Evolution of Smith & Wesson's No 3 Revolver
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- In this video we’ll take a look at the evolution of Smith & Wesson’s No.3 Single Action Revolvers.
Sources:
“Smith & Wesson Handguns”, by Roy C McHenry and Walter Roper
“Smith & Wesson 1857-1945”, by Robert J Neal and Roy G. Jinks
For myself Mike, knowing the history of these Lovely old guns or the repros, is half the fun. It makes shooting even more fun. I have always Loved history anyway but combined with the actual item, repro or not, as I always say, it’s like shooting history. Thank You Most Kindly Mike for another great lesson in our heritage! As a restorer of period antique furniture and other items, knowing the history makes the item so much more interesting. And as we’ve seen so many times when the provenance of a piece makes a huge difference in its value. And thus, history makes my shooting pleasure of my 51 Navy, 60 Army and my Navy. Starr 1829 69 cal. Army issue musket and a few others so much Moe enjoyable. It’s great to see you recovering well, at least I do hope so! As a survivor of two mild heart attacks and open heart surgery, I very much appreciate recovery time. It took me a long while to normally walk around my house three years ago. A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND GREAT APPRECIATION FOR YOUR GREAT CHANNEL AND LOVE OF HISTORY! DaveyJO in Lancaster County Pennsylvania
Really enjoyed the Smith and Wesson history lesson. Thanks Mike !!
S&W ‘s #3 Revolver is definitely my favorite “Old West “ pistol …!
Great presentation, Mike. I always learn a lot of interesting facts from these historical videos. Thank you.
Good video Mike
Merry Christmas to you and your family
It's a grand ol' revolver! Blued, nickel, stainless, or whatever your fancy is, the #3 always is a treat to the eyes. 👍👍
I have four Uberti No3 revolvers and 1 S&W No3 and I love them all .
Even though I'm a Colt Man
Nice job Mike.
Keep up the good work.
Another excellent and informative video, Mike!
Thanks for another great video and Merry Christmas!
Great story, well told
Another great History lesson Mike, thank you for your hard work. Have a merry Christmas.
Excellent history on a fascinating revolver. Thank you once again for a superb presentation!
Excellent history of S and W. Thank you very much Mike.😊
The Schofield is my favorite along with the 45 Schofield cartridge. Thanks Mr. Duelist1954, and a Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Thanks for this video. I have wondered about all of the differences and the evolution of this revolver.
Always enjoy your videos Mike. I hope your health is improving.
Fascinating, as always. Always enjoy these historical perspectives.
I really enjoy these presentations of guns of the old west and 19th century early to mid 20th century. Well done sir!
Great video and history. Please keep them coming. Mike you are a national treasure as well. Not just the guns, but the important stuff...the history!
Good to have you back sir.
Hope many of your problems have been resolved.
Health and happiness to you.
I love this. One of my favorites.
Good video Mike. I enjoy learning the history of these guns. I don’t remember if you have done a video on the evolution of the .45 ACP cartridge and how it ties into the story of Smith and Wesson. I would love to see you do one if you haven’t already.
Fantastic video Mike, thanks for taking the time and doing all the hard work to make it.
Hi Mike, once again sir a awesome video! I enjoy all the history like this and of the old West. Thank you for all your hard work and time Sir you are appreciated.🤠🇺🇲
Thanks Mike! Another great history lesson.
Excellent history, Mike. Thank you for everything you do.
Nice breakdown, thanks !
Another GREAT video. Thank you :) Love that HAT too very nice
Nothing as good as seeing one of your videos Mike. Entertaining, informative and all those beautiful firearms. Thank you for all the great content.
Most know something of the Schofield history, but you explained it more in depth here and showed how it played a role in the development of S&W's guns. Their seeming stubbornness in making guns only the way they wanted to was also a characteristic of Colt which seems very odd to us today, and was likely because of nobody wanting to admit that someone else's ideas were as good as theirs. You can see that in the 'renamng' of cartridges developed by the competition when they were used in your own guns, even though they were essentially identical and interchangeable.
