{"id":1670,"date":"2012-02-18T11:35:44","date_gmt":"2012-02-18T15:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=1670"},"modified":"2012-02-18T11:35:44","modified_gmt":"2012-02-18T15:35:44","slug":"tim-mullin-on-the-sw-357-magnum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/tim-mullin-on-the-sw-357-magnum\/","title":{"rendered":"TIM MULLIN ON THE S&W .357 MAGNUM"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Louis gun expert Tim Mullin knows his stuff. I quoted a couple of his books in the first volume of \u201cMassad Ayoob\u2019s Greatest Handguns,\u201d and more of it in the forthcoming Volume II, of which I\u2019ve just reviewed the galley proofs (should be out this year).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tim has just come out with \u201cMAGNUM: The S&W .357 Magnum Phenomenon,\u201d published in the finest \u201ccoffee table book\u201d style by Collector Grade Publications in Ontario (www.collectorgrade.com).<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Magnum<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s every bit as well researched as his previous book on the Colt National Match pistol, and the photos will induce at least the same high drool level among connoisseurs as did the latter book.<\/p>\n

The big revolver and its ground-breaking new cartridge \u2013 \u201cthe gun that took the \u2018proof\u2019 out of bullet-proof vests,\u201d as it was advertised at the time \u2013 did much to popularize hunting big game with handguns.\u00a0 Gun collectors know the ultimate \u201cgrail gun\u201d was the very first \u201cRegistered Magnum,\u201d given by the company to J. Edgar Hoover, later to disappear into \u201ca private collection\u201d after his death. Well, grail hunters\u2026you\u2019ll find a couple of pictures of it in this book. Hoover thought enough of the weapon to order several for the FBI, and many more agents bought their own, including legendary gunfighters Jelly Bryce and Walter Walsh.\u00a0 Walsh, over 100 years old, is still with us, a living monument to the ideals the Bureau was meant to stand for.<\/p>\n

Mullin delves deep into the history and the subtleties of this classic outdoorsman\u2019s revolver. He points out that the first gun expert to write about it in The American Rifleman <\/em>did so without ever actually firing one. While Tim details the .357s that followed it \u2013 from Smith & Wesson, and from other makers \u2013 he focuses on the original .44-frame model, later designated the Model 27 series.\u00a0 Its mirror-polished finish, its checkered topstrap, and its hand-honed action crafted by the company\u2019s most skilled artisans, made it a showcase of the finest American workmanship that could be applied to a firearm.<\/p>\n

The $69.95 retail price is commensurate with super-high quality \u201ccoffee table books,\u201d and worth it for the details of Mullin\u2019s painstaking research. I for one enjoyed the heck out of it.<\/p>\n

Is the classic Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum one of your favorites, too?\u00a0 If so, come on into the comments section here, and tell us about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Louis gun expert Tim Mullin knows his stuff. I quoted a couple of his books in the first volume of \u201cMassad Ayoob\u2019s Greatest Handguns,\u201d and more of it in the forthcoming Volume II, of which I\u2019ve just reviewed the galley proofs (should be out this year).   Tim has just come out with \u201cMAGNUM: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-firearms","8":"category-reviews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}