Unlocked, spoken “ˌənˈläkt.” It’s a transitive verb meaning “To free from restraints or restrictions.”
In case you missed it, Smith & Wesson launched a classic revolver line at the 2025 NSSF SHOT Show that lacks the internal safety lock. They include the Model 10, 19 and 36 Classic. All three are solid frame designs made of carbon steel with forged parts that are finished with a high-polish blue. New shooters — or those who have spent their time learning to shoot only with 9mm pistols — may not know the significance of this announcement. Back in the 1990s, during the Clinton administration, there was a lot of angst about the future of firearms in America. Lawsuits, prospective legislation and nightly TV news harangues all aimed squarely at firearms. As a result, the then-management of S&W added internal locks to its revolvers starting in 2001, locks that required a key to lock and unlock them for safe storage. Much-hated in some circles — and disparagingly named in ways we can’t even print — they have persisted until now.
The three Classic Series No-Lock revolvers have been the historic mainstays of S&W production for a century and a quarter now, beginning with the introduction of the M&P .38 Special in 1899. While they are made in the classic manner, out of forged steel, S&W has not abandoned the good engineering details they have added to the designs through the decades.
One notable update is the cylinder retention lug. On the older models, this part was press-fitted into the frame and swaged to stay in place. Its purpose was to keep the cylinder on the yoke when you ejected the empties. Now, on all three — and all current-production S&W revolvers — it is an integral part of the frame. Having had to replace a few of those studs as a gunsmith back in the day, I applaud the change.
Advertisement
Model 10 Classic
The Model 10, the fixed-sight .38 Special model, has been in production since 1899 for good reason. It is small enough and light enough to be easy to carry, but heavy enough that the recoil of .38 Special is not a problem for most shooters. The 4-inch barrel of two of the Classic Series No-Locks — and all the millions that were made before them — provides a long enough sight radius for accurate shots. The barrel length ensures you get most of the velocity a .38 Special can generate. When fed target wadcutter ammunition, the Model 10 or 19 can, in the right hands, put all six shots into the same ragged hole on the target, time and again. I know that I’ve done it in various competitions.
Six shots in this modern world of high-capacity 9mm pistols might not seem like a lot, but for target shooting, training and self-defense, six rounds can be plenty. One thing I noticed while chronographing loads is that current .38 Special ammunition is right there in the mix with the ballistics of 9mm ammunition. In the old days, that wasn’t so much the case. You are not giving up power to go wheelgun. The no-lock Model 10 Classic has the same external dimensions as all the other Model 10 revolvers, so any speedloader made for the “K” frame will feed your 10.
The no-lock Model 10 Classic has the tapered barrel of its predecessors, and the ejector rod also has the large knob on the tip, like the ones I saw in so many Detroit police holsters during the Reagan era. Adding to the retro vibe, S&W elected to go with smooth hardwood grips made by Tyler Gun Works, looking even further back to the era when the K frame — then known as the M&P — was being made for the war effort, World War II that is. If you want to use more modern grips, they will fit just fine. It is a simple matter to unscrew the old and bolt on the new.
Advertisement
Model 19 Classic
The original Model 19 was developed at the urging of the late Bill Jordan with the marriage of the K frame and the .357 Magnum cartridge. With adjustable sights and barrel lengths from 21/2 to 6 inches, it was the mainstay of law enforcement officers who were allowed to carry .357 Magnums. (Many departments long had a “no Magnums” rule.) It had, and still has, the capability of using both .38 Special and .357 Magnum ammunition. With .38 Special ammo, even the +P loads, the M-19 is a real pussycat. It has enough extra weight compared to the M-10 that recoil becomes even less of an issue. However, when you load up full-power factory .357 Magnum ammo, you will find it a lot more exciting than the 9mm you may have been shooting up to this point.
One aspect of the M-19 that might not have been passed down to the current generation is that Jordan saw the M-19 as a “practice with .38s, carry .357s” revolver. You can shoot .357s all the time in yours if you want, but departments saw .357 Magnum ammunition as being much too expensive. The constant wear-and-tear on the revolvers would eventually lead to the development of the L-frame and the 686 series. “Constant wear and tear,” you ask? When I was first working in gun shops and shooting S&W K-frame revolvers in PPC competition, Detroit PD required quarterly qualifications. Four times a year on the range, and the serious officers who worked in dangerous precincts practiced more on their own. Now, before you get all worried, the firing schedule back then — with older M-19s not built to today’s standards — meant an M-19 might need some work before an officer retired. Might. That was several thousand full-power .357s per year. Me, I’m not worried, not with the new ones. The wear and tear will mostly be on you. After a day of testing the M-19 with full-power .357 Magnum ammunition, I had a blister on the web of my hand, so ease carefully into Magnum territory when you get yours.
Oh, and there was one more detail of the M-19 that caught my eye: The new lock. The originals used the ejector rod engaging a spring-loaded plunger under the barrel to secure the front of the cylinder, as on the Classic M-10. The no-lock M-19 Classic uses a spring-loaded plunger mounted on the frame to engage the yoke, locking the cylinder at the front. It is much like the third lock on the old Triple-Lock revolvers that Elmer Keith used in his development of the .44 Magnum. This is done because the M-19 uses the newer S&W assembly method of a barrel inside a sleeve. The sleeve has the rib, the front sight, the ejector rod shroud, and it cannot hold the front locking plunger like the M-10. The barrel threads into the frame and, when torqued, it locks the sleeve in place.
