My Grandfather's Gun

[Drift]

S&W K38 S/N: 843345

My grandfather was one of my heroes. He spent a year in an English hospital after being shot in Belgium. His occupations included soldier, farmer, police officer and commissionaire. Local lore in my community often brings up a story of him "dropping" a bull with a punch after it attempted to ruin his day. He was one of most honourable and strong people I have ever known.
He was also very frugal, which is how I get to this weapon. Sometime in the late 1950's or early 1960's he became a town police officer in NS. He was looking for a revolver as his side arm and was looking at "suicide specials" as apparently the price seemed right. Thankfully my dad bought 2 of these pistols from a local gunsmith and gave one to my grandfather. He carried it for the duration of his career. With it I have a Sam Brown holster and his handcuffs and handcuff pouch. The second pistol was lost in a building fire in the late 70's.

I am told that this was a surplus RCMP pistol. I can find a Canadian broad arrow stamped above the left handguard (near the hammer, does not show up well in the photos). I cannot find any markings that state RCMP. I have no idea of how RCMP weapons would have been marked. I am interested in any information I can get on this pistol. I have no intention of selling it, but should probably have some idea of what it is worth for insurance purposes.

Thanks for taking a look.

Regards,

Drift.

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Information

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[browningautorifle]

RCMP firearms are marked RCMP. Or sometimes MP...but anyway, back then a policeman could well be carrying whatever he could forage for him self. With no markings, this one falls into the group that are a restricted revolver and are not particularly sought after...mostly because it shoots 38 S&W, which is expensive to purchase factory ammo... You can expect from $300 to maybe $450 at best. It's in decent shape but not stellar. Nothing wrong with it but it's not special. For insurance you price high though so you can replace it if it's destroyed. US prices don't apply here in Canada...so maybe you could look on CanadianGunNutz for one and see what they have.

[Drift]

Thanks Jim,

Any idea about what service it would have been in with the Canadian Broad Arrow stamp?

Regards,

Jonathon

[browningautorifle]

It could have been issued to any of the military during it's service time. A friend of mine was in Italy, carrying a PIAT gun and had one on issue...for instance. He was with the Hasty P's...