I’ve always been a huge fan of the Smith and Wesson K-frame revolvers. No other revolver fits my hand as well as Smith’s medium-size frame. Over the years, I’ve owned plenty of them, including model 10s, 13s, 65s, 66s and my all-time favorite—the Model 19. To me, there is no sexier magnum than the Model 19 with its iconic profile. Its distinctive ejector rod shroud, ribbed barrel and adjustable rear sight make the gun immediately recognizable.
Model 19 That Got Away
One gun that had alluded me was the 2.5-inch Model 19—a snub-nosed version of the popular cop gun. Favored by detectives and plainclothes lawmen, the short barrel and round butt helped keep the gun concealed until needed. With prices of old, pinned-and-recessed S&W guns climbing meteorically, I started searching in earnest for one of these magnum snubbies a coupleof years ago.
As luck would have it, I found one at a gun show at the Pima County Fairgrounds in Tucson. The gun’s owner said he had taken it in trade. Its bluing was exquisite, and its action locked up tightly. I couldn’t push the hammer off full cock and its double-action pull felt like it was about 7 pounds! But it felt different in my hand and that’s when I noticed it had a square butt.
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The owner said, “This came from a very limited run of guns S&W did with a factory Mag-na-ported barrel and square butt.” Sure enough, there were two trapezoidal holes cut on either side of the front sight. I thought to myself, that’s a bonus and that will make shooting magnum loads more manageable. And I liked the fact that it came from a limited run of guns, as that would certainly enhance the gun’s value. I paid more than I should have for the gun but was happy that the K-frame void in my collection had been filled.
Victim of Fraud
In short order, I drafted a letter to Roy Jinks, Smith & Wesson’s historian, and included some pictures of my gun-show find and mailed it along with a check. For $50, Jinks will provide a letter describing the gun, when it left the factory and where it went. These letters add a degree of authenticity and provenance, which collectors love, and usually adds to the value of the gun. (Smith & Wesson, PO Box 2208, Springfield, MA 01120, Attn: Roy G. Jinks)
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About a month later I received my letter.
“We have researched your Smith & Wesson .357 Combat Magnum Model 19-4, this handgun with serial number 56K14XX was shipped from our factory on December 21, 1979, and delivered to Adolph Blaich Co., Reno, NV. The records indicate that this revolver was shipped with a 4 inch barrel equipped with a ramped front sight, blue finish, and checkered Goncalo Alves target grips. This shipment was 20 units in this configuration. It appears the gun has been modified after it left the factory as Smith & Wesson did not offer any type of barrel porting at this time.”
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Heartbroken
My new gun was a fraud, and while I plotted how I was going to get even with this unscrupulous dealer, I decided to take the gun for an outing. I turned the gun over in my hand before loading it. In the bright sunlight, I could see streaks of the original bluing through the thin re-blue job. I was even more incensed.
I loaded the M19 with five rounds of Black Hills 125-grain JHPs and rested the barrel on a Millett BenchMaster for support and fired a five-shot, 25-yard group. Imagine my surprise when that group measured just 1.05 inches! Yes, the gun was a fraud. And yes, I paid too much for it, but whoever mated that 2.5-inch barrel on the M19 frame certainly knew what they were doing. And that double action was so buttery smooth I couldn’t help but fall in love with it.
Several more outings and a couple of events at Gunsite with my fraud gun solidified it as my favorite revolver. It shot well, and I shot it well. In fact, none other than retired Border Patrolman and Gunsite Range Master Ed Head said he’d be proud to “ride the river with me,” providing I was wearing my M19! If you knew Ed, you know that his compliments did not come lightly.
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Model 19 Rimfire Understudy
The riots of 2020 and COVID shutdowns caused some interesting things to happen in the firearms industry. Ammo was hoarded, and while I am a reloader, I couldn’t find the projectiles that I needed to reload my empty .38 Special and .357 Magnum brass. It was then I became intrigued with the idea of building a .22 LR understudy to use for practice.
Smith & Wesson did and does make K-frame rimfires, but they never made one with a short barrel equipped with the ejector rod shroud. Because the K-frames all use the same barrel thread, regardless of caliber, I became convinced that I could create a reasonable rimfire facsimile by screwing a Model 19 barrel into the frame of a rimfire revolver and then using a .22-caliber liner in the barrel.
