w00t ~~ just came home with a 34-y/o freckled humpback
Sounds like a really bad drunken date from hell, doesn't it???? Hahahhaaa!
No.... it's not that embarrassing. Really. I mean it.
I just went to my LGS after the night shift and bought a Smiff&Western Model 49 "no-dash" Bodyguard with a pinned barrel and a very little bit of surface rust I call "freckling" which will mostly rub out with some TLC.
The "no-dash" Model 49 was the first all-steel version of the original "humpback" Model 38 Airweight Bodyguard which debuted in 1955. The all-steel Model 49 came later in 1959. The gun I got is an orignal "no-dash" model with a pinned barrel before S&W started changing the Model 49.
When I was young I really didn't care for the humpback design of these M49 Bodyguard J-Frames (I honestly thought it was butt-ugly) but now that I am a bit more wiser the all-steel SA/DA Bodyguard has for years held a fascination for me that I just couldn't shake. Unlike my Centennial Airweight 442 .38-SPL snubbie which is a DAO gun, I can cock the hammer on my "new" 49 for single action fire. Yet the gun is absolutely snagless within a pocket and can actually be emptied from deep cover without a malf, which no exposed hammer revolver can do nor can any semi-auto pistol lay claim to having that ability!!!
This one looks and checks out like it was bought to be a nightstand gun and was put away without ever being fired (or oiled, unfortunately). Too bad there is some minor surface rust, but damn this thing is righteous inside and out otherwise.
Oh.... let me tell you what I paid for this slightly dirty girl................
$275 CASH OTD