A well done and very interesting presentation as always Mike, and wishing you and your family all the best this Christmas!
Fascinating history.
Great video Mike, I learned a lot that I didn't know about that particular revolver.
Great video very interesting and informative thanks!
I have a collection of S&W top breaks and while you do have to shift them to the side you can easily open the latch with your thumb only, this also places the cylinder back side down making it even faster to clear the empty shells.
Great history!
Excellent video Mike and enjoy history of old guns . Merry Christmas with you and your family !!!
Very enjoyable overview.
Great story by a great story teller. Thanks.
I personally like the look of the Schofield however, the introduction of the American by Cimarron has captured my attention
I remember Louis L’Amour giving some of his characters Russians “ the gun that was winning all the shooting competitions”. I didn’t even know what they looked like reading those books as a kid in the 80’s! Cool guns, great video!
Louis always tried to keep it real with the history.
Well done,thank you sir for a very interesting story.
Mike, you are a really good story teller.
Ive been thinkin about the American recently, how we have that little pocket of the early 1870s when the SAA didnt exist yet and how for a good amount of the 1870s there were more Model 3's than there were Single Action Armys in the hands of American citizens
New model No. 3's my favorite, excellent video 👍👍
I'd love to get a pre-1899 S&W New Model 3 in 44-40, but I imagine they are rare and expensive.
Excellent video I just keep on learning more and more.
Very cool vid wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 🎄🎄🎄🎉🎉🎉
Great video Mike my new model number 3 is one of the ones that was originally a 44-40 it has the longer frame but was later changed out with a 44 Russian cylinder. It also has the trigger guard spur but it doesn’t have the target pistol sites. It has a very heavy trigger but it’s in great shape someone re-blued it not a professional job so it’s a very matte and dark. It’s a ‘shooter’.
Great video Mike, always liked the break top S&W revolvers...
Great video Mike! I need to look into getting a Number 3. Thanks!
Cool man cool, I do love these type videos so much good information.
Would love to hear more about the development of the military 45 cartridge, the cartridge that worked in both guns sounds interesting
When I was in my 'teens, while poring through a big stack of old issues of the American Rifleman, I saw a photo of a S&W Old Model #3, .44 American... It was love at first sight. I hadn't the cash for a "shooter", and I was relegated to worshipping from afar. A. Uberti has changed that! And, while I would happily handload .44 S&W 'American' cartridges, I'm equally delighted to create .44 S&W 'Russian' cartridges for my Uberti! Thanks for the Video!
I've wanted to get a modern production S&W #3 for 30 years but they have always been just out of my finances. Always thought was just such a cool revolver.
Nothing says Christmas Holidays like a Sordid Tale about the Russians and big Smith & Wesson Revolvers! Merry Christmas, Mr. Mike!
Mike, I fell in love with the Smith and Wesson Schofield when I saw UNFORGIVEN. I would love to have one of my own. But they are so EXPENSIVE!
these are so cool I wish I had one.
Merry Christmas Mike & family.
Thanks for the video. I am still lamenting the discontinuation of the Taylor’s New Model Number Three Frontier. Almost thinking about buying a Uberti .44 Russian and altering it to be more like the later revolver.
Great video! Great story!
👍 Excellent video, very informative. I once owned a Uberti S&W Russian Clone.
I want that hat, Mike...!! Lol. Merry Christmas from Slippery Rock, PA.....
I’d like to see S&W make a stainless version #3 in 357/38 and 45LC with 3.5”, 6”, and 7.5” barrel and a matte or buffed stainless finish! Yeah, I’d love to see that at the 2026 Shot Show!
Happy earliest Xmas, Mike.
That final grip design is close to a lot of current revolvers
Great clarification on these. Cimarron has the American, Russian, and Schofields. The funny thing is the price is about $1341, when they were $13 & $13.50. Inflation exists. I like these top breaks. My favorite wish gun when I was a kid was the H&R 999 .22 top break. Merry Xmas from “Mayberry,” NC.
