Smith & Wesson Model 500 Second Amendment Tribute

Pick this one up and the first thing you notice is the writing. Not the engraving, the actual words. Run your eye down the cylinder flutes and they read DEFENDING, FREEDOM, FAMILY, COUNTRY, HOME, one term carved between each flute so the whole revolver becomes a sentence. That is the conceit behind The Second Amendment Tribute, a piece built by the American Historical Foundation out of Ashland, Virginia on a genuine Smith & Wesson Model 500 frame.

The X-frame .500 S&W Magnum is already the biggest production revolver Smith builds. Here it wears a full coverage of hand-cut American scroll that runs the length of the eight-inch barrel and wraps the frame, the topstrap, and the underlug. The right side of the frame carries We the People in a gold-traced banner. The barrel flat reads The Right to Keep and Bear Arms in flowing script, with SMITH & WESSON set in a foliate cartouche above it. Look at the frame just ahead of the trigger guard and you find One of 200 worked into the scroll.

The contrast is what sells it. Bright polished stainless against deep black cylinder and barrel rib, with the hammer, trigger, cylinder release, and side plate screws all finished in 24-karat gold. The grips are a set of high-gloss walnut from Herrett's, fitted to the big X-frame and polished to match the dress of the metal.

It arrives cased the way these were sold. A glass-topped walnut presentation box with deep red velvet lining, a red-white-and-blue ribbon, and the Foundation's brass identification plate set into the lid. The .500 swings five rounds and runs single or double action, same as any production 500.

For a collector who builds around theme and presentation rather than pure mechanical rarity, this is a complete package. It was made to be displayed, and it shows.