I've been wanting to get a S&W .357 revolver for years, but haven't found the right one until now. I was out for a drive with the wife in our convertable roadster yesterday (was very warm/nice out) and decided to stop by our local Scheel's just to kill some time. Made the mistake of walking through the gun section (as I always do), and spotted this S&W 28-2 sitting in the case. They had $550 on it. My safe is overflowing, so I tried to talk myself out of it... but I couldn't. It just really grabbed my attention. I must be a raccoon, because that shiny object would not leave my thoughts. My wife wasn't thrilled, but I told her that it wasn't something that you see every day. We ended-up having lunch in their cafeteria area and talked about it. She got on board and gave her blessing. I used the fact that she'd just bought herself a 2015 Subaru Forester Touring XT2.0 with 8K miles on it the day before... to justify my toy. Most of the time I just buy stuff on the down-low on my day off, when she's working... and then it goes into the safe. I always tell her about my purchases, but many times I wait a while. Anyways... this time she knew about it from the get-go. Normally I wouldn't give a second thought to buying something with her full knowledge, but this past six months I've bought about half a dozen new firearems. All of which she knows about. So I knew that I was pushing the limits with this, but she was cool about it.

Anyways... the sales guy who sold it to me knew it's history, so he passed it on to me. An older guy who never sells guns brought three of them in to sell (he didn't say why) and this was one of them. It's not one of the 100 original nickel-plated 28-2s that are so rare. The owner sent it to S&W to have it nickel-plated (and have the cylinder replaced). The plating job is flawless and it looks like it came that way. I didn't buy it because it's rare (because it's not that rare). I just bought it because it's awesome looking. I've bought a lot of guns there over the years and the sales guys are pretty low-key about people's new guns (because they sell them all day, every day). But I had at least 6 sales guys high-five me and tell me how cool this gun is, and the guy checking me out at the register said that he'd been watching it and was planning to buy it himself. Sucka! Should've jumped on it sooner. I think they have to wait a few days before they can buy stuff. I told my wife that this gun wouldn't last long at that price and the sales guys agreed. I'm in love. Just need to find the right holster to pack it in. When I'm in griz country, I'll pack my 329PD. But when walking my dog on our trails on the edge of town, the 28-2 will be on my side. I had been looking at small .357s (like the new Kimber K66), but I can wait for one of those until later. This beauty had to come home with my RFN!

Well I see the barrel is pinned, is the cylinder recessed as well? Since it was replaced, why was it replaced.

Nice revolver for sure.

I have no idea why the cylinder was replaced. Everything looks brand new and the rifling looks great in the barrel. The guy who owned it is quite the collector from what the sales guy told me. The extractor face is blued, which definitely leads credence to the fact that this gun didn't originally come from the S&W factory in a nickel finish.


Btw... I really don't know much about revolvers. I've carried, shot and used them... but I know a LOT more about semi-autos and how they work than revolvers. I've heard the term "pinned barrel" many times, but don't really know what that means or if it's good or bad. Serial # on this gun is S2061XX.

Original factory nickel will have an N on the back of the cylinder and on the side of the grip frame, sometimes on the underside of barrel or in channel the ejector sits in. A refinish may ( not always) have a date stamp on the frame under the grips ( example 6/80) to not refinish.
All original nickel smiths had the extractor still blued. A non factory nickel usually includes the hammer and trigger, so the fact yours is still case hardened in these areas lends credence to the factory refinish story.
Smith revolvers had the barrel pinned until the 1980's when it was eliminated by a new lower cost barrel attachment technique. In the 22's and magnums they had the cylinders recessed so the bean of the case is fully supported by steel all around and almost all pinned revolvers will also be recessed. I am not much for nickel but a nice gun at a not too bad price

Thanks for the info!

I don't own any other nickel handguns (though I have had one or two in the past), but this one really caught my eye... as it seemed to have also done to the sales associates there. I haven't shot it yet, but I'm pretty stoked just to have it in the safe. Just makes me think of something a small town sheriff back in the day would have been packing around.

A 28-2 would be recessed, not that recessed is anything special.

You got a great gun!  Those Altamont faux ivory grips are great for the money.  I actually just this evening put a set of the smooth grips on a blued 27-2 of mine.

I love nickel N frames.  My long term goal is to get a 27, 57, and 29 in nickel with 8-3/8" barrels.  They look terrific with those long tubes.

Beautiful gun, and very good price for a really nice piece.

Several things about the refinish.

If it is a true S&W refinish, the revolver would've been stamped with a star, typically under the grips, but also sometimes on the barrel flat, or where the yoke meets the frame. If you see this star, it means it went back to Smith for some work, that could mean it had trigger work, or something else done, but if it doesn't have that star, it wasn't done at S&W.

It's hard to tell from your pictures, but if any of the corners on the revolver are blended, instead of sharp, that would probably lead me to believe it wasn't a factory refinish, the same goes with any stampings that look washed out. I guess it's possible it was sent to someone like Turnbull to get done, but if I saw the star stamp, I would certainly say it was a Factory refinish.



Good find!


ETA: I have read with a factory refinish, Smith will change the cylinder to the proper finish, as it's harder to refinish the original cylinder, so it's more cost effective to just replace it.

You are correct, my question was, since the cylinder was replaced, was it replaced with a recessed cylinder.

Thanks for the info. I'll have to look for a star when I'm back home from traveling. I will say that the nickel finish is flawless in the areas of the stampings and everywhere else. The sales guy pointed that out to me when he was telling me this gun's history. I'd be surprised if it wasn't a factory job. It's that flawless.

I have no idea. What do I look for?

Attached File


Recessed is on the bottom. You can see the entire rim of the cartridge is supported by metal. This was done with .22s and Magnums early on, due to ballon formed brass. It wasn't uncommon to have a 'blowout' especially with high power cartridges, the recessing stopped any hot gasses from hitting the shooters hand.

Ultimately with new solid base cartridges (also due to cost savings), it was done away with in the Magnums, but kept on the .22s due to blowout still being a rare occurrence.

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated. Mine doesn't have a recessed cylinder face.

I just got home from a back surgery, went straight to the safe, dug out this beauty, and eased into my recliner. Recovery will be more enjoyable while fondling this seeetie.

Sounds like it was sent in to be refinished after 1981-1982, which is when Smith did away with P&R revolvers.

Roger that. I guess that I could send my serial # to S&W and see what they know about its history. I wonder what they would charge to do that for me.

A letter costs $75 now, but it will only contain information on when the revolver shipped. So where it went to, in what configuration, etc.

They do not include information of any repairs, refinish, etc, even if it was factory.

Dayummm!!! If it was a seriously collectible piece... it might be worthwhile.

Yeah...


I remember when they were $25, they sat at $50 for a while, should've lettered some guns back the ...

I'll see your Nickeled 28 and raise you a Hard Chromed 28

This one came into my LGS and I picked it up for a song. Not sure who did the refinish but, it's beautiful.  I swapped the Pachmayr grippers for some of Craig Spegel's extended Cocobolo grips. My favorite revolver. I learned to shoot on my Father's 4" 28-2 with wadcutters in the early 80's.

Blitz