How to photograph a gun bore
Published: June 25th, 2009
Vote for David has written a detailed tutorial on producing great looking photos of a gun bores like the photo below. I highly recommend reading it.
Beautiful!
I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!
More by Steve Johnson
Comments
Join the conversation
Daniel E. Watters, Before I shot that pile of guns (state turn-in, dozens of similar ones), I couldn't have even told you what make they were. I never have been a big fan of the S&W self-loaders, though I don't really have anything against them. Their revolvers, now . . . you could persuade me to part with some money for some of their revolvers . . . if . . . I had any extra money. :(
I'm just glad somebody (you) out there has this sort of knowledge squirreled away so they can snag a bargain @ the gun show.
Actually, I also prefer the S&W revolvers over their auto pistols. I've just been inside too many of them to forget what they look like. The only S&W autos to turn my crank were the various 3566 models and the Super 9. These were all special single-action variants of the 5906, and were offered in the ill-fated .356 TSW.
The .356 TSW was roughly a 9x21.5mm loaded to USPSA Major Power Factor. Major was 175pf back in those days. By all rights, the .356 TSW should have killed the .357 SIG in childbirth. The .356 TSW was more powerful as it was loaded to higher pressures. Since it could use 9x19mm magazines, the .356 TSW would have offered a much higher ammunition capacity in many models over the fatter .357 SIG, which required .40 S&W type magazines. However, S&W and Federal only wanted to market the .356 TSW as a competition round. (Back then, TSW meant "Team S&W".)
The 3566 Limited was briefly approved for Limited Division as enough pistols had been produced and the factory ammunition could make Major as the rules required. However within a week or so, the USPSA Board of Directors changed the rules to mandate a .40 caliber or higher in order to score Major in Limited Division. This of course killed whatever interest there was in using the 3566 Limited as a competition pistol.
There was a really nice Open Division 3566 variant built in conjunction with Briley. (Briley's head pistolsmith Claudio Salassa and the S&W Performance Center's head pistolsmith Paul Liebenberg had worked together back when they lived in South Africa.) But no one in the US really wanted to compete using anything other than a M1911 variant once the widebody frames became available.
The Super 9 was a commercial export model. It was basically an economy model of the 3566 Limited. Gone were the fancy 3566 stepped slide contours, two-tone finish, and magwell funnel. The Super 9's 5" barrel had a standard 3rd Gen. muzzle profile instead of being machined straight for the spherical bushing of the 3566. In addition, the Super 9's long slide had a standard Novak rear sight dovetail with an aftermarket adjustable sight instead of the 3566's BoMar sight. The version I encountered had three barrels: 9x19mm, 9x21mm IMI, and .356 TSW. One interesting thing I found was that the sear for the single-action Super 9 was originally meant for the double-action only models. I want to say that it used a standard hammer as well. The 3566 as with the other S&W single-action autos of its day used what looked like a cropped version of the Model 52-2 hammer.