“Wheelgun Wednesday” -- S&W Model 10-5

Jul 26, 2023

The “old heater” featured this week is a recent appearance at the shop, a skinny-barrel M&P revolver in its most encountered form which has been something that has, surprisingly, eluded me for the duration of my long, gun-using life. The near exceptions have been a few snubs and one four-inch round butt 1963-1965 vintage M10-5.

The current sample, a Smith & Wesson Model 10-5, is a skinny barrel four-inch with square butt, shown with factory stocks. Below, the only other skinny barrel M10 (other than snubs) I ever fired is this refinished 10-5 4" with a round butt ...

But the standard police revolver for my developing years – no joy, until recently.

What is a Model 10 Smith & Wesson? Well, it’s a 38 Hand Ejector – so named from inception in 1899 (even before the “won two World Wars” autoloader). It was later named the Military & Police, a name resurrected for autoloading pistols and some small S&W revolvers in recent history. In WWII, casually-finished M&Ps had a “V” prefix serial number and were dubbed “Victory Model,” a good name.

I like it. The current Victory is a 22 auto-loader; I like it too.

Smith & Wesson adopted a model numbering system in 1957 and the M&P-format revolver became the Model 10. It’s a good, basic fighting handgun.

Made with two-inch, four-inch, five-inch and six-inch slender barrels, as well as a four-inch heavy barrel (something I have vastly more experience with), it was mostly made with square butt; the exceptions were at the inception and the more recent versions.

Like the typical M&P/Victory/M10 revolver, this one features a six-shot cylinder chambered in 38 S&W Special. It’s built on the medium (“K”) frame and has fixed sights.

The 10-5 that recently arrived has the “dash 5” engineering change initiated in 1962. The front sight was a thicker 1/8” width on the “tapered barrel” (from the original, skinny 1/10” blade). This “-5” was made from 1962 until 1977. One source said they jumped to a 10-7; I have a 10-6 …

In 1968, the “diamond” pattern Magna stocks were discontinued. The sample has replacement, non-diamond stocks.

How is such a bit of “humdrum hardware” (so dubbed by another writer) determined to be “popular?”

How about the estimated production of six million units?

That will do it.

Why is this a big deal?

Service size/weight revolvers of my youth are a joy to shoot with standard and target ammo, like the superb 148gr. hollow-base wadcutter from Black Hills Ammunition. Below, like all blued steel revolvers, some care should be taken in finish preservation, like this storage bag from Arms Preservation.

It’s not. I’m not in my second childhood. This is a gun analogous to the issue revolver of Hoover’s FBI for a time. It was approved for carry in the NYPD. A five-inch version was issued by Detroit Mi. PD. This kind of gun is likely the most issued/approved police service revolver in modern history.

My first agency had two “loaner” guns for times when an officer’s gun was out of service. They were both of the Combat Masterpiece/Model 15 form. Being a high class, high dollar agency (no, it really wasn’t), they opted for a Model 10 with adjustable sights and a few other frills.

So how is the tapered barrel 10 different from a heavy barrel 10? Just a few ounces of weight, all out front, allegedly to help keep that muzzle still while you’re rolling back a double-action trigger. I was interested to see if there was a relevant difference, but I have tested this before with a round-butt 4” M10.

With it, I did the “Spaulding 2-Second” drill: From ready (at 20 feet) – Dave has his own (inherently practical) ready position – you have to get a round into the “A” zone within the first second, with four rounds into the threat before two seconds elapsed. The cadence gives you some idea of the “operational speed” or rate of fire. Also, according to Dave, “it shouldn’t sound like a monkey on a typewriter,” but an even cadence of fire. While I’d fired that with semi-autos before (including double action/single action SIG P239 9mm and a 45 Auto), someone had asked how that went with a DA revolver.

The gun was fitted with Herrett’s Gunstocks’ “Shooting Star” with skip-line checkering. Using Cor-Bon 147 grain FMJ Performance Match ammo and a B-8 Center, I flunked the first try with the first round out in 1.03 with a total time of 1.8 seconds.

Still not bad.

Like with any unfamiliar gun, it helps to check zero with the ammo you intend to use. Below, the 'squared up' bullseye stance was used after the first attempt went over the top of the target. At bottom, the errant high hit was from the previous group; the six o'clock hold yielded five hits in the 'bull,' old police one-hand, single-action qual style.

With the current square-butt skinny-barrel M10, I shot some older remanufactured 38 ammo – 158 grain SWC at “service velocity” (around 800-850 fps) – on the bullseye range. Shooting one-handed, bladed to the target “match-style,” I held on the center of the bull (not “match-style”). The five hits went into the top of the repair center.

I reloaded, adjusted my hold to 6 o’clock, and faced into the target to shoot one-handed.

This resulted into a 47/50 score, all into the top ½ of the bull. I tended to cluster right, something I’m finding with other guns.

This old shooter does just fine.

The serial number dates the piece back to the 1966 – 67 era. It came with the standard S&W “Magna” service stocks to which I added a Tyler T-Grip grip adapter (recovered from a colleague on Snub Noir – a worthwhile revolver club).

What’s this good for? Properly holstered, it’s fine for concealed carry as well as home defense chores. And with its “6 o’clock” zero for 158 grain service loads, it could handle some field chores as well.

-- Rich Grassi