Smith&Wesson safety hammerless 38 model 3

[SierraHunter]

Picked this guy up in a trade here last night. As best as I can tell, it is a Smith & Wesson safety hammerless 3rd model. It is chambered in 38 S&W.

I'm 90% sure the nickel plating is not original, nor the pearl grips. One of the giveaways to me on the plating is that the side plate does not sit down flush. It is visually higher then the frame, and easily felt with a fingernail drug across it.

Chambers are in good shape, but the bore is lightly pitted right in front of the forcing cone. The gun does lock up nice and tight though, and everything seems to work as it should, although the trigger is absolutely terrible.

I was able to dig around in my stuff and find 9 rounds of ammo, and fired them at 10 yards off hand. That's about as well as I can shoot a pistol, so I'm hoping it turns out to be a decent shooter.

[Buzz Krumhunger]

Those are neat little guns. I agree that one looks like it was refinished. It looks like its utility wasn’t diminished any by the refinish job-that’s good shooting considering the rudimentary sights those guns were equipped with. You may already know that Magtech still offers .38S&W ammunition at a fairly reasonable cost.

I have a Safety Hammerless in .32 hiding in a dim recess of my safe. Guess I need to drag it out. It’s probably lonely.

[SierraHunter]

Remington and Fiochi also offer ammo for the 38. The Fiochi is loaded with a jacketed bullet. Tee Remington ammo that I had seemed loaded just a little too hot for the poor thing, as nearly every shot the recoil would cause the trigger guard to flex enough to pop out of the gun.

[SierraHunter]

The sights are not too bad really. The trigger is down right atrocious though.

[RED BEAR]

Thats a nice gun i am in love with the old top breaks. Now thats some good shooting. The triggers were pretty bad on most of the small top breaks as they were for pocket or vest carry and that was a safety of sorts. It can be made better.

[LUBEDUDE]

Congrats on that neat little pistol!

[FergusonTO35]

Dude, you shoot that old Lemon Squeezer better than I shoot any handgun in my Arsenal!

[SierraHunter]

Dude, you shoot that old Lemon Squeezer better than I shoot any handgun in my Arsenal!

I really think it would be a decent little pistol if the trigger was a little better. I may take it apart and see if I can make it better.

[Walks]

I have an old Safety Hammerless sitting in my safe too. It was my Grandmother's. Factory Nickel, Factoy Pearl grips W/medallions.
It's in .32 Short & Wimpy. Does NOT shoot like that !

It's in Great shape, She carried it in a velvet bag in her purse duriing the day and it rested on the bag on her nightstand every night. My Uncle bought Her a fresh box of ammo every 5 years. Then took her out to shoot up the old box.

Not sure how I ended up with it, but I've had it coming on to 40yrs this October.

[RED BEAR]

You may be able to help trigger some but don't expect a great improvement they pretty much are what they are. And sw's were quality from the get go.

[Argentino]

I really think it would be a decent little pistol if the trigger was a little better. I may take it apart and see if I can make it better.

Those lemon squeezers had what I call (for a lack of better words) a two stage double action:

The first stage needs a hard trigger pull that will rotate the cylinder and cock the internal hammer.

After doing that the trigger comes to an stop (2nd stage): from that point on, it functions as a single action: just add some slight, controlled pressure to the trigger and the hammer will fall.

It takes some time to get used to that DAO design but once you do that accuracy will be improved (although looking at that 10 yard target I think it does n´t get any better than that)

Argie

[SierraHunter]

That's exactly how I was shooting it, take up to rotate and lock, and then squeeze off the shot once I hit the "wall" but the wall feels like about 15 pounds. My wife can not pull the trigger past the wall, and she carrys a double action revolver. I haven't actually measured it, but I should.