THE OLD MAN’S GUN

As handguns go, it wasn’t much to write home about; a J-frame Smith & Wesson chambered for the .38 Special cartridge, a round-butt Airweight with a five-round cylinder which had seen much better days.

The finish had long ago begun wearing thin, since you can’t re-blue the aluminum frame like a steel frame, with cold blue and a bit of fine steel wool for touch-up. Upon close examination, one could see the Old Man had done a bit of crude home gunsmithing. At some point, he had filed down the front blade sight and taken a bit off the hammer spur, presumably to carry it in a pocket.

The factory grips had seen better days, although they were the type with the diamond in the middle of the checkering, all of which showed signs of wear from pocket carry. Its pedigree is vintage S&W, with a pinned barrel, a very old style cylinder release latch and hammer-mounted firing pin.

As handguns go, the little wheelgun was what one might politely describe as a “gun show beater.” It probably could have fetched a couple of hundred dollars, unless a collector wanted it just to salvage the grips. I do recall the cylinder lockup was still tight, which might surprise some folks, considering the amount of shooting which had evidently been done by the Old Man.

I met him once a couple of decades ago—he passed away not long after that encounter, as I recall—living presumably on some sort of public assistance along with whatever he was getting from Social Security. It wasn’t quite squalor, but probably close enough to rub up against whatever your definition of “squalor” happens to be.

He was a small, wiry fellow who didn’t get around so well, and he needed an oxygen supplement; not much by most standards. I don’t recall him telling any stories, but if his little revolver could talk, my guess would be that its saga might have some interesting “color.”

But what he did have which separated him from others in his fix was an apartment literally draped from one end to the other, both upstairs and down, with long tubes for oxygen. It seemed to be his entire world at that point, and it was a roof over his head, a warm, dry place to sleep and most importantly, it was a home. And he had something else, in addition to the worn Smith & Wesson. There were boxes, and more boxes, of 110-grain Hornady JHP bullets, a bunch of CCI small pistol primers in an empty coffee can and hundreds of empty .38 Special cartridge cases pretty much of all brands in both plain brass and nickeled brass.

Sometime later when a bunch of this stuff went up for sale, I acquired several boxes for use in my own .38 Special wheelguns. Let’s just say I was intrigued.

Evidently, in his past, the Old Man had done quite a bit of shooting with this revolver, and maybe other round guns of the same caliber, and somewhere along the way, he had apparently discovered the capabilities of the 110-grain JHP out of a sub-2-inch barrel. I never had the opportunity to fire his gun, but after firing similar ammunition out of two other J-frames, and a 2 ½-inch Model 19, I discovered this bullet propelled by the right powder—I used 6.5 grains of CFE Pistol—can deliver plenty of speed out of a short barrel.

Fired from a factory-chromed Model 38 S&W, that 110-grain JHP clocked an average of 872.9 fps, with the highest speed posted at 914.9 fps. That’s not bad out of a snub gun, but it was overshadowed by the performance in a second snubbie.

When fired from my own S&W Model 442 hammerless, this load averaged 887.2 fps over the chronograph set about 24 inches ahead of the muzzle, with a high of 920.9 fps. It bucked a bit, due to the lightweight frame, and had quite a roar.

The velocities show rounds fired from J-frame revolvers with the short barrel pretty much remain in the same realm. A 110-grain JHP streaking along at 875-920 fps is going to get the right amount of attention, especially at “gunfight” distances of 7-10 yards. In that respect, I’ll say with some certainty that J-frame .38s are pretty much all the same in terms of performance with the same ammunition. You will, as noted above, see slight differences in exterior ballistics, but not so much as to keep anyone awake at night.

When I fired a few rounds through the heavier-framed Model 19 with the slightly-longer barrel, the load produced an average velocity of 882.8 fps.

Protecting What’s Yours

This little tale about an Old Man living essentially a bare bones existence demonstrates that all of us, whether we have little or lots, want to protect what we have and defend our own lives. And a pocket-sized wheelgun launching a 0.357-caliber hollow-point projectile, even weighing as little as 110 grains, can be potent discouragement!

The Old Man lived in a Seattle suburb in an area one couldn’t exactly call upscale. But the little .38 Special with its hand-filed “customizations” to fit his particular needs was what he had, and considering the reloading supplies, he intended to keep whatever little he possessed.

I know where the little revolver resides now, and it has a good home. It may never be fired again, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be, in an emergency.

Of course, the bottom line for any defensive handgun is whether it can hit what it’s supposed to hit, and in that regard, the 110-grain JHP fired from the chrome Model 38 at 7 yards turned in a stellar performance.

For the sake of argument, look in the Hodgdon Annual Manual and you will find a load for the 380 ACP using Hornady’s 90-grain JHP over 4.2 grains of CFE Pistol. This round, according to published data, clocks 1,010 fps out of a 3.75-inch barrel, and history tells us that the .380 has brought a screeching halt to a fair amount of misbehavior over the past hundred years, all over the planet. A slightly heavier bullet in a slightly larger caliber (0.357 as opposed to the .380’s 0.355 diameter) out of a shorter barrel is not to be laughed at or under-estimated.

I don’t know anything about the Old Man’s history, what he did for a living during his employment years, details of any family or his likes and dislikes. What I do know, and what seems indisputable at this point, is that even with his meager existence, he had the wherewithal to take precautions. I’m pretty sure he was aware his neighborhood wasn’t the best, and the little round-butt S&W Airweight five-shooter was his tool for handling any threat. For that, nobody could or should take issue.

I’m certain that he had carried this gun n some type of holster, perhaps several different holsters. That would make him just like any ten other guys I know who have more than one holster for a handgun. I’m guilty on all counts, having carried J-frame revolvers in ankle rigs, IWB holsters, upside-down shoulder holsters, pancake-type holsters and traditional belt holsters. In that regard, I’ll bet serious money on the Old Man having been no different than the rest of us. He just ended up on the down side of life, which is not a crime.

His little five-shooter may have fared a little better. I know it is cared for, and kept in a safe place. That’s pretty much what we all want, eh?

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