38 S&W "Lemon Squeezer"?
I recently inherited my grandfather's old .38 short lemonsqueezer. At least thats what he called it. It is a hammerless revolver and is a .38S&W caliber. It is a 5 shot, break action with a grip safety.
Anyone know anything about this old girl? I remember shooting her when I was a teen, then it was left to my Dad and he had her in the closet for 15 years.
Anyone know anything about this old girl? I remember shooting her when I was a teen, then it was left to my Dad and he had her in the closet for 15 years.
0
-
It is important to know the barrel length for this particular model.
Can you please advise.
Heavyiron[8D]
"If I don't see you nomore on this world, I'll meet you on the next one, and don't be late!" - Jimi Hendrix0 -
If it was made by Smith and Wesson it would be more valuable and probably better made than if it is one of "Owl Heads". These were the similar revolves made by H & R and Iver Johnson and probably others. Knowing the maker and serial number could help establish the model number and possibly the age. 0 -
It has a 3.25" bbl. 0 -
I am not an expert on lemonsqueezers.
This is the nickname for Smith and Wesson .38 S&W handgun called the "New Departure". There were 5 different models of the New Departure and they were referred to as the First Model, Second Model, Third Model, etc. I couldn't begin to tell you what model you have since I don't know the serial models or all the markings on the gun. There is an article about the lemonsqueezer in this this weeks Shotgun News.
The barrel length is really important since this attribute could make the pistol very valuable. For example, a 6-inch barreled, First Edition is listed by the Blue Book as "Extreme rarity precludes pricing on this model". This is true for several of the other editions.
That being said I think the 3.25-inch barrel is one of the most common lengths that were made. So much for a rarity. According to the Blue Book the range of values for a 90% condition gun would be $550.00 for the First Edition to $205.00 for the Fifth Edition.
Someone on this forum is a heck of a lot more knowledgeable about these things than me and should be able to help you narrow this down some more. Maybe by getting your question up to the top of the que again, one of these experts can you some more info.
Regards,
Heavyiron[8D]
"If I don't see you nomore on this world, I'll meet you on the next one, and don't be late!" - Jimi Hendrix0 -
Hi ... supply the serial number and confirm that it was made by S&W. If your uncomfortable w/ giving out the complete s/n just use x's in place of the last 2 or 3 digits.
There were a number of American Made revolvers that were patterened after the S&W ... also there were some out and out copies made overseas, especially in Spain and Belgium. Some of those copies are of pretty good quality and actually bring about the same as price as an original S&W, others are just plain junk.
Pictures would help, especially ones that show the details of the marking(s) on the revolver.
If you have no way to post pictures you can use the email icon at the top of this reply to contact me. I will send you my direct email address and you can then send your picture files to me as regular email attachments, and I will post them for you.
If you only have time to do two things so-so, or one thing well ... do the one thing!0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
5 comments