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Thread: S&W Model 10 in 357

  1. #1
    Boolit Master Guesser's Avatar
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    S&W Model 10 in 357

    Stumbled onto this a couple weeks ago. Thought it was just your average S&W Model 10-6; 38 Special HB. Many, many LE agencies used them at the end of the revolver era and traded them in for the Wonder 9's and 40's. I've owned several. Looked at this, labeled 357 Magnum, chambers are bored deep for 357 Magnum. I've heard of Model 10's in 357 but never seen one. I played it away and started searching info. It seems that New York State Police ordered 1200 of these and then S&W came out with the Model 13. NYSP traded all of these in on Model 28 Highway Patrolman 357's. S&W released these Model 10-6 357 magnums. I decided I had to have it simply because it is a somewhat scarce commodity. Pics:
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails DSCF2099.jpg   DSCF2101.jpg   DSCF2102.jpg  

  2. #2
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Never heard of them before. I'd buy one in a heart beat! Have heard of the reverse, so to speak. LAPD took stainless .357 S&W's and set the barrel deep with a .38 cylinder so it would only chamber .38 S&W's. Fine shooting revolver. I would love to get a Mod 10 reverse engineered to chamber a .357 cartridge.
    Wonder if anybody could comment on the possibility of getting that kind of work done.

  3. #3
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    That's certainly interesting.

    I knew about the model 13's but I've never knew S&W made a .357 mag on a model 10 frame.
    My first thought when I saw that was that someone put a barrel marked .357 Magnum on a model 10 frame but then I read that the cylinder was bored for magnum cartridges. That's a cool gun !

  4. #4
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    That's an interesting find, and I too had never heard of it before. I've shot a lot of Model 10's and 13's, but I've never seen a .357 Magnum Model 10.

    I'd say you "done good" finding that one.
    After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. - William S. Burroughs.

  5. #5
    Boolit Master
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    That is a nice find.

  6. #6
    Boolit Grand Master bedbugbilly's Avatar
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    That's really interesting. At a first quick glance, reminds me of my CM - probably the front sight is responsible for my thoughts. That would be a good one to get lettered. Wonder why total production was? Are these mentioned in the S & W book? (I don't have a copy)

    A great find! Enjoy!

  7. #7
    Boolit Master Shawlerbrook's Avatar
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    Love older and odd wheel guns. I have a couple Utica, NY PD revolvers. A S&W M10 and Colt Police Positive Special, both 38 Specials.

  8. #8
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    "The Models 13-1, 64, 65-1 are recent innovations of the factory. The Model 13 was originally designed for the New York Sate Police. When first sold to this agency, it was a special Model 10 heavy barrel in the .357 Magnum caliber, and was marked with the Model 10-6 designation. It was changed to the Model 13-1 when it became a standard model in September 1974."
    History of Smith & Wesson by Roy G. Jinks, pg. 167

  9. #9
    Boolit Master Guesser's Avatar
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    Sources report a total of 1200 Model 10-6 357 Magnum revolvers, all made on one contract to NYSP.

  10. #10
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    Here's a story for you. I think I told it once before on this forum, but I'll relate it once again lest some adventurous spirit be moved to experiment.

    Way back in the 1970s, around '77 or '78 if I remember correctly, I used to visit the shop of a local gunsmith. Since birds of a feather tend to flock together, I would often encounter another customer who was a Sheriff's Dept. Sgt. and an incurable gun trader and tinkerer. On one occasion he showed me his brand new S&W Mod. 64, the .38 Spec. version of the blue Mod. 10. Very nice revolver.

    Stainless revolvers were, at that time, taking the police market by storm, and I myself had recently purchased a pair of Mod. 66 .357 Mag. revolvers, the stainless Mod. 19. Of course, soon there was a Mod. 65 stainless K-frame .357 Mag., pretty much the same thing as the Mod. 66 if you didn't want to pay for or need the adjustable sights. The 64's could be had with the original, thin profile barrel or the heavy barrel of the Mod. 65.

