![]() ![]() ![]() Common items in their catalogs were things like Smith & Wesson K-models in. In the first seven decades of the 20th century the two giants of handgun manufacturing - Colt and Smith & Wesson in their combined efforts - produced some of the finest quality double actions ever made. It was a rare cop or civilian who relied on one for self-defense. In that era, autoloading handguns were mostly used by bull’s-eye target shooters or the military. Indeed, the first 60 to 70 years of the 1900’s were the golden era of double-action revolvers. To my recollection a significant percentage of those used guns were big-bore Smith & Wessons. By the time I was old enough and learned enough to discern the different models of revolver, I could see the handgun shelves of the local pawn shops were three deep in various used Colt and Smith & Wesson double actions. My own coal-mining grandfather was never without Smith & Wesson handguns of one sort or another, and it seemed that if I talked to a man who owned a revolver in those days it was also a Smith & Wesson. ![]() That area was the site of the infamous Hatfield/McCoy feud and the extremely violent Coal Mine/Union Wars of the 1920’s. Va., along the border with Kentucky, my early exposure to double-action revolvers was considerable. ![]()
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June 2023
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