What Do We Have Here?

If you answered a S&W M13-3 in 3", you'd win a cigar!

I'm the new happy owner of a gun that is increasingly hard to find at anywhere approaching a decent price and I got it for what I think is a very fair price. As most of the good gun deals you'll have in your life, this one I absolutely fell upon while I was looking into information for a C&R license (what's that? I'll save it for another post). Allan's Armory in FL had some C&R rifles and a section for modern firearms where he had this example of the FBI's former sidearm up for a reasonable price. I called and spoke with Allan and had him ship it to me after we exchanged payment info. Five days later I had it in my grubby paws and last weekend I took it to the range for a run-through.

So off I went with 150 rounds of ammo and my M19-3 for comparative purposes, you can see my attempts met with mixed results. The fixed sights on the M13 doesn't really affect the accuracy too much, the gun shot a bit low, but I liked the sight picture since I see it when I'm cowboy shooting and I think that with some smoothing of the double-action, the gun will be a real winner. As for the double action, it is fine up to the point just before release, there's a pronounced catch in the action, so much so I think it was purposely added to the gun, why? who knows, but it's gotta go.

I have had plans to have my M19 sent off to a good wheelgun smith like Grant Cunningham, but he's not soliciting work and so I've been considering the S&W Performance Center. This M13 does beg to be sent off for their Combat Revolver Package though... Its good to have choices :)