Super Rare Smith and Wesson Registered Magnum Revolver

A Walk-in Wednesday Quickie

Hey guys! Guess what, today is Wednesday. And so I have a walk-in Wednesday for you but also a quickie. I'm just going to show you this one gun because it's extremely rare, and it's something way outside my wheelhouse. 

Way outside my Wheelhouse

This is a Smith and Wesson Registered Magnum. Now, I had never heard that term before. Actually, in my vast collection I've never owned a Smith and Wesson; we've obviously sold them on our website, but I've never owned a Smith and Wesson. Not been something I've really studied but this came in. The owner who sent us this on consignment mentioned that these can sell for $40,000 or more. So that piqued my interest. I thought what's so special. So here's what's so special about this. 

A Wesson History Lesson

This is the very first 357 Magnum. Not this gun is the very first, but the registered Magnum, Smith and Wesson was the first ones to make a 357. Now interestingly, it was Douglas Wesson, who is by the way, the grandson of Daniel Wesson, the founder of the factory, Smith and Wesson kind of made their way in the world when they developed the cartridge and really gave Colt a run for their money, because it was a huge improvement. So they developed the first cartridge under Daniel Wesson, but then his grandson Douglas Wesson really pushed for new calibers and new designs. So he came up with this design, which is the N frame, later they did a smaller K frame, but this is an N frame. And again, this is all outside my wheelhouse, stuff that I never knew before but I read up just to talk about this particular gun. He also pushed for the 357 Magnum. Now also, and actually it is 20 years later, they came up with a 44 Magnum that was made famous by Dirty Harry. That's a model 29 44 Magnum, which at that time was the most powerful handgun in the world. 

Dirty Harry Clip - Being this is a 44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and would blow your head clean off you get to ask yourself one question, do I feel lucky? Well, do you punk?

A little more history - Built to your liking

Okay, a little more history. And then I'm going to show you the gun up close and personal. They made these from 1935 until 1939. Now that was during the Great Depression, people obviously didn't have money for fancy guns. And in fact, these are all custom made. That's why they're called registered. The certificates they got with the gun, basically saying this is custom made to your design specification was signed by Douglas Wesson. And you could order it in any barrel length, any half inch barrel length, this happens to be five, but you could get it in three, three and a half, four, four and a half on up. I think they go all the way up to seven inch barrel, because they did literally custom make them for you. And in spite of the depression, and in spite of these being very expensive, they were highly successful. They made about 5000 of them, most of them going to police departments. The first contract went to the Kansas City Police Department and they kind of set the trend for this 357 Magnum going to law enforcement. 

Zoom in

In fact, this one went to the post office. Let's take a closer look. This is the gun itself. It's actually a stunning finish. This is one gun that I absolutely have to wear gloves, the owner was adamant about not putting any marks on it. You can see the case hardening also, I cannot pull the action back because we can't have any roll marks. There is a very slight roll mark. But obviously we don't want to make that any worse. I read a lot online and we will show somebody putting a few rounds not through this gun but through a similar gun.

Taken from GunGuyTV

For the uninitiated, when you start to shoot a full charged 357 Magnum out of a gun like this, you become increasingly aware of how well armed the old cops who carry these things really were. These guns are fabulous and they're powerful, and they're more than capable of taking on just about any bad guy. 

Quite Comparable to the Python

And the trigger pull is very comparable to the Python. In fact, the finish on the Python is the same deep blue. Python is very famous and I know they kill a lot of The Walking Dead. The Smith and Wesson Magnum is of course famous. 

Patten carried on of these

Well actually Patten the gun that he carried I read two sources that said he carried a registered Magnum with ivory grips custom made and another set of model 27. 

After the Registered Magnum

The model 27 is actually comes after the registered Magnum and that's just because this was so popular that they put it in standard production, which helped drop the price a little bit; they only came in specific size barrels. So you no longer had the option to build whatever you wanted. These are special because they were custom made to your specifications. 

The details on the gun

So let's take a look. Obviously it has the Smith and Wesson logo on it. You can see on the front sight, that is probably brass. It has the U rear sight and case hardening on it. Again, I can't pull that back, but there's case hardening here and here, this is in beautiful condition. You see the grips how beautiful it is, it's just a beautiful Smith and Wesson in 357 Magnum. Again, the very first model that shot a 357 Magnum round. Made in the good old USA, of course, and you can see the 357 Magnum fit in here. Again, very little use. And I have to make sure I don't use it at all. There is one way to look inside here, we can open up the cylinder that doesn't do any damage. But once you open up the cylinder, it locks and so you can no longer cock it. 

The writings on the gun

Now, right here, you see that it's registered gun number 2800. Again, 5000 made this is number 2800, which dates it to August of '37. And we also see that's the post office department; it was shipped to Springfield, Illinois issued to the post office most likely Postal Inspectors, this is number 10 of 15. So the post office ordered 15 of these registered magnums and 10 were delivered. 

Here's a Theory

Now I do have one theory about the fact that it was mostly police departments and federal security agencies that bought the 5000, not individuals. Roosevelt did the New Deal which was basically pumping money into the economy and local governments. And I believe that probably they were given grants to buy guns such as these which are a little more expensive than they normally would get. But it would help stimulate the economy. The exact same thing that happened here during COVID, the government has giving out checks, and many of you used your stimulus check to buy guns. So thank you for that. 

It Did come in a Box

It's probably important to mention that this also comes in the original box. Later, they had like a gold color box but this is an early blue box again, 1937 somebody put tape on it here. But still the box is in great condition. And of course, it will be numbered to the gun. In fact, you can barely see it. But this is registered gun number 2800. And that's a separate serial number, which you actually can find on the frame as well. So both of those numbers are also found on the gun, probably worthwhile to open up and look inside. Beautiful red interior not faded at all. And then almost as good as having the manual. I don't know that it actually came with a manual, but it does have all of this information inside the box. 

Quick Update

Hey, I love learning something new. And I hope you did as well. I had a bunch of our subscribers write to me and say, hey, you haven't done a giveaway in a long time. And you're absolutely right, forgive me. So stay tuned because I'm going to be doing a giveaway for subscribers. I've got quite a few things that I want to give away. So we'll give that away to our subscribers. And also one of the questions that I get a lot is when are you going to auction off the Eva Braun ring? That's coming up after Labor Day. Right now we're in the middle of August and a lot of people are away so I thought I'd wait till after Labor Day and then we will let you know how you could bid on the Eva Braun ring. 

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