Reblue or factory original?

I'm looking at a 1969 3 screw .44 SBH, but can't tell from the pics if its the original finish or a reblue. The pin holes almost have that telltale sign of a repolish, but not sure if its just the lighting.

Pull the cylinder,, and check the recoil shield around the firing pin. In MOST cases,, if a re-blue is done,, they do not pull the firing pin, recoil shield, and it get blued. Factory original will be a nice shiny circle around the firing pin.

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It looks reblued to me. Particularly the picture with the stamp on the frame.

looks over polished to me, and is too late of a gun I think for it to be the high polished ones...........do not like the flat of the grip frame at the very top of the grip panel, appears beveled, wavy......only way to know for certain on the Supers as they were "blued" as ONE piece, the grip frame attached to the cylinder frame,,,so if you take the frames apart, there should be metal "In the white" where the bluing salts cannot get all the way through ( across) dead giveaway as to being "original" ,factory....hell, we never reblued ANY "Put together" and we did THOUSANDS of guns over the years!!! 8) :roll: :wink:

Contender, as for the face of the recoil shield, the face being blued or NOT, ,, as it can be "doctored", and one of the small minute "details" to doing a proper "restoration" (redo)...
bottom line ,yes, the recoil shield should appear "used" or "fitted" ( bench work)
any gun should NOT look BRAND NEW ,UNFIRED..caveat emptor baby 8) :roll: :wink:


PS the grip screw and escutcheons are WRONG for a1969 gun......hhhmmm

I agree it looks refinished. From the photos it appears heavily polished.

Dan is right. A GOOD restoration job can doctor the recoil shield. But many "regular" gunsmiths don't remove the recoil shield & I use that as a starting place to seriously study one.

And I missed the grip screw & escutcheons!

Reblued for sure.