MODEL 13 K FRAME 3" BARREL THREAD

There's a great thread over at the Smith and Wesson forum talking about, and more importantly, showing some great pictures of some Model 13/65 guns with 3" barrels. This thread asks the burning question I know some of you have asked yourself about {insert name of gun here} some latest purchase. It's called Did I really need another 3-k-frame?

Those folks on the forum really have some nice guns. So it proves they are out there, and sometimes at a bargain price. I WISH I could find a Model 13 such as the one starting out the post for $300. There would be no hesitation. There would be no buyer's remorse. Nada. It would be G-O-N-E from the gun store shelf.

Ahh. Well, that's the dream, and the reality is something different. I guess I'll have to eventually break down and troll the auction sites, but I do like to touch and feel an important purchase like a gun if at all possible before laying down cash or trade for it. The last gun show I went to had some overpriced 4" guns and I think one way overpriced 3" gun, all Model 13's. I guess I need to step up my going to gun shows, but I have I only saw two bargains at the last one I attended, and that's slim pickings compared to the old days of gun show going in Texas.

I already review the gun stores in my stomping grounds on a semi-regular and  have let owners know what I'm looking for in a 13/65 and stop by periodically to check in and remind them I'm still looking. A .357 or .30-30 over 20 or 12 Savage Model 24 is also written on the back of my card, along with Model 13/65. No luck on any yet.

A few of my "within striking distance" gun stores have online inventory, but not many, and only one of the websites has any decent information anyway. Too many gun store websites could update their used gun inventory easily but don't, and thus guns linger longer in their inventory because dependant on the brick and mortar customer, even though they have online presence and stores for selling new guns.

There is a paucity of used Model 13's for sale in my vicinity. The last two I've seen have been square butt 4" blued likely police trades before their most recent owner sold to the gun shop, and although both had great triggers, they were not in good enough of shape to justify their $400 and $450 price tags. But those are the first 13's I've seen in about 2 years.

They were great shooters, and with a 3" barrel and a round butt would have been great for carry purposes, and I'm certainly not too proud to own/carry/buy a "shooter" grade gun as long as the mechanicals are sound. In fact, I like a shootin' iron bargain!

As I lamented in a recent post about looking for a Model 65 Ladysmith (with 3" barrel, stainless, round butt AND a ejector rod shroud, something most other Model 13/65's don't have), I've never seen a whole lot of Model 13's for sale, new or used, going back 30 years and more. The one 13 I know of with a 3" barrel and a round butt is priced way out there at about $900.

And sitting right next to it in the display case is a "pristine" blued Model 27 Highway Patrol with a rare (these days) 3" barrel as well, priced at about $1,500. The Model 27, without a doubt, has the nicest blued finish I have ever seen on any firearm, and although I don't own any mega-thousand dollar shotguns or rifles, I've seen them and can say that none compare to the rich, deep blue this gun possesses. If I owned it, I'd be like the guitarist in Spinal Tap, and I wouldn't let anyone even look at it for too very long, much less touch it. It's that nice.

So since spying that Model 27 with the 3" barrel, I've sorta been looking for either Model 29's with a 3" barrel and even possibly a Model 27 with a 3" barrel, although I wish I had the cash to get one of the TALO Model 629's with the 3" barrel and I think a round butt. Very nice gun.

I guess there's no winning the argument about which gun is more better than the other with 3" barrels amongst the Model 13/65, the Model 27 and the Model 629. They'd all be fun in their own right, and my ranking in terms of wanting to have one would be the 629, the 13/65 and last but not least the Model 27.