    Not too long after first seeing the Mod.64 I had occasion to see it a second time on a subsequent visit to the gunsmith's shop. Again, both the gunsmith and the Sgt. were present, and they were excited to show me how they had bored out the cylinder chambers to allow easy acceptance of the .357 Mag. cartridge. I asked them if that could possibly be safe, since S&W took the time and trouble to make revolvers specifically for the .357 Mag.

    O.K. -- now the "Twilight Zone" music should start.

    They were a little condescending, and told me that I was just one of many who had been taken in by S&W's marketing and get rich scheme. They assured me that the cylinders on all of the guns in question measured almost identically with micrometer and calipers, and that they had test fired the particular specimen in question, the Mod. 64, without incident. As the conversation continued, they revealed gleefully that they had written a letter to S&W explaining their conversion and actually upbraiding the company for making two revolvers (.38 and .357) when only one was necessary, and for gouging the shooting public by charging a higher price for the .357. That day I departed with a slight inferiority complex and wondering if I'd been "had" by a corporate giant.

    A couple more weeks passed, and on the next visit I asked if I could examine the Mod. 64 again. I was told "No", because they had sold it. Since that time they had converted 5 or 6 more Mod. 10s and 64s to .357 Mag., and had sold them also. Business was rapidly building. They were using the proceeds from each sale to purchase an additional one or two revolvers, make the conversion, and sell them. They were going to be business partners, and the really great thing was that S&W was dong all the work of making the guns and they were just boring out the cylinders. Genius!

    On the next visit I asked how things were going with the S&W conversion business, and was greeted with gloom, depression, and some anger. They showed me a letter that they had received from S&W's Legal Dept. commanding them to cease and desist in their efforts to bring the .357 Mag. to the common man at reduced prices. This was one of those letters that almost blistered your fingers as you held it. They were advised that although the various K-frame revolvers had dimensions in common, that those destined to be .357 Magnums received a different heat treatment than did the .38s, and that their project was extremely dangerous. The lawyers also advised that because S&Ws name was stamped on the guns that these two fellows were subjecting the Company to undeserved liability, and that they would become the recipients of every possible adverse legal action should the conversions continue. It was a lengthy letter, and you could tell it wasn't S&W's first rodeo. As I handed it back to them I was happy, happy, happy that I'd had nothing to do with it. The end result was that the project was grudgingly and reluctantly discontinued.

    So, as regards this thread about .357 Mag. Model 10s; truthfully, until Guesser's post about having one, and subsequently looking them up in Roy Jink's book, I didn't know that they legitimately existed. But I did know that some few* from this source did exist, and are "out there" somewhere. Therefore, beware if you encounter a K-frame stamped .38 Special that accepts .357 Mag. cartridges, 'cause it just ain't right!

    It should be noted as a matter of interest, that this all took place some 40+ years past, and since then heat treatment and metallurgy have advanced greatly, with S&W and Taurus in the forefront of development. Were it not so, the little 5 and 6 shot J-frame sized snubbys would not be present on the market. On the market -- not in my pocket.

    * A few from the described source, but since "great minds run in the same channels", who knows how many others got the same idea and made how many?
    Last edited by Der Gebirgsjager; 12-16-2018 at 04:55 PM.

  11. #11
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Never say "Never", and never say "Always" when it comes to S&W Model and caliber alignments. Ya gotta have a "Rosetta Stone" to figure out the intricacies and subtleties, and mine has been The Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson by Supica and Nahas.
    I don't paint bullets. I like Black Rifle Coffee. Sacred cows are always fair game. California is to the United States what Syria is to Russia and North Korea is to China/South Korea/Japan--a Hermit Kingdom detached from the real world and led by delusional maniacs, an economic and social basket case sustained by "foreign" aid so as to not lose military bases.

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