S&W T-Frame

After the Soviet TOZ-81 Mars bullpup revolver got cancelled in 1981 a disgruntled Russian Jewish refugee who'd worked on the project and immigrated to America sold the whole technical data package to Smith and Wesson in exchange for $8000 and a stainless steel revolver after some hard negotiations.

This was the era of Dirty Harry movies where the big handgun was king, however the project languished for a period because of management's reluctance to fund a dedicated production line using metric tooling and debates about adapting it to a new calibre more suitable for the American market than 5.45x39 was.

The project kicked into high gear in 1983 after Ruger and Remington introduced the now forgotten ".357 Maximum" revolver cartridge, prompting the President of Smith and Wesson to proclaim "I'll give them a fucking .357 Maximum" and vow to introduce an even more powerful cartridge called ".357 Ultimate" in the same calibre. Not only were S&W rivals of Ruger but the President personally detested Bill Ruger because he had a sympathetic attitude towards gun control.

As it turned out the only suitable gun they had for such a cartridge was the TOZ-81 because it was built for rifle level chamber pressures and had longer, wider cylinders than existing .357 bore cartridges, nobody was going to buy a big heavy revolver unless it was at least as powerful as a .44 magnum so it had to be as powerful as possible. The proposed cartridge certainly fitted the bill, the case alone measuring a mighty 1.944" long and having 10% more powder capacity than a .44 magnum, the problem was getting an American manufacturer to produce a tapered rimless cartridge with a 10mm case diameter so the gun could quickly be brought to market.

A solution was soon found at the Prvi Partizan ammunition plant in Communist Yugoslavia which at the time had decent relations with the US, they had already began producing the new 5.45x39 cartridge in small quantities before it was rejected by the Yugoslavian Army in favour of the existing 7.62x39 cartridge. They agreed to set up production of new steel cased ammo in .357 Ultimate which was then re-sold in America under the S&W brand at a significant profit margin.

The gun, marketed in America as the S&W Model 400 T-Frame initially sold slowly despite widespread hype due to its expense and impractical size. Sales improved after the gun began developing an infamous reputation, standard FMJ practice rounds clocked in at over 2000fps and it was quickly discovered that it could easily shoot through the police body armour in use at the time, becoming one of the main drivers behind the national ban on armour piercing ammo in 1986.

The gun featured prominently in popular culture with appearances in many films such as Death Wish 3 and the 5th Dirty Harry movie "The Dead Pool", reaching the height of its reputation in 1990 after Ted Nugent used one to stop Michael Jackson's pet bear "Snuggles" from mauling him to death during a musical collaboration. The gun's reputation as a big game stopper was further cemented in 2003 after a veterinarian employed by Las Vegas superstars Siegfried and Roy used one to save Roy Horn who was being attacked by one of his own tigers on stage; Roy was not seriously injured.