POTD: McGivern Model 38/44 – Endorsed by Fastest Man Alive

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a revolver that came with a celebrity endorsement, back when that meant something. Ed McGivern was a five foot five sign painter out of Lewistown, Montana, and between the wars he was the fastest handgun shooter alive.

He started out with autoloaders and gave up on them once he worked out that his own hands were quicker than any recoil operated mechanism. So he went to double action revolvers and stayed there. Five shots into a group you could cover with a playing card, at twenty feet, in under half a second.

The gun is a Smith and Wesson 38/44 Outdoorsman, and it exists because police wanted a 38 Special that would go through car doors. Smith loaded it hot enough to beat a medium frame revolver to death, so they put it in the big N-frame instead. That pairing is the direct ancestor of the 357 Magnum. The Outdoorsman showed up in November of 1931 as the target version, adjustable sights, six and a half inch barrel.

McGivern wanted five inches. Smith built a small batch that way, most of them with his gold bead front sight, and collectors call it the McGivern Model. In early 1933 he wrote to a couple of his shooting associates telling them to go buy one. Both of them did, on the same day, in the teeth of the Depression, which tells you what McGivern’s word was worth in 1933. This is one of those two guns.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“Factory Inscribed Smith & Wesson .38/44 Outdoorsman Revolver.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4097/471/factory-inscribed-smith-wesson-3844-outdoorsman-revolver. Accessed 14 Sept. 2026.

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