Smith & Wesson Model 57 Smith & Wesson Model 57 The Smith & Wesson Model 57 is a large frame, double-action revolver with a six round cylinder, chambered for the .41 Magnum cartridge, and designed and manufactured by the Smith & Wesson firearms company. The gun was designed as a weapon for law enforcement agencies. However, due to size and recoil it found more favor with civilian target shooters and hunters. In the early 1960s, Elmer Keith, Bill Jordan, and Skeeter Skelton, all noted firearms authorities and authors, lobbied Remington Arms and Smith & Wesson to introduce a new .41 caliber police cartridge with the
Smith & Wesson Model 39 Smith & Wesson Model 39 The Smith & Wesson Model 39 was a semi-automatic pistol developed for the US Army service pistol trials of 1954. After the Army abandoned its search for a new pistol, the Model 39 went on the civilian market in 1955 and was the first of Smith & Wesson's first generation semi-automatic pistols. The Smith & Wesson Model 39 was the first U.S. designed double action (DA) semi-automatic pistol marketed in the United States. The German Walther P38 DA pistol impressed American ordnance personnel during World War II. The Army Ordnance Corps issued a proposal for