My buddy "got me" Sunday,
He knows I've been looking for a model 19 for a while now. The first handgun I bought when I turned 21 was a 6" 19 with target grips, hammer, trigger. I ended up trading it off foolishly after a couple of years. I started looking for a nice one a few years ago. It's been really hard to find a nice, clean one, that wasn't stupidly over priced. Most have been beat to heck-and-gone and still over priced.
We stopped by Cabela's a couple weeks ago and they had one in the case in the gun library, but we couldn't get anyone to wait on us to see it. We even went and had lunch and came back, and still couldn't get anyone to wait on us. So we left, and I figured that one just wasn't meant to be mine. He tells me later that it was "gone" when he went back.
So he tells me he'll bring out his 19 on Sunday for me to shoot again. His is nice, but a 4". He shows up and hands me a pistol case and says "Here". I open it and am a bit confused. It's a 6", I'm thinking, "huh, what the heck". Then he says he bought this one for me, and it's mine.
!
I'm just about completely speechless, which is surprising for me, 'cause I usually have something to say about all the time.
Thanks again Duane, I'm still pretty speechless.
I'll post pictures of it when I get the chance. It's a really clean -4. He's been through it and says it appears unfired. No carbon anywhere. Had the sideplate off (he's been to S&W armorers school) and says it's immaculate. Nice gun, pinned barrel (fine by me), recessed cylinder. Bluing is almost perfect. Looks like it was stored in a holster, no box. Don't care about the box.
I'm gonna keep this one forever. May even stipulate that it's buried with me...