I wanted a 999 sportsman too. I've never wanted anything S&W has made.
Thanks, Mike.
Just wanted to wish you and Mrs a Merry Christmas old friend.
@@BrooksideFarmBarreMA Merry Christmas to you as well
Good video
Really nice presentation. Personally the Russian is my favorite, but I used to shoot Bullseye, so a more vertical grip works well for me, and I have small hands so I appreciate the smaller grip, though until now I had no idea that S&W made another other model with smaller grips. I do also like the hump, it just works for me, and the trigger guard on the Russian, though for me it’s just something that looks cool and different.
I always say this whenever any body brings up top breaks, I wish Smith would do a new model, 8 shot .357 cut for moon clips. They technology is there and I believe the market is there. I could just be biased though.
I really would love one of the 5 inch Beretta Laramie repro's in good old trusty .38 special. Top breaks are the coolest.
Good morning brother from Syracuse NY
Hi Earl!
@duelist1954 Good morning my friend and thank you for sharing your videos and I hope you are doing better today brother and MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and your family brother
Thanks
Hello Mike, I emailed you about my 1861 Navy Colt the other week, thank you for your advice I will try to sell it there.
I have one very similar to that, looks to be nickel plate and maybe 38 short cal.. Used to have a S&W pretty much just like it, but Traded off.. Still have the non-functional one complete and worn out.. Never knew anything about them and nobody around could tell me anything about them.. It lays around for a conversation piece 😊🇺🇸
I love the Smith top breaks. I wish the New Model No.3 was still available from Uberti and in .38 Special. Ive been looking for a Blued Laramie for a while with no luck.
Thanks for the great video. I am still mourning the fact Taylor’s no longer offers their Uberti New Model Number Thee. I didn’t act fast enough
Oh man... top break revolvers with my coffee.
Life is good!
So, would it be correct to say that the American, Russian, Schofield, and New Model were all No 3s? thanks for another great video. Hope you're back to 100% mobility soon.
Yes, they are all No.3s
I own a New Model 3 Target Model .44 Russian that a 1920s railroad blacksmith converted to .22. I bought it from his elderly grandson. His extractor set up is amazing. the barrel was lined with a lathed down .22 rifle barrel. It shoots great and is not refinished with factory gotta percha grips. But tge fine sights are so hard on my eyes I’ll probably sell it.
Fun video!
Merry Christmas.
I wonder how things might have gone if the Schofield design was altered to chamber. 45"Colt. Sounds like messers Smith and Wesson cut their proverbial noses off to spite their equally proverbial faces, as the No3 appears, (to a European who can't legally own a working one), to be a far superior gun to the 1873 Colt.
I'd imagine like modern repros they'd have issues with cases/rounds dropping under the extractor because of the smaller rim occasionally.
Having used replicas of both, other than speed of loading and unloading the colt is a far superior design. It’s easier to repair, harder to break, and the hammer is easier to reach with your thumb without completely changing your grip, and I have very large hands and the Schofield is just harder to reach.
As he comments in passing in the video, .45 Colt use tended to be limited for a while because of the state of brass cartridge manufacturing. Get a look at original .45 Colt brass, and it’s easy to see how the skinny and sometimes uneven rim would not make for the ideal chambering in this case.
During that time .45 Colt cartridges had virtually no rim. Colt a rod ejector. They wouldn't work with the star ejector on S&W.
Oh man we got a top break video. 🎉
I would have considered getting the Laramie had it come with the non-adjustable sight AND were chambered in .44-40.
I'm also the kook that likes the idea of a New Model No. 3 but with a Schofield latch, a gun that never existed.
Nice...
Awesome video! Which one do you think has the best balance in barrel length
The seven inch barrel New Model No. 3.
