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What�s your favorite odd, rare, custom, or �interesting� handgun.

This Gun is scary accuratye and will shoot a One hole Group @ 10 Yards if I do my part right.

That's awesome. Maybe your groups would tighten up more, at 5 yards.....

Hey Huntsmann22, I had a rifle that'd shoot one hole groups at 10 yards too, but the darn thing always shot 2" low. So it went down the road!

DMc

Hello Guy's
You Guy's are Beting me up here as It was a miss-print on my Part. I Meant to say @ 100 Yard's this rifle shoots One hole groups. Let's Get back to the Kevin's post here about Rare or Interesting hand guns shall we ? here's one for you how about a First Year 1935 S&W Registered Magnum. S&W Offered these customer ordered Custom made hand built revolver's from 1935-1938. They were the Most elaborate gun ever made by S&W and had a retail price of $61.00 in 1935 ! This is one of only 720 Made in their first Year being 1935. By 1938 S&W dropped the Registration process and for the next couple of year's they called this very same gun The Non Registered Magnum. In 1940 Civilian gun sales stopped at S&W for the war effort, so these were not offered again until Post World War II time span. When they started producing them again they were a standard catalog revolver made on the assembly line, Not hand made gun's like these were before the War where Douglas Wesson had selected his Best Factory Gun smith's to build these Registered Magnums. These were a High Bred hand gun custom made and Tuned to the Buyer's specification's & There was a total of about 5500 of these Registered Magnums made in their four year Span. Most of the first year Registered Magnum's went to People of stature as Philip Sharpe, the developer of the Famous .357 Magnum round, J. Edgar Hoover, General George S Patton, Hollywood actor Jimmy Stewart and several other's. This one was Purchased by Charles W. Bowen the owner of the Bowen Brother's Hardware & Sporting Good's company of Augusta, Georgia. He had written a Personal Letter to Douglas Wesson the vice president of S&W asking for a special reduced price on this gun as his store was & had been a Large S&W stocking dealer for many year's. Douglas Wesson replied as shown in the Original response below where he agreed to sell this gun to Charles Bowen for a price of $39.00 F.O.B. with one Box of Complimentary Winchester .357 Magnum ammunition. It was sighted in at 25 Yard with a dead center hold on Target using Winchester .357 Magnum ammo before it left the factory.







I spent Two full years researching this gun's History Trail, and here is how it all Unfolded. I Located the Grandson of Charles W. Bowen who Lives in Augusta, Georgia by Googling The Charles Bowen Name on the Internet it showed a Charles W. Bowen III still Living in Augusta, Georgia, so I Took a chance and called the Home phone number that I Had found for Charles W. Bowen III. An Older sounding woman answered the phone and I asked her if her Husband was a relative to The late Charles Bowen, who Owned & Operated the Bowen Brother's Hardware & Sporting Good's store ? She said that her Husband was the Grandson of Charles W. Bowen then asked me if I would like to speak with him ? He answered the Phone and we spent an Hour at Least going over his family History. He shared many personal things with me while we had our conversation, and before I got off the phone with him I asked him if he would Mind Typing all that we Talked about ? He agreed to do it but wanted to see picture's of his Late Grandfather Gun, so I sent them off as soon as we got off the Phone, and he in return Typed up the Letter shown below in the Link to me to add to the Gun's History Trail as well as sent me several Family archive Photo's that are shown below. I had certainly Hit The Mother Load finding him as his Memory was "as sharp as a Tack" and he Loved Talking about his rich Family History and their Involvement of firearms He said that the Bowen Brother's sporting good's store started life in the Mid to Late late 1800's as his Great Grandfather used to make custom order Target Musket Loading rifles that were sold under the Trade name of Bowen-Rogers. later on, The Confederate Army chose Bowen & Roger's to standardize a caliber & to build and supply the Confederate Troop's for the civil War, His custom made Musket rifles are highly sought after today and a Rare find. He went on & shared with me that he was the last family member to have operate as the company President and run the Bowen Brother's Hardware & sporting Good's company of Augusta, Georgis which closed their doors in 1967, he is now in his late 70's. He said in the Late 1950's to Early 1960's time span, the Bowen Brother's Hardware & Sporting good's store under went a face lift and had an escalator installed to the second level of the store & a revolving automatic front door system installed during it's reconstruction , being the first store of it's Kind in the area to Offer these new inovations in that time span to offer it's Patron's. He sent me the personal family Picture's and Obituary of his Grandfather Charles W. Bowen shown below. I hope you enjoy this Information & Picture's as much as I enjoyed doing the research of my S&W 1935 Registered Magnum Regards, TheGeneral

My 1935 S&W Registered Magnum.








Here is a digital copy of the actual document where Charles W. Bowen was requesting a special reduced price from S&W and asking them what sight's would be a good choice on a 3-1/2" Barrel length Registered Magnum. He also "Stressed" that he wanted the new then Magna style stock's on it & S&W responding Telling him their choice would be a Patridge sight for his gun. In 1937 F.B.I. Agent Frank Baughman sent in a Mechanical drawing of his own special sight design which was a serrated elevated ramp style sight to reduce snagging when drawn from a Holster. S&W agrred to use his design and from there after The Baughman designed sight was the standard sight used on all short Barreld S&W revolver's which is still used today.









