroud exposing the checkering of the hammer spur to allow it to be cocked and fired single action. Four years after its debut, the Massachusetts State Police requested a steel-framed Bodyguard, and, of course, Smith & Wesson obliged, calling it the Model 49.

Bodyguards are sometimes confused with the Centennial models—now referred to as the Models 40 and 42. The Centennial was introduced during the company’s centennial anniversary, 1952—hence the name—and differs from the Bodyguard in that the hammer is fully concealed and the grip frame has a built-in safety that must be compressed to allow the revolver to fire. Like the others, there was a Centennial Airweight Model 42 with an aluminum frame.

By 1964, Hellstrom had died, and William Gunn was running Smith & Wesson. He initiated the research in producing the Chiefs Special in an all-stainless-steel form. Production of what would become known as the Model 60 began in 1965, and by the fall of that year, the new stainless-steel revolver was debuted to the same IACOP as the original Chiefs Special.

Sales and demand quickly outstripped the company’s capability to produce the Model 60. Initially, the Model 60 was made with a bright polish of the stainless steel, but problems with the hammer and trigger, and an outcry from police officers who did not like the flashy polish on their revolvers led to the company going toward a brushed stainless-steel finish.

Barrel lengths on the Model 60 have ranged from 1 7/8” to 5”. In 1996, a .357 Magnum version of the Model 60 was offered featuring a slightly longer cylinder and more modern heat treating to contain the higher pressure of the magnum round. As with its pappy, the Model 60 has been made in both fixed and adjustable sights. Today it is made with a 3” heavy barrel with a full-length underlug.

The original I-Frame Hand Ejector Model—later called the Model 30—was chambered in .32 S&W Long cartridge, in barrel lengths ranging from 1.25” to 6”. In 1961 to simplify things, Smith & Wesson jettisoned the redundant I-Frame and all the .32 calibers were made on the J-Frame. Too, the .32-cal. revolvers are all six-shots.

As with the other J-Frames, round- and square-butts versions were made in blue or nickel finish, and special runs with an adjustable rear sight were made available. The Model 32, nicknamed the .38/.32 Terrier was a five-shot variant chambered in .38 S&W.

When the .32 H&R Magnum round—basically a longer version of the .32 S&W Long—was brought forth in 1984, Smith & Wesson initially ignored it, but in 1992 the company brought out an Airweight Model 032 in the souped up “Volkswagen” caliber. It was made for that year only, and currently no .32-caliber J-Frames are cataloged.

Another long-standing J-Frame has been the .22/.32 Kit Gun or Models 34 and 35. Debuting in 1953 these .22 LR revolvers with adjustable sights and either 2”, 4” or 6” barrels have enjoyed a fairly steady level of popularity among anglers and other backwoods’ loafers. They are still available as the Model 43C, an 8-round, .22 LR or the Model 351 C, a 7-rounder chambered in .22 WMR. Some feel that the .22 WMR is a decent self-defense gun, while others consider it only a trail, small-game or target gun.

Smith & Wesson has always prided itself in offering just about any reasonable variation throughout its product line, and what I have provided here is by no means exhaustive. One could write a book if every single variant were described. J-Frame Smiths remain as a very popular self-defense gun for those who need as much power as they can handle in the smallest package.

Some 30 years ago, I latched on to a Model 60. It and I have logged in thousands of miles together. When I left the factory tour in 2006, I came away with a Model 342 PD, an 11-oz., Scandium-frame .357 Magnum that I carry quite often today. I still can’t help but ponder whether those gentlemen who designed, developed and began manufacturing those Hand Ejector revolvers could imagine they would remain mainstays in the Smith & Wesson line 121 years later.

Smith & Wesson Letter Frames

M-Frame: Smallest of all the Hand Ejector frames; 7-shot, first referred to as the Ladysmith, chambered in .22 Long, made from 1902 to 1921.

I-Frame: One of the two original Hand Ejector frame sizes, .32 caliber, 6-shot, made from 1894 to 1953.

Improved I-Frame: Differs from the original I-Frame in that the improved version uses a coil instead of a leaf-type mainspring; made from 1953 to 1960.

J-Frame: Slightly larger than the I-Frame and the first to utilize a coil mainspring, made from 1950 to the present.

K-Frame: The other original size Hand Ejector, often referred to as the .38-caliber frame; made from 1894 to the present.

L-Frame: A midway frame size between the K- and N-Frame, designed to withstand heavy .357 Mag. loads better than the K-Frame; introduced in 1980 and still produced.

N-Frame: Large (.44-caliber) frame, introduced in 1908 with the New Century Hand Ejector revolver (a.k.a. Triple Lock); manufacture continues to this day.

X-Frame: Extra-Large frame with a K-Frame grip introduced in 2003 to handle the company’s most powerful handgun cartridge to date, the .500 Smith & Wesson Mag.