@duelist1954 thank you
Great video Mike. Too many think the only pistol used in the old west was the Colt SAA. I have a question. Some fine reproductions of the No. 3 are available as we know. But, do you think at some point some company may give us a reproduction of the Model 1881 DA S&W? Or even the 1880 small frame DA? In the original calibers? That would be a boon to old west aficionados like myself. Heck, the Safety Hammerless model would be great also.
I would doubt it. I have an original, and I really like it, but you can't use it in Cowboy Action Shooting, which will limit its sales.
@duelist1954 Thanks. It was a pleasant thought, though.
I got to handle one of the Old Model Russian revolvers at a gun show in Finland. Used to belong to a police chief who confiscated it from a smuggler in the early 1900s, it was in it's original condition except the chief had engraved his name on the frame sot it didn't have much collectors value according to the seller.
So, that's why the Scofield came about!
I have heard that the hook under the trigger guard on the Russian model is not for finger rest but rather for hooking sash. I don't know how true it is it is, though.
Russian cavalry (Cossack) don't use pistol holsters; they just tuck their pistols and swords in their sashes.
Some sources claim that Wyatt Earp was carrying an S & W #3 American at the OK Corral fight on Oct 26, 1881 in Tombstone.
That has been de-bunked. The gun in question is now known to have belonged to John Clum.
It is said that only a fool trips on the same stone twice. Russia conned S&W by buying a few then copying them. That was trip number 1. Only a few years later the same stone tripped them again, this time in Spain. Spain signed an order for the Number 1 DA revolver, got a few, then cancelled the order and copied them. So the same stone tripped S&W twice.
Oh My Gosh! Your engraved No.3 is drool worthy! Forgive me Lord for my covetous eyes 🥺
My favorites have always been the American and the New Model 3. I wish I could have gotten a New Model 3 from Taylors but I kept waiting for them to come out with one in .44 Special. Oh, interesting fact, John Wesley Hardin's Model 3 wasn't an American, but a First Model Russian in .44 Russian.
Mike got a question, i was gifted 250 brass shotgun shells, problem they're Berdan primed, the question is do they still make Berdan reloading gear and primers? i can drill them out for 209's but i'd like to keep them original if possible.
Verdant primers are available in the USA, a google search should turn them up. Finding reloading tools will be a bigger problem. You may need to look for antique reloading tools. The primer removal tool is the thing you’ll need to find. Lacking one of those, there is a way to remove the primer with a tight fitting dowel and water. I have to admit that I’ve never done it though.
@@duelist1954 well in that case the size C drill bit and chamfering tools are coming out i thought someone might have a kit or the tools available and google hadn't shown me yet, and trust me when i say google search hates me thanks for info Mike.
Mike just started the video but have you tried to install a seal of sorts to allow the use of BP with modern Italian reproduction Schofields? I saw Inrange make a video recently about using black horn 209 but that craps 89 bucks for a half lb.
Do you mean on the Schofield? I have not. The New Model No.3 has a different gas deflector arrangement and it handles B-P better.
@ I’m confused Im looking at a gun being sold as a
“Cimarron No. 3 Schofield” is that =\= the new model no. 3?
@@Rusty_Spiggle-Smith I'd have to see a picture to be sure, but it is probably a Schofield replica. No one is currentlymaking New Model No.3 replicas.
@ I gotcha, after getting further in the video i think it’s a Schofield because it has the one handed latch that you talk about. That’s a bummer I really want one of these revolvers but not being able to shoot black powder in one is a deal breaker.
I just picked up a S&W 544 shooter that I plan to load black powder cartridges for.
Hope it works, have you shot black powder cartridges out of a more modern revolver?
Smith and Colt realky screwed the pooch with thier hatred of paying royalties. Smith gave White .25 cent per bore through cylinder revolver, Colt would give nothing and waited for the Patent to expire while loosing out of a full adoption by the US ordinance dept. The 1873 SAA came to late for Colt to really cash in. Smith had a issue with Schofield royalties but not with White. What a twisted buisness world back then...