This letter is S&W's response to Charles W. Bowen offering his revolver for a special price of $39.00 delivered to his S&W stocking Sporting Good's store in Augusta, Georgia








Here is the Original factory Order build sheet Invoice that Charles W. Bowen filled out and returned to S&W to begine the Birth of his 1935 Registered Magnum hand gun with his specifications of what he wanted to be included on his revolver as well as what ammo was used and the distance & Hold on Target to sight it in at the factory, before it shipped to him. S&W used these Customer specification order form's when you Placed the order for your gun to be built by them. This was the Only Gun Ever offered by S&W that allowed the customer the Freedom to create his own personal option's Placed into a Registered Magnum hand gun. These were considered to be the Most Elaborate gun to have ever come out of S&W Then or since.













Here is the Bowen Brother's Hardware & Sporting good's store in the same time apan being 1935 as when my revolver was sent to Charles W. Bowen the Owner of the store. Notice the Early 1930's Vintage Ford Model-A Pick-up Parked out in front of the store that was used to deliver their good's to local customer's back then





Here is Charles W. Bowen shown with his Nephew Dudley Bowen, and Uncles to Charles W. Bowen III that supplied me with this and the Other Family Photographs. They are shown standing on the Loading dock in the rear area of the Bowen Brother's Hardware & Sporting good's store where my gun would have been brought to & Checked inwhen it was delivered to Charles W. Bowen 0n December 13, 1935. Perhaps' this was a Christmas Present to him self ?



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Here is the actual Obituary of Charles W. Bowen who ordered my 1935 Registered Magnum. He passed just 39 Month's after he received his gun from S&W. I Bought the gun while attending our annual Smith & Wesson collector's Meeting in 2009. The fellow collector that had it was from California. It was Not clear how the gun got from the East Coast to The West coast, but myself & Charles Bowen III have speculated that it was sold after his Grandfather's death in 1938 to a Mr Rodger's who was a Captain of The United states Army and stationed at The Augusta, Georgia arsenal. We Feel as when Captain Rodger's completed his service time in Augusta, Georgia he returned to his Native state of California taking with him my 1935-Registered Magnum.

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Here is the Photgraph of how the Bowen Brother's Hardware & sporting good's store looked after it's Face lift in the early 1960's time span. They closed their door's for good in 1967 as the Big Box store's back then being Woolworth's, Sear's & Roebucks J.C. Penny, Western Auto and other's Pulled away much of their retail Business forcing them to close their doors for Good. Their store is still standing and is now home to Turner Entertainment Network of New's feed's being CNN and other Local syndicated new's feeds.





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An Original Augusta Time's Newspaper advertisement for Bowen-Roger's Guns back in the mid to Late 1800's time span.



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This is the Typed Letter that Charles Bowen III agreed to send me. It is not hard to see that his family history was Heavily Involved with firearms. This Letter now resides with the rest of the documentation on my 1935 Regsistered Magnum. To me, this Facinating History of the Bowen Family, was the Icing on the cake in completing my revolver's History Trail. I am sure you have all Heard of the Phrase "If Gun's Could Talk" ? Well this One spoke volume's when I researched it and completed it's Rich Bowen Family History Trail ! To view it in it's original format simply Click on the Two Links below to read about The Bowen Family History of Guns.



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I was 20 Minute's down the Interstate when my Buddy called me that was set up next to this vendor. He wanted to know why I left there in such a Hurry? I told him what I had just scored from the vendor right next to him, and that he had No Clue of what he had just Traded me, so I had to get gone before someone else tried to educate him on what he really Gave up. Here they are on my 1935 Registered Magnum, and these are No doubt The Most Comfortable shooting stock's I have ever placed in my hand. Oh, & if you are wondering I had $35.00 in the set of Factory S&W Target stock's of which I Traded for these. Regards, The General

Hello Kevin
Here is a Rare Gem. This is a S&W Model 632 Centennial revolver. I was set up at a gun whow Near Memphis, Tennessee with a Friend a couple of Year's. The show was Large but I had not seen anything come in the door that caught my eye. That was Until Early Sunday Morning. An Older Man had a S&W Leir-Sigler Era box Tucked under his arm & I could see it was of J-frame size. Before my Gun show buudy could ask, I asked him what he had in the box ? He said an Old S&W chambered in .32 H&R Magnum. I asked if it was for sale ? He Nodded and handed it to me. He went on to say that he had Bought it brand new in 1989 but never shot it. He said that he was wanting a S&W chambered in the new then Federal .327 Magnum. I asked what his price was and he said "Exacly what I had to give for it in 1989". I then asked and what would that be ? He said $300.00 and not one Penny less. I couldn't get the Three Hundred Buck's out of my Wallet fast enough.


I had read about these but never seen one up close. They were a One year offering from S&W and Only 1000 of them were produced. It is an Air-Weight made of Scandium & Stainless steel & came with a set of Uncle Mike Boot stock's on it. It was close to Valentine's day, so I Bought a Gift Bag, some tissue Paper and a box of chocolates and Gave it to my Wife as a Valentines day present. It remain's to be only Factory fired and sit's proudly on her Night stand next to our Bed. I Later added the Factory S&W Rosewood Boot atock's shown on it. Regards, The General