Dear Hammerdown, DrillingMan,
Thanks for sharing those remarkable pictures. They are wonderful examples of both ends of the Model 27 run. That '35RM makes an electric shock run up my leg. Diamond Combat grips, oh my. Both of mine[-2s] were a little rough and have been refinished with NOS grips. The four inch has a 1936 date engraved below the cylinder latch, although it is a later gun obviously. I think the date is a previous owners birthday.
Merry Christmas
Hello HellBound & krod47nw
I will answer you both to keep the Post counts down here. The Grips shown on my 1935 Registered Magnum are Rare
Walter Roper Grips. These Grip's were made from the
Early 1930's to around the Late 1940's by a Fellow named
Matheis Gagne. He worked for Roper and Custom made these off the shooters
hand Tracing which he required in
pencil before making them. Most were marketed and sold to The
Camp Perry Shooting Teams For Competition shooting as S&W
was resistant to make Target grips and actually
Blew off Walter Ropers suggestion of making them while he was an employee there.
Roper had a small Two Car Garage in Upper New England where Gagne made his Custom shooter grips. What is remarkable about them, is he used very few power tool's to make them. he had a large Band saw that he quarter sawed all the wood with it to insure Both Half's matched up perfectly when he was finished with them. he also used a large Belt sander machine to smooth the Quarter sawed half's when he was done to isure a Prefect fit ot the tow half's. The Clover leaf checkering was hand done with a simple V-Chisel and mallet after he Pencil traced the design on them. Gagne was a true artisan and his excellence was not to be repeated once he retired.
His Son
Albert Gagne served an apprecticship in grip making under his Guidence and when Matheis Retired Albert went to work for S&W in their
design Team department. He also shot on
the S&W Factory shooters team back in the early 1950's time span & It is said that he was
responsible for the Birth of the Early S&W large Target grips that we saw come out in the Early 1950's. The design features of these grips Beared the same simularity of the early Roper designed grips as the
Gentle Palm swells, Oval shaped bottom's & Diamond centers that we saw on Gagnes creations. These factory S&W grips are often called
"Coke Bottle grips" due to their classic Coke Bottle
Hour Glass profile, which are shown below on my Pre-27 Circa 1955 revolver which is a
Grand son to The Famed Registered Magnum.
On the subject of what a Registered Magnun is..
Joseph Wesson came up with an idea of Building
a Custom level hand gun for
serious Target shooters and Hunters back in 1934. This idea was heavily prompted by Famed hand loader
Philip Sharp who had been experimenting with the then not Born
.357 Magnum. Sharp had been using a Modified .38 Special cartridge case that was lengthened
1/8" Longer than the standard .38 Special round, and had shown it to be much more potent and accurate than the old standard .38 Special round. He kept close contacts with Wesson during his Testing of it, which finally convinced Wesson to
Build a hand gun to harness it, as Sharp had been using a special Modified 38-44 Outdoorsman revolver while experimenting with this new cartridge, which was originally in .38 Special configuration but Sharp Modified the cylinder of it to accept the Longer .38 Special Cases. Wesson took one of the very same revolvers and had the frame and cylinder heat treated to withstand the Higher pressures of the Then not born .357 Magnum round and called upon
Remington Arms to build this Wild Cat cartridge for
Commercial sales. Remington quickly Blew off Wesson claiming that the cartridge c
ould not work nor did the general public need such a Potent Cartridge.Wesson would not stand for this, as Phil Sharp had proven to him that
Indeed it would work, so his next call was to
Winchester Arms, to ask them to produce the .357 Magnum Cartridge. They agreed to do it, but requested to have a revolver to fire it in so Wesson sent them his Special heat treated 38-44 Outdoorsman Revolver which had been Modified to accept the .357 magnum Cartridge. and Winchester Built the Famous .357 Magnum Cartridge. While Winchester was working on the development of the .357 magnum Cartridge Wesson decided to unveil his Custom Handgun offering in it to The General Public. The Handgun would be hand selected by certain individules that Wesson had Picked in the factory to Build them. These were men with a Lot of experience and top Notch results were his expressed concern for this hand gun.
You could order one in nickel or Blued finish. They Offered them with any Barrel length from 3-1/2" to 8-3/4" in Quarter inch increments. They had eleven different sight designs and Offered grips of Roper Design as mine has, Ivory, Mother of Pearl, Stag, or standard Select grade Walnut. You were offered a Factory Built Grip adaptor which fit up to the fame and had a trigger guard filler piece that when used with the smaller service style grips, this made the gun feel in your hand much more Filling for shooting & Handling it. These guns were the most expensive ones offered by S&W at
$62.00 a Piece, but Wesson felt they were
the Best of the Best or The Crown Jewel of the S&W Line. It was a bit of a Gamble offering this elaborate hand gun just coming out of a major depression, but Wesson decided he would take that chance.
Each Handgun Built would have
a Registration Number stamped into the Crane area starting with
Number One that was presented to None other than
J. Edgar Hoover the head of
The FBI. Now, Wesson was no Fool so he felt if this Gun did not float in the private sector as aCustom Built Offering, perhaps the Police Agencies would look at it serious to equip their Police Officers with this New Hot round as Gansters were at an all time peak and most Police agencies were very under Gunned. When a Person purchased a Registered Magnum they had to fill out a Builders requisition form. This form asked what barrel length, finish, sights, stocks, and what the Buyer wanted the gun sighted it at before it left the factory as well as what ammo they preferred to be shot in it when it was tested. All this Information was kept in company records after the gun was shipped to the perspective Buyers. When you received your Custom built Registered Magnum, the Factory included an owners name and address card for the new owner to make out and return to the factory, as this was their Life Time Warranty on their new hand gun. In turn, S&W would print out a Registration Certificate with the owner's name and address and return the document which was suitable for framing in a round mailing tube to the new owner Hence the Name
REGISTERED MAGNUM.. 1938 was The Last year for S&W to Offer this handgun as
a Registered Magnum. The Orders started pouring on so Fast that the company could not keep up with them, so
the registration process was dropped and the same Gun was offered as a standard catalog item with barrel lengths being now offered in 3-1/2"-4"-5"- 6"-61/2" and 8-3/8". These Guns were built until 1940 when all handguns for civilians were ceased for the War Effort. This Gun is called
The Non-Registered Magnum and they resumed Production after the War around 1948 offering them as a standard catalog item known
as the Pre-27 Here is the Grand son to my Registered Magnum. This is a Pre-27 which is the Model Number given to the Previous Registered Magnums after 1957. This one is
Not stamped in the crane like it's ancestors as it was produced in
July 1955 shown with the Famous
Coke Bottle Factory grips that came from
Matheis Gagnes design... Hammerdown
