photo courtesy NRA MuseumsĪt the last minute, Smith & Wesson offered to supply the British with enough revolvers to offset the one million dollars that was owed. It was only a prototype and never actually used or produced, for obvious reasons. The club is hollow so a shot can be fired through it if the subject doesn’t yield to the use of the club at first. This Model 10 is fitted with a hollow billy club, giving a police officer both implements in one.

The British Military condemned the gun and asked for their money back as per the terms of the contract. So well tuned was the mechanism that it failed to cycle when used with standard European 9mm ammunition. It was a masterpiece of over engineering and pre-war craftsmanship, which doomed it before one shot could be fired. It had a unique ejection port for spent casings that fell straight down from the magazine well. The resulting S&W Light Rifle in 9mm was a well-made and beautiful sub-machine gun that resembled the German MP-38. An advance of one million dollars from the British Purchasing Commission for a new sub-machine gun seemed to be the light at the end of the tunnel for Smith & Wesson. The company was under serious financial hardship and close to folding. 38 Special cartridge, but not vice-versa.)īy 1940, however, Smith & Wesson’s fortunes began to wane. 38 Special cartridge hopped up with more powder and fired from a stronger frame than the M&P’s standard K frame. 357 Magnum revolver, which was basically a. This is Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in Paramount’s “Double Indemnity” (1944), a classic film noir in which the S&W. In addition to being purchased by our own Army and Navy, as well as by police departments across the nation, military and police units in no less than 30 other countries bought the revolver. It had fixed sights and was soon the most desired sidearm of police forces throughout the country. The revolver was manufactured in barrel length, from 2 to 6.5 inches, with both round and square-butt versions. 38 Special would be considered “light,” and the need for greater “stopping power” continues to this day.) The transition from blackpowder propellant to smokeless powder gave the new cartridge the much-needed stopping power that the military had hoped for. The spent cartridges could be simultaneously ejected by pushing on the cylinder rod, allowing the shooter to reload quickly. It was Smith & Wesson’s first revolver with a swing-out cylinder that had a cylinder release latch on the left side of the frame. 38 Specials were received in 18, and soon the revolver was on its way to iconic status. Warden Norton (Bob Gunton) loads and readies his snub-nosed Model 10 in The Shawshank Redemption (1994).

Smith and wesson model 10 nickel