Texas Rangers Smith and Wessons

By Joe Berk

I think it would be difficult to be a firearms enthusiast and not be a student of history.  Firearms are history.  And some of that history revolves around the Texas Rangers, the oldest and perhaps most legendary law enforcement group in US history. I’ve always been fascinated with the Texas Rangers, starting with their use of the very first Colt Paterson revolvers in combat, the early Captain Samuel Walker days, and the emergence of the Colt Walker black powder revolver.

When I was a kid, we had a steady diet of Westerns on TV and in the movies, and the Texas Rangers figured prominently in many of those shows.  I’m a Lonesome Dove fan, having read Larry McMurtry’s novels and watched the television series numerous times.  Go Gus and Woodrow (but especially Gus; he carried a Colt Walker).

You would think with the Texas Rangers’ historical and often romanticized use of Colt revolvers, Colt would be all over the Texas Ranger commemorative gun business.   They did so in the early 1970s with a very limited run of Single Action Army revolvers, but that was the only time.

The Texas Rangers commemorative mantle has been picked up by Smith and Wesson, first in 1973 for the Texas Rangers’ 150th anniversary, and again in 2023 for the 200th anniversary.  These are beautiful firearms (they are art, in my opinion).

Jumping back to 1973, Smith and Wesson offered a cased commemorative Model 19 Smith and Wesson along with a Bowie knife.  A standard Model 19 cost about $150 back then (I had one); the Texas Rangers Model 19 with display case and matching Bowie knife was a whopping $250.  It seems an almost trivial amount today.  A standard Model 19 costs around a thousand bucks today, and the Model 19 of today is not the same gun it was in the 1970s.   The older ones, as is true with many things in life, are better.

Fast forward to 2023, and Smith and Wesson did it again, with a Texas Rangers 200^th anniversary revolver.   This time it’s a highly polished N-frame, fixed sight version.  The N-frame is Smith’s big gun frame used on their original .357 Magnum, the Model 27, the .45 ACP revolvers, and the .44 Magnum revolvers.  You know, the Big Boy guns for us full-figured shooters.

I’ve been perusing both of these Texas Ranger guns on the gun auction sites.  I can get the 1973 version (which was based on the Model 19) for about $1500, which isn’t a bad deal considering you get a more collectible gun, the knife, and the case for not too much more than what a new Model 19 cost today.  I’d shoot it, too, if I bought one.  And then there’s the current Texas Rangers 200^th Anniversary revolver, built on the N-frame   Those are going for around $2500 or more.  That a bit pricey, but maybe in 50 years $2500 will be a trivial amount.  I’m a firm believer that you can’t pay too much for a gun; you just maybe bought it too early.

A lot of things are different today, and the price for either of the Smith and Wesson Texas Ranger commemoratives is just a starting point here in California.  Compounding the felony on both guns is our outrageous California 11% excise tax on firearms and ammo (that little bit of silliness and government overreach went into effect this month), which gets added onto:

• • • Our outrageous California state sales tax
    • The federal government’s $40 background check and ATF Form 4473 (the one that Hunter Biden was convicted of falsifying when his sweetheart deal fell apart)
    • The FFL dealer’s $40 transfer fee
    • A $75 shipping fee to get the gun to me here in left wing Utopia (i.e., the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia)

It all adds up to roughly another $700.  And all that’s aggravated by the likelihood I couldn’t even get the 200^th Anniversary Texas Rangers commemorative because our California Attorney General hasn’t seen fit to add it to our roster of approved handguns.  Even Gomer Pyle wouldn’t know how to react to all these added government fees, but I’m guessing his reaction would be a heartfelt Gosh, or a Golly, or maybe even a Shazam!  It’s almost as if California doesn’t agree with the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.

But that earlier Texas Rangers Smith and Wesson…the Model 19 150th Anniversary gun.  It’s now over 50 years old, and that makes it an antique in California’s all-seeing and all-knowing firearms book of state regs , and antiques are exempt from the Roster of Approved Handguns limitations.  I’d still have to pay all the fees described above.  But it’s doable, and I’m thinking about it.

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You might wonder:  Are the Texas Rangers still around, and what sidearm do they carry?   The answer is yes; the Texas Rangers are part of the Texas Department of Public Safety.  Texas Rangers are issued a SIG 320 (a 9mm semi-auto), but they are allowed to carry their personal sidearms.  Many choose to carry the 1911.

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