ONE MAN’S PACKING GUN

S&W MODEL 63

After I graduated from college I accepted a job with a company which placed me back in the area where I grew up….the coastal area of the panhandle of Florida. After being a student for so long and not having much if any, extra spending money, it was a new found freedom when I realized that these people were going to pay me real money on a somewhat regular basis. After taking care of buying items like a car, stereo and other similar necessities, I realized that during my college days I had allowed myself to become six-gunless. If I remember correctly it was really worst than that….I was hand-gunless.

In this area there is an abundance of options for one who likes to fish, both for fresh water and salt water species. I happened to like both…I also enjoyed hand-guns, especially six-guns. I decided that I needed a small six-gun that could be easily transported in my tackle box or jeans pockets when on these excursions. Not having at this time much in the way of reloading equipment, I decided that a 22 of some type would suffice…at least initially. When in high school a friend had a High Standard double action, I don’t remember the model number, that was small framed and easily "packed". It of course was of the blued variety, stainless steel not being an option at that time. High humidity together with salt water/spray on a blued six-gun tend to make one’s life more centered around keeping the piece clean instead of shooting it…not exactly what a fresh out-of-school still wet-behind-the-ears twenty something male wishes to be encumbered with.

This was the time frame when Smith and Wesson had started offering some of their revolvers in stainless steel. The work I was involved with also used stainless steel in the fabrication of our product, so I was familiar with it’s properties and resistance to corrosion. What I needed was one of those stainless steel Smiths in but in a small frame 22. At the local gun shows I had seen the model 34 "kit" gun and knew that this would be an ideal gun for my use, but I was reluctant to purchase one because of the corrosion concerns. About this same time, I read an article that indicated Smith and Wesson had started producing the kit gun in stainless steel, calling it the model 63. Checking with several local gun shops produced blank looks from the salespeople. I finally found one shop that agreed to inquire from Smith and Wesson about the availability of the M63 and order one if possible. I left my name and number, not knowing if I would ever hear from them. One day about two months later the phone rang at work and the guy on the other end said that he had just un-packed a M63 Smith and Wesson and had seen my name on a list as wanting one…..was I still interested?….I took a very early lunch break that day…..I had my stainless steel 22.

The M63 turned out to be an ideal packing piece for my uses. It went everywhere with me on fishing and woods bumming trips. I had a cross-draw holster made up for it by El Paso Saddlery which when used, placed the small Smith at instant availability while at the same time it was hardly noticed. It easily packed into my tackle box, jeans pocket, bait bucket, whatever…..it was always there.

Under these conditions reaction time becomes somewhat important. What also is important is you would rather not shoot holes in the bottom of your boat trying to make a good snake out of Mr. Moccasin. I would always load the M63 with three CCI shot-shells followed with three hollow point shorts. That way I had three chances to take control of the situation before climbing on top of the outboard. The important thing that had to be remembered was that when closing the cylinder, the last hollow point to the right had to end up under the hammer so that the first round fired would be a shot-shell. I would modify the hollow point shorts by enlarging the size and depth of the cavity…its amazing what one of these would do at short range to a moccasin’s head, turtle or gar fish.

Dragonflies are amazing flying machines…..at one moment they are flying at warp speed like a jet, the next they are hovering like a helicopter and then at other times they fly at what seems to be stall speed, just barely staying up. When they get tried of flying they sometimes land on the tip of your fishing pole and take a rest, giving the rod tip the most action its had all day. It was one of those days when the dragonflies were giving my rod tip more of a workout than were the fish and I was bored. Dragonflies were everywhere..…big ones. I happened to focus on one doing the stall speed routine flying straight away. The M63 was laying beside me on the boat seat and before I realized what I was doing I had it in hand and the dragonfly was history. Whoa…..that was fun!!! I had found a new use for my packing gun. I had a ball that fishing trip and if I remember correctly, I brought home no fish. On future trips I made sure I had a good supply of shot-shells. Sometimes all the dragonflies laying on top of the water started the bluegills to biting and I would have to lay the Smith down and impale a cricket on the hook and carry out the duties of why I was there..…after all I was on a fishing trip.

Late one night my brother in law and myself were returning from an evening of flounder gigging. Rick was standing in the bow of the boat with his back to me poling up a small creek. I was sitting on the stern seat drinking a Coke. Mounted on the bow of the boat were two Coleman lanterns which were on, giving off their bright light. The lanterns each had a medium sized dish pan attached acting as reflectors so all the light was reflected forward. The creek was very narrow, not much wider than the boat. As we continued up the creek I saw in the light beam ahead laying on the bank a large water moccasin laying very still and very close, almost within arms reach. Rick never saw the snake and it never moved…moccasins don’t always seek to escape an encounter and in fact sometimes become aggressive. This one had, I guess, decided that this piece of creek bank was his and saw no need to move. I never said a word, allowing the light beam to pass over the snake and keeping my focus on the spot where it was laying. By the time I was even with the spot I had the Smith in hand and proceeded to turn the moccasin into a good snake. At the sound of the shot Rick came unglued.

"What are you doing"….."I just saved your butt".…."From what"….."Push the boat back and I’ll show you".

Rick pushed the boat back until the light shown on the now headless water moccasin. "How did you do that..…why didn’t you tell me there was a water moccasin almost in the boat with us…..what are you trying to do to me? Ten zillion questions at once.

All I said was, do you prefer your water moccasins with or without heads? I never told him that I was using shot-shells. He assumed that I using standard ammo.

Sometimes things are better left unsaid.

The point of all of this is to illustrate the fact that a packing gun can be almost any type, size or caliber as long as it satisfies a set of criteria established by the end user. The Smith and Wesson model 63 met my criteria and needs for the uses to which I subjected it. Over the years I have made some modifications to it to further personalize it. I replaced the factory grips with a set of Pachmayr "Presentation" grips, installed a trigger over travel stop, installed a set of Wolf springs and ground off the serration's and polished the face of the trigger.

Now days the little Smith continues to be a favorite although I now have other six-guns that do some things much better…..a 44 shot-shell has a lot more shot than the 22. It has digested a lot of rounds over the years to the point where it needed some attention in the areas of barrel/cylinder gap and cylinder end shake. Also I don’t seem to be able to see the orange insert in the front sight as easily as I once could. So, it has been sent off to Jim Stroh of Alpha Precision for some maintenance and front sight replacement.

After almost twenty years I’ve about decided that it is a keeper packing gun.