help to identify revolver

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in florida visiting my mother for a couple days, her husband died two years ago, and she asked me to check some of his guns for function and safety.

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never seen one of these before.
smith & wesson, 38 s&w special no model marked on frame.

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sideways pictures, stupid ipad...

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ok, pictures look horrible posted here.
factory open front trigger guard, ans bobbed hammer.
 
Best I can do on short notice. Crop, then sharpen and median filters, and auto-adjust colors.


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swing out the cylinder and look on the frame for a model number.
looks like a 10 or a 36
The trigger guards were cut like that by John Fitzgerald. Called a Fitz Special back in the day. Lots of people copied his customized guns.
If it's a Fitz it's worth something. If not it's probably a hard sell due to people wanting trigger guards.
 
Google Fitz. Great conversation piece but only purists would relish it. I had one but truly uneasy feeling as it can be as unsafe as it looks.

Keep it in the family.
 
ok, instead of the ipad i will take better pictures with my camera and post them when i get home. i will pull the grips and look under them as well, just in case ( even though it's unlikely ).
leaving this morning and will be back in mass thursday.
cannot find any model marking anywhere, even with the cylinder open.

how can i figure out if it really is a fitz ???

thanks for all the help so far guys.
 
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how can i figure out if it really is a fitz ???

The easiest way to start is "is it a Colt", is "it from the correct era", and "does it have a proof mark on what's left of the trigger guard" - after that it'd be something to have authenticated by an expert. Fitzgerald was a Colt manager, and his pistols were factory-modified. The proof marks were on the front drivers side of the trigger guard on the models used, so when the factory cut away that part of the trigger guard, a proof mark was added to the rear passenger side of the trigger guard - the mark is a triangle with "VP" in the middle. There were only a few hundred revolvers made, and a handful of 1911s, but due to their value they're frequently faked (forged? deception to make money), and due their coolness frequently "copied" (as in, I don't want to rip you off, I just want something like that!).

What you have there is not a Fitz special, but an homage to one built off the Smith and Wesson platform. Still very cool.
 
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My analysis from these latest pictures is this is (was?) a 4" barreled pre-model 10 S&W that has been heavily modified to meet someone's idea of a cool gun. Difficult to tell from the pictures but whoever did it probably had some pistol-smithing skills (I highly doubt that the S&W factory did this, but one thing you learn about S&Ws is NEVER say NEVER).

The barrel has been cut back from the position of the "Smith & Wesson" on the barrel. The bobbed hammer, probably an early attempt at de-snagging the hammer. Personally I feel that the cut-away trigger guard is an accident waiting to happen.

If you can tell us the serial number on the butt, I can help you place the manufacture date within a few years.
 
My analysis from these latest pictures is this is (was?) a 4" barreled pre-model 10 S&W that has been heavily modified to meet someone's idea of a cool gun. Difficult to tell from the pictures but whoever did it probably had some pistol-smithing skills (I highly doubt that the S&W factory did this, but one thing you learn about S&Ws is NEVER say NEVER).

The barrel has been cut back from the position of the "Smith & Wesson" on the barrel. The bobbed hammer, probably an early attempt at de-snagging the hammer. Personally I feel that the cut-away trigger guard is an accident waiting to happen.

If you can tell us the serial number on the butt, I can help you place the manufacture date within a few years.

the number on the frame inside when you swing out the cylinder is 70439, but the number on the butt was different. i did not e-mail that one to myself...
 
Whoever did this,or had it done was looking for a quick combat style type firearm.The high front sight is a good giveaway.
 
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