Bangity; Model 10 Edition

UPDATE: I managed to do something stupid and scrubbed the original post, so let's try this again.

Someone posted a rule that says:

If Thou Seeest a Smithe & Wesson Modele 10 in Goode Conditione for Less Than $300, Buyeth It."

So I did.

This is a Model 10-5. As you can see around the muzzle and the cylinder, there is quite a bit of holster wear. There is maybe a couple of thousandths of rotational play in the cylinder, so I expect it will be a decent shooter. Probably down the road, I'll have it tuned up.

Now I have two of them. The one at the top is a Model 10-11 that was one of the Aussie police trade-ins that were being sold by Bud's Gun Shop. It has less holster wear and it locks up solidly. I have used it in two PPC club matches and from what I've been told, I was the high revolver shooter in the second one.*

The 10-5 has a firing pin on the hammer, the 10-11 has its mounted on the frame. A lot of purists like the hammer-mounted pin and it does look cooler. A previous owner painted the front sight of the 10-5 yellow and the rear sight green. The 10-5 has a grooved trigger, the 10-11 has a smooth-faced trigger. Seems odd to me to have a grooved trigger on a self-defense gun. But I guess that was the preference 40 or 50 years ago.

The 10-5 was made with both tapered and bull barrels. If you look at the top profile of both revolvers, it would seem that S&W didn't quite match up changes in the frame's profile to match the bull barrel. Or somebody changed the barrel. The roll marks on the barrel of the older gun are crisper.

I'll shoot the 10-5 this weekend and see how it runs.
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* I was also the high woman shooter, but I earned that distinction with the first shot, as no other women had entered.