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I started searching the interweb gun auctions and eventually found a pre-Model 17, K22 revolver with a 6-inch barrel and square butt. Normally, these are beautiful guns, but my auction gun looked as though a fisherman had put his gun in a tackle box and forgotten it for many years. The outside was covered with rust and pitting, but surprisingly the barrel and cylinder chambers were not too bad. The price I obtained this gun for made this an affordable experiment.
Fink’s Frankenstein
I delivered the gun and my ideas to Dave Fink, the Gunsite gunsmith. If you’re a regular reader of The Wheelhouse, you might remember a piece I did a while back detailing Fink’s work on several K-framed revolvers. As I told him what I was looking for, I could see the gleam in his eyes, and his head started to nod slowly as he smiled. “This is going to be a cool project,” said Fink.
He had a 4-inch M19 barrel on his workbench and said, “How about we cut it to 3 inches? That way you can use the full-length ejector rod.” That made a lot of sense to me, and the extra half-inch of sight radius would also be helpful but still give the gun the snubbielook I was wanting. Fink has the uncanny ability to see a gun that only lurks in the dark recesses of my mind and turn it into a reality. Of the 10 to 12 projects he has done for me, he has yet to disappoint.
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With the gun in the queue, I tried hard not to pester Fink. On each trip to Gunsite, I’d stop in his shop and say hello. Of course, I had other projects in the works, and it seems there was nearly always something ready for me to take home. It was in early December of 2022 that I stopped to say hello before attending a media event. “We were just talking about you,” said Fink when I walked through the door. He invited me back into his shop where I first laid eyes on my rimfire M19.
It’s Alive
Fink’s crew had meticulously polished all of the pits out of the frame and cylinder and given the gun a high polish blue. It was impeccable! The hammer and trigger were sent off to Tyler Gun Works where Bobby Tyler’s craftsmen gave the parts his beautiful color case treatment. Once back, the gun was given an action job with its double-action pull breaking with just slightly more than 7 pounds of pressure and single action at a crisp 2.75 pounds.
The barrel was the biggest challenge of this project. According to Fink, after the barrel was shortened it had to be carefully bored out. In doing so, he left a lip at the muzzle which acts as a stop for the barrel insert. “We used a length of scrap Ruger 10/22 barrel for our insert. We pressed it into the bored-out barrel and soldered it where the two parts meet at the muzzle.” It looks like a recessed target crown and is impossible to tell that the barrel is two-piece, and the cylinder gap was set at the absolute minimum.
Fink and his crew also removed the caliber and manufacturer’s marks on both sides of the barrel and had it re-engraved with Smith & Wesson on the right side and .22 LR on the other. The front sight base also had to be fabricated, and Fink built a pin-on, Patridge-style blade. After regulating it for elevation, he installed a gold bead. If I hadn’t commissioned this project, I would be hard-pressed to believe this wasn’t a factory-produced gun.
Precision Plinking
“You wanna shoot it?” asked Fink. He didn’t have to ask me twice. We stepped out the back of his shop and set up a target. At about 10 yards, I fired several groups about 1.5 inches in size, offhand. I couldn’t wait to get it home and bench it.
On a cold early December morning, I pulled into my shooting spot south of Tucson. I left the car running so I could use it to warm me up while I set up my DOA Tactical portable shooting bench and chronograph. I fired five-shot groups from a seated rest, utilizing a Millett BenchMaster for support. The M19 rimfire turned in some impressive 15-yard groups.
CCI’s Mini-Mag rounds produced the single best five-shot group measuring just 1.08inches, and Aguila’s Pistol Match Competition rounds were just behind it with a group that measured 1.11 inches. The aggregate group size was just over 1.25 inches! The thing about rimfire guns is they seem especially sensitive to different ammunitions. I’ll continue to try new loads until I find one that hits this gun’s sweet spot. I’m pretty sure that I’ll be able to find a load that will group consistently under an inch.
The Gun That Should Have Been
My M19-inspired rimfire revolver turned out exactly like I hoped it would. It looks great and shoots even better. With the help of a talented gunsmith, I was able to build a gun that S&W should have offered, and the many bricks of .22 LR in my ammo locker assure that I’ll have plenty of affordable practice sessions with my M19 understudy.
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