It seems that I have been buying revolvers at a prodigious rate. At this point I won,t be able to pick-up my latest acquisition until the first week in July. Even though it's not in hand yet, I thought I'd share it with you...

It is a full custom S&W 65-5 with a 3" barrel. It was done by Mike LaRocca of LGW (LaRocca Gun Works) out of Worcester, MA. Mike was Frank Pachmayr's lead gunsmith for years and, literally, wrote the book on building Combat .45's. He went out on his own in the mid-80's and this is an example of his work. It includes a complete refinish with certain parts accented in high polish; A bobbed hammer; A radiused and smoothed trigger; A recontour of the front sight and an anti-glare treatment on the barrel rib; A full action job; A "melted" cylinder release and other enhancements.

Even the base gun is a rather unique piece. I believe that this started life as a Lady Smith, because they were the only fixed sight, K-frame .357 Mag with a 3" barrel and an ejector rod housing. The "Lady Smith" moniker was polished off during the refinish. Three inch K-frames are among the most desirable carry revolvers extant, because the slightly longer barrel allows for a full-length ejector rod to fully extract the long .357 cases and the K-frame gives you 6-shot capability.

Watch for my post in this section during the first week of June. I'll be featuring some rather unique S&W revolvers.

Adios,

Pizza Bob

The 3" 65 is a great revolver.  We had some of them issued back in the 90s.  They had a bobbed hammer but you could still cock it.  Not much bigger than a J frame but the extra weight and 3" made it so much easier to shoot.  The FBI was issuing a 3" Model 65 at the time.

You are correct the Ladysmith was the only fixed sight 357 made by S&W with a 3" with an ejector rod housing.

Beautiful.  Would be awesome if Smith came out with such guns in house like they did with those Gunsmoke guns.  Thanks for sharing @Pizza Bob

Clean. 

Very nice revolver, and very interesting info on this piece. 

On 5/7/2019 at 11:14 AM, GRIZ said:

The 3" 65 is a great revolver.  We had some of them issued back in the 90s.  They had a bobbed hammer but you could still cock it.  Not much bigger than a J frame but the extra weight and 3" made it so much easier to shoot.  The FBI was issuing a 3" Model 65 at the time.

You are correct the Ladysmith was the only fixed sight 357 made by S&W with a 3" with an ejector rod housing.

Correction.  FBI was issuing a 3" Model 13.

Now that belongs in a display case, @bhunted.

14 hours ago, Ray Ray said:

Now that belongs in a display case, @bhunted.

Hell no, that belongs on my hip - but we'll see what the Supreme Court says first.

Adios,

Pizza Bob