SMITH & WESSON MODEL 25-5

The S&W model 25-5 is one of those revolvers that has gained classic status along with most of the other “N” frame S&W’s made before the lawyer proofing started with those darn framelocks that everyone loves to hate myself included. A couple of years ago you could buy about any older S&W revolver for very little money but these days people have come to realize that these wonderful revolvers are something special and prices have increased accordingly. Most any S&W “K” frame will sell in the $450 to $500 range with “N” frames at $600 plus depending on how rare they are. I recently saw a nickel 6 inch 41 magnum marked at just under $1000! A word to the wise if you have one keep it! My journey with the S&W “N” frame started in 1976. At that time the model 29 was the revolver to buy. Barrel length was no barrier to the price at that time. The guns were in short supply and were selling for the sum of $400 which was a lot of money at that time. In fact more than is being asked for them now. Of course there is nothing new under the sun and as soon as the supply caught up with demand the prices dropped as dealers found themselves with a lot of unsold guns on the shelf. Being a young officer at the time we didn’t make much money so I had to wait until the prices came down. My first was a blue steel beauty with a 4 inch barrel. Yea I wish I had held onto that one but as with most folks if you want something new you have to do some trading and that Colt 1911 sure looked good:-) Regardless my love of S&W revolvers was in full bloom and has never really left me in spite of the overwhelming trend toward new semi autos. I picked up my first 25-5 with a 4 inch barrel in 1980 and I loved it! I found I could shoot this big old revolver for a long time without beating myself to death with the recoil of the 44 magnum. That and handloads were a pleasure to shoot using some of the old Kieth type lead bullets going about 750 to 800 fps.