Model 36 Classic
As the backup gun of choice for many decades, the five-shot Smith & Wesson J-frame revolver first saw the light of day as a .38 Special at the 1950 annual convention of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). The new frame size was necessary because the older frame — known as the “I” frame, if you’re keeping track — had been used for various .32s and the .38 S&W, but it wasn’t large enough for the cylinder length needed for the .38 Special. The new revolver received and kept the name “Chief’s Special” until 1957, when S&W switched over to the model number system.
The no-lock Model 36 Classic has the same no-taper barrel that became the standard in 1975. It has the rounded, half-moon front sight that was the norm until the ramped-sight barrel replaced it. As in the old days, the barrel is just shy of 2 inches long, and the cylinder holds but five rounds. The short barrel also means the ejector rod isn’t long enough to fully eject the empties. For that, you’ll have to track down an earlier M-36, one with a 3-inch barrel.
One modern change on the M-36 that I noticed, and approve of, is the double-action (DA) trigger pull. The J-frames always had a reputation of having rather stiff DA trigger pulls. Where the K-frames could be easily made much lighter and smoother, the Js were problematic. S&W has made some interesting engineering changes in the geometry, and the trigger pull is a bit lighter, but much smoother and more even than the old guns. Where the old guns used to “stack” — that is, the trigger pull would get heavier as you pulled through — this one does not.
I used the same loads for the M-10 and the M-36 to see what the difference in barrel length would produce. Yes, a shorter barrel does cost you velocity. That’s something you must weigh against the smaller size that makes the M-36 a lot easier to carry.
Another change from the old days is that these three are all internal firing pin designs. Instead of having a firing pin pinned to the hammer, the hammer strikes the firing pin — which is spring-loaded and held in the frame — to detonate the primer. This has been the case in S&W revolvers for some time, and I’m glad to see they kept it even while building classic revolvers.
At the Range
It was like stepping back in time. The smooth DA trigger stroke of each of these revolvers was easy to manage, and knocking down steel plates and poppers was a breeze. Over at the rifle range, the clean and crisp single-action (SA) trigger pull on each made tagging the gongs at 100 yards easy. Well, I’ll admit it was a bit more difficult with the M-36 than the other two. The shorter sight radius meant aiming errors were magnified, but I still managed to start out with three hits from five shots and finished five-for-five a few cylinders later. It was a clue that I had been neglecting my revolver practice of late.
The Smith & Wesson no-lock revolvers are cool and hearken back to the days of muscle cars and 8-track players, so why get one now? Shooting should be about fun, at least some of the time. An accurate firearm is fun to shoot, and you can’t get much more accurate than a revolver. There is also the skills-building aspect of this. You may be a hotshot at your gun club with your 9mm, but how are you with a revolver? Best of all, learning to shoot a DA revolver accurately will make you a better shot with your 9mm auto. It’s all about sight alignment and trigger control, and a double-action revolver really works you on that. Once you’ve learned it, you will be a much better shooter with everything.
Smith & Wesson Model 10 Classic
- Type: Revolver, double-action/single-action
- Cartridge: .38 Special
- Capacity: 6 rds.
- Barrel: 4 in., carbon steel
- Length: 8.87 in.
- Width: 1.45 in.
- Height: 5.85 in.
- Weight: 2 lbs., 2.6 oz.
- Grips: Tyler Gun Works, walnut, smooth
- Finish: Blued (steel)
- Sights: Fixed blade (front), fixed notch (rear)
- Trigger: 3 lbs., 13 oz. (SA), 10 lbs., 4 oz. (DA)
- MSRP: $979
Smith & Wesson Model 19 Classic
- Type: Revolver, double-action/single-action
- Cartridge: .38 Special/.357 Magnum
- Capacity: 6 rds.
- Barrel: 4.25 in., carbon steel
- Length: 9.87 in.
- Width: 1.45 in.
- Height: 5.85 in.
- Weight: 2 lbs., 5.4 oz.
- Grips: Hardwood, checkered
- Finish: Blued (steel)
- Sights: Fixed red ramp (front), adj. notch (rear)
- Trigger: 4 lbs., 1 oz. (SA), 9 lbs., 7 oz. (DA)
- MSRP: $1,099
Smith & Wesson Model 38 Classic
- Type: Revolver, double-action/single-action
- Cartridge: .38 Special
- Capacity: 5 rds.
- Barrel: 1.88 in.
- Length: 6.94 in.
- Width: 1.33 in.
- Height: 4.3 in.
- Weight: 1 lb., 3.64 oz.
- Grips: Hardwood, checkered
- Finish: Blued (steel)
- Sights: Fixed blade (front), fixed notch (rear)
- Trigger: 4 lbs., 4 oz. (SA), 11 lbs., 8 oz. (DA)
- MSRP: $849
Read the full article here