Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns New shoes for my old Model 18-3

So back in 2009 I stumbled upon this old, well used Model 18 in a pawn shop. It was not a pretty sight...the hammer had been bobbed off, the original target grips had been whittled down to something roughly resembling combat grips, it showed a good amount of holster wear, and had some light surface rust in a few places.

I was able to talk the pawn guy down to $200, and felt that I might have still overpaid a little! I was able to source a factory new old stock target hammer for it, and had a local gunsmith fit it. Most of the surface rust literally just wiped off and I could live with the honest holster wear. The grips, although hideously ugly, actually felt dang good, and I never really gave much thought about swapping them out, and shot the sweet little thing as is.

Here is what she looked like with the old grips.





Fast forward several years to just a couple of weeks ago...I was looking for a new Ruger Blackhawk and was working a trade against one with this little Model 18.
The guy was clearly turned off by the rough grips and said he would consider a trade if it had a nice set of original targets on it. Well, I started pricing them out and realized that people are pretty proud of their S&W grips, so the deal just kinda fell apart.

While looking for a set of target grips for it, I stumbled across a set of giraffe bone magna's that I fell in love with! I won the auction and a few days later had my new K frame giraffe bone grips in hand. The fit and finish are amazing!





I really liked the look of them, and although not quite as "comfortable" as the old grips, there is NO argument about the aesthetics!
The only thing missing was the little S&W medallions. I just so happened to have an old ratty pair of K frame magnas that were pretty rough, but the medallions were nice. So, I took to the grips with a saw, vice grips and pliers and salvaged the little brass emblems.





It was a little unnerving drilling holes in my beautiful new grips, but I knew it would be worth it. It was not as easy as I had though, as no drill bit was exactly the right size, and the medallions are not "flat". They have several compound angles which made getting them flush in the grips a bit of a challenge.


All in all, I think they look fantastic, and am no longer looking to trade the old girl away!

I have no earthly idea why that one picture is upside down...! I edited, re-edited, cropped and rotated and just can't get it to stay right side up...weird.

Todd

I like em! Id keep the old gal, Blackhawks you can get anywhere!

Very nice and I like those grips too😀

You done good. Nice find.

Damn straight Skippy.
I like Blackhawks, but this is not even a close comparison.

Just put a grip adapter on it and it'll feel great.
Bob

Those two are NICE!

+1 on the grip adapter, I like the Tyler T-GRIP.

BTW, the Model 18 is one of the coolest revolvers that S&W ever made.

I like those grips. And +1 on the Model 18 being cool. I have one....have had several over the years. And love shooting them.

Ya, I'm glad things worked out, or didn't work out...the way they did.

Nice to still have this thing in the stable.

Your M18 did not come originally with target grips, someone added those at a later date. It came new with standard SB magnas.

I thought that if it had a target hammer and the target trigger, it came with the target grips as well....?

Hard to tell from the pics about the hammer, but your gun appears to have the standard .265" serrated trigger.