Your Favorite Smith & Wesson & Why

Hi...
I have a fairly decent group of S&W revolvers and I shoot them all regularly.
I have N frames in .44Mag, .41Mag, .45Colt and .357Mag. Hope to someday acquire an N frame in .44Spl.
Also own a 686 Silhouette Model and a Model 10 and regularly shoot my son's Model 66.

My favorite is the 686 Silhouette Model.
It is the single most accurate handgun I own out of 50 or so, including myriad Rugers in various calibers, a few Colts, Ubertis, Piettas and several Dan Wessons and Virginian Dragoons. The only handgun of mine that might challenge the accuracy of my 686 is my stainless Monson Dan Wesson in .44Magnum. That is not to denigrate the accuracy of any of my other handguns...those are just the two most accurate.
 
I collect S&W's, and I love all of them. However, this revolver, a "pre-18" K22, has a special place in my heart. It was the first handgun I ever shot, and I've run more rounds through it that I have through any other firearm I've ever owned or used. It was my fathers, and I inherited it upon his passing. I'll never part with it.
2014-12-06 12-46-09_0025a1a.jpg
 
I had an auction catalogue, a very long time ago, which claimed to have a stainless version on offer. That's the only time I've heard of one, and I certainly have never seen one in person. Assuming it's not just polished "in the white", it must be as rare as hen's teeth.
 
It looks more like SS or hard chrome to me.
I did a search bur all of what I have seen were blue.
 
I had a 1st year S&W M57 that I sold after a year or two (around 10 years ago or so) because I needed the money. I love the feel of an N-frame, and .41mag in an N-frame seemed the perfect combination. If the ammo wasn't so expensive and hard to find, and if I didn't seriously need the money when I sold it, I would have loved to keep it forever. I keep wanting to get another, but the price is too high, then after a couple years when I decide I can go as high as the last time I saw them, they are 10-20% more than when I last saw them. I'm torn between just biting the bullet and doing it, or giving up on the M57 and getting a full sized Ruger or a Taurus Tracker in .41mag to save a little money but have another .41mag (I do have an N-frame S&W, my 625MG).

My next favorite is my S&W 65LS. Love 3" K-frames, it was my first .357mag, and it is a very nice looking gun. Great fun to shoot, heavy enough that it isn't particularly uncomfortable even when shooting some pretty stout magnums. After that, probably the P&R M19 I used to have, sold about the same time as the M57 because I really needed the money.
 
My favorite individual S&W revolver would have to be my Model 58, a fixed-sight N-Frame .41 Magnum, that served as my duty handgun from 1985 to 1990. It had been an issued San Antonio PD duty revolver, before I bought it, to use as a kinder, gentler*, slightly more compact replacement for my .44 Magnum Model 629. (Trivia: My interim duty and personal-carry pistol was a 9mm HK P7, which rode in a custom flap holster, on my duty belt.)

By about 1990, I finally admitted to myself that my index fingers were/are not quite long enough to do good double-action trigger work, while maintaining a proper grip on an N-Frame revolver, so, K-/L-Frames have become my favored S&W handguns, for actual usage, but, yeah, shared adventures, in the early part of my police career, when the mean streets of Houston were really wild, have resulted in my Model 58 having a special place, in my heart.

*The Model 629 could be seen as my LEAST favorite S&W handgun, as it was the one that initially wrecked my right hand so badly. I am left-handed, but right-armed, so drawing a big, heavy handgun, especially from the low-slung duty rig that I was initially mandated to use, seemed more natural if done right-handed. So, I established right-side carry, as my norm, and fired more big-bore Magnum rounds right-handed.
 
hk940 said:
That is a nice looking revolver! I like the unfluted cylinder. Are they hard to find, how old?
Click to expand...

Thanks and yeah I also like the unfluted cylinder which was what got me to pick it up 10 years ago this year.
They were originally listed as "TALO distributor exclusive 686 Plus 3-5-7 Magnum Series", that came in 3", 5" and 7" barrel versions.
I believe S&W now sells them as a catalog item so I wouldn't think they'd be too hard to find.

686P_610.jpg
 
For most of my adult life I was the fan of the .357 Mag. Wasn't till I was in my 40s that I happened across my first .44 Mag a 629-1 and the bug bit. Soon after it was a 29-2 that I came across.

The most fun for me was the .44 Spl. Why? The .44 Spl is not as big and bulky as the magnum guns and can be loaded to respectable power levels. At one time I had 4 N frame .44 Spls, a 24-3, and 3 624s.

I'm not a photographer but here are a few of my .44s.

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