Featured Gun: Smith & Wesson model 19

The Smith & Wesson model 19 is a double action revolver in the medium "K" frame size.

The gun was, for a time, the most popular sidearm of law enforcement in North America. You would be hard pressed to find a law enforcement agency in the U.S. that was formed before 1980 that didn't issue the model 19 at one time or another.

While Smith & Wesson named it "The 357 Combat Magnum" it came equipped with a fully adjustable target rear sight. Ironically it was often ordered with target stocks, hammer and trigger by the civilian buyers (as seen above).

The story of the model 19 goes way back to July 16th, 1895 when S&W was granted a patent on a modified design that Colt had used earlier on their 1887 "hand ejector" model. 

The new S&W was dubbed the S&W 32 Hand Ejector and debuted in March of 1896.

You can see the lower frame and trigger guard has not changed much since this first model.

This little gun paved the way for all S&W revolvers going forward.

A military contract during the Spanish American War, some design changes and a bore diameter change led to the first K frame, the 1899 38 Hand Ejector, which later became the .38 Military & Police.

Some lessons learned in the Philippines during the war led to the development of the 38 S&W Special cartridge.
It seemed the .38 Long Colt was not powerful enough to stop the Moro warriors (high on opium and fitted with ritual bindings which acted as tourniquets) so S&W made it longer and more powerful. This was the first step towards the .357 Magnum cartridge.

Now if you are wondering how a .38 became a .357 keep reading.

The .38 got the name .38 when the first .38 (the .38 Short Colt) was used in "conversion cylinders" for the Colt model of 1851, allowing the black powder revolver to use modern metallic cartridges. 

The model of 1851 was called a .36 caliber, even though the round balls it fired measured .375". This is because the bore diameter used  to be measured by the lands (.36" +/-) and not the grooves (.375" +/-). The bullet, however, needed to be at least as big as the grooves in order to fire correctly.

The .38 Short Colt used a heeled bullet whose diameter was .375 (to fire in the .375" grooved rifling) and matched the diameter of the brass case.

Later when the .38 Long Colt came along, the bullets were now loaded internally (non heeled) and matched the diameter of the inside of the case which was .357", however, the name .38 stuck and is still used today.

During the same time (the turn of the century) S&W was also building a large frame revolver known as the .44 Hand Ejector, this gun evolved into the "N Frame" and was the first host to the .357 Magnum, but I am getting ahead of the story.

The .38 Special proved effective and became the standard for police everywhere. Virtually all center fire revolver makers have chambered a gun in .38 Special.

During the "Roaring Twenties" organized crime had erupted due to the prohibition of alcohol. Law enforcement soon found the .38 Special was ineffective on stopping automobiles or criminals behind cover, especially once they began using armor on their get-away rigs. 

So in the early 30's experimentation began to make the cartridge more powerful than the .38 Special factory loading . Rather than grow in diameter, the engineers at S&W added more length to the cartridge to allow for more powder and prevent it's use in older guns chambered in one of the other .38 calibers. 
Gun Writer and shooter extraordinaire Elmer Keith gets some of the credit for the development of the .357 Magnum. Keith was a handgun hunter and "wildcatter", developing custom loads and pushing the limits of factory cartridges.

Dan Wesson II (the same Dan Wesson that started the revolver company bearing his name) also pushed for development of the cartridge to reassert S&W as the premier provider of revolvers for law enforcement.
The development of the round was assisted by Phillip B. Sharpe, also a wildcatter, who was on the technical division staff of the NRA.
In 1934 Smith & Wesson along with Winchester introduced the .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum to the world. 
Dan Wesson and the S&W Engineers did not feel their K frame could handle the power of the new round and chose to chamber the N frame revolver in the new cartridge.
These revolvers were called the "357 Magnum" by S&W, but became known as the "Registered Magnums". In 1957 the Registered Magnum became the model 27.

After WWII the .357 Magnum started to gain in popularity with law enforcement, but there was one thing preventing it from total dominance. It was only offered in a large frame revolver which was considerably heavier than the popular J & K frame S&Ws and the Police Positive & Detective Specials from Colt (whose most powerful chambering was the .38 Special). 
In 1954, in an attempt to drive sales with law enforcement, Smith & Wesson introduced a new model (which would become the model 28) named the "Highway Patrolman".

Enter Bill Jordan, a famous lawman, working for the U.S. Border Patrol, he trained people in the defensive use of firearms and wrote numerous books and articles for gun magazines. If you do not know the name Bill Jordon, you should.

Jordan urged Smith & Wesson to create what he called the "Peace Officer's Dream": a 'K' framed .357 with a 4" heavy barrel, an ejector rod shroud and adjustable sights. The revolver would be lighter, more compact and easier to wield in combat than the N frame.

Gun steel had come a long ways since the days of black powder and Smith & Wesson had been experimenting with different steel alloys and special heat treating methods in an effort to overcome the abuse the .357 Magnum could dish out. 
It just so happens that before going into the family business Dan Wesson had graduated with a degree in material science and metallurgy. He put that education to work to bring a K framed 357 to market.

In 1955 they unveiled the .357 Combat Magnum and presented the first production model (serial # K260,000) to Bill Jordan.

Bill Jordan's dream had come true and the gun became The choice of law enforcement for close to three decades.

1955 vintage 357 Combat Magnum

Two years later when S&W adopted a model number system, the K frame 357 Combat Magnum became the model 19.

Originally the only barrel length offered was 4", however,  2.5" and 6" barrels were soon offered. Despite this the 4" remained the most popular. There have also been 5" and 3" barrels made, but they are quite scarce. The grip frame was a "square butt" on all except the 2.5" & 3" barrels which got the "round butt" design for concealability.

The early guns were known as "pinned and recessed", this meant that the barrel was threaded and then pinned in place and the chambers were recessed so the cartridges sat flush. Those two features disappeared in 1982 with the 19-5 production change.

The finish was usually polished blued, but a matte finish was offered for government contracts and a nickel plated finish was also quite popular. 
The Model 19 got a stainless steel brother in 1970, dubbed the model 66.

Specs:

Action: Double Action Revolver
Caliber: .357 Magnum (& 38 Special)
Capacity: Six
Weight: 36 ounces (4" barrel)
Length: 9.675" (4" barrel)





Smith and Wesson discontinued the model 19 in 1999. Then in 2014 they brought it back, currently on revision #9 (model 19-9). 

Current production model 19 "Classic"

There are more options and variations than one can count and the number of agencies that adopted the model 19 number in the hundreds.

I have personally seen dozens of model 19s with stampings from the law enforcement agencies that originally bought them, surplus model 19s have mostly dried up, but every now and then someone finds a stash of them and they hit the market.

References:

Nahas, Richard; Supica, Jim (2006) Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson 3rd Edition. Gun Digest Books, an Imprint of F+W Media
 

Wikipedia

Sportsmans Vintage Press

American Rifleman

Shooting Illustrated