If I were a character in a video game, my charisma would be zero, my endurance a one, my strength a solid five on a good day, but I’d max out my luck stat. I know this from the amount of neat, weird, and old guns I manage to get for very little money. One of those is a revolver that I shoot better than any other. It’s a Smith & Wesson Model 10, specifically a 10-8. A Model 10-8 that’s been heavily customized.
Someone took this Model 10-8 and customized it to the nines with parts inside and out to make it a helluva competition gun. What competition? I’m not quite sure. It doesn’t match the modern configurations of competition revolvers I see. I would guess it’s an open gun, maybe for PPC? IDPA? USPSA?
I’m not sure, but whoever used this gun truly loved it. They likely spent a lot of money on the gun, but I sure didn’t. The 10-8 came out in the late 1970s, so it’s certainly not new or used in modern competitions. If anyone knows, please let me know where this type of revolver would have been used.
Breaking Down The 10-8 Competition
I appreciate that the Model 10-8 shares the same initials as the ten code for in service. The most eye-catching upgrade this thing has is that massive Tasco red dot. It appears to be a genuine Japanese Tasco, which was one of the early red dots models that didn’t come out of Sweden.
Specifically, it’s a Tasco Pro Point PDP3. The optic has a 5 MOA red dot and uses two CR2032 batteries to power it. These were produced back in the 1990s, which helped date the gun a bit better.
The dot has an 11-position rheostat and is simple, but massive. The dot is big, bright, and perfectly round. The refresh rate is better than the original Defender CCW. It’s actually a great dot for its age. Battery life is poor, but hey, it’s decades old.
The sight is quite clear, with a slight blue tint. The dot blinks when brightness is on setting number two, but aside from that, it’s fine.
The Tasco Pro Point seemed to be a popular option with IPSC shooters, even on 1911s of the era. Jerry Barnhart showed up to the 1990s USPSA Nationals with a red dot on his handgun and won.
As you can see, the revolver’s round barrel is gone, replaced by a much heavier slab side that lacks a front sight. This is clearly an optic-only setup. That heavier barrel helps tame recoil, and makes the gun a bit front-heavy, but that huge Hogue Monogrip helps make it easy to handle regardless of weight distribution.
More Than Barrels and Optics
The trigger shoe is broader than the wide side of a barn. That gives you great control and certainly allows you to manage the double-action pull with more control. On top of that, an expert did a trigger job on this 10-8, too, so it’s buttery soft.
It’s the smoothest double-action trigger I’ve ever experienced. Smoother than the P99, smoother even than the Korth I dry-fired at SHOT a few years back.
The cylinder latch is massive, giving us a massive lever to engage and open the cylinder with a quickness. To me, this screams action shooting where reloads are done on the fly and every bit of speed matters.
At The Range With the Custom 10-8
This gun is just a hoot to shoot. The optic was dead-on on the first shot. It clearly retained its zero through whatever travels it’s had. The dot is bright enough to see in the Florida sun and the trigger is dreamier than whoever used to be on the cover of Tiger Beat.
It’s smooth, somewhat short, with no pre- or overtravel. That big, wide trigger shoe makes it easy to pull in double-action, likely making it feel lighter than it actually is. The single action pull takes nothing more than a slight tap to send your chosen .38 Special projectile downrange.
The hefty tubular optic and brilliant trigger make it super-easy to hit targets at 50 yards. With a blue barrel rest, I can hit a 33%-reduced-size IPSC target with near-boring regularity. I’m using soft-shooting 158-grain rounds and they’re just perfect for this gun.
Hitting 10-inch gongs at 50 yards off-hand wasn’t easy, but it was doable. Now shooting the full-sized IPSC targets at 50 yards is a snap. Super-easy. Put the dot on the chest, pull the trigger, and hear that ding. It almost doesn’t even feel satisfying because it’s so easy to do.
Erasing Recoil
The combined heft of that barrel, the optic, and the gun as a whole reduces recoil on an already fairly tame-recoiling gun. It moves a little, but I don’t lose the dot with my soft-shooting loads. Due to the light and smooth double-action trigger, it’s easy to drop double-taps, and the gun’s lack of recoil makes the shots nearly sit next to each other at 10 yards.
The lack of recoil and wide trigger certainly ensure you won’t get tired of shooting this wheelgun. The custom 10-8 is smooth, comfortable, and, like the Andy Griffith show, it’s just darn pleasant. I’m no revolver expert by any means, but this is an exquisite revolver.
It’s a ton of fun to shoot, and I can see why someone made the changes to it that they did. Now, in 2026, I would swap the optic for something a little more modern (and a lot smaller). I don’t shoot nearly as many matches or competitions as I should, but I’m tempted to take this custom 10-8 to a match and see what it and I can do.
The Budget Comp Revolver
Shooting this gun makes me nostalgic for a time I never experienced. For a time when gunsmiths were common and a skilled trade. These days, mass production has made most repairs either easy to either do at home or simply send them back to the manufacturer. I fear the folks who worked on a gun like this aren’t all that common anymore.
I certainly don’t have a local gunsmith anymore, do you?
In reading old magazines, it’s interesting to see the names of various gunsmiths pop up. Names I have never heard, but who clearly demanded great respect in their era. It seems like we don’t have a lot of that these days. If you want to add some holes to your slide, that’s easy, but the market’s changed.
I paid a mere $300 for this thing, and it’s well worth the money. I’d love to have met the shooter who put it together, asked how they used it, and what guided their decisions. Sadly, unless he or she is a reader, I don’t see that happening. Plus, they might want their gun back.
“so it’s certainly not new or used in modern competitions. If anyone knows, please let me know where this type of revolver would have been used.”
The Smith & Wesson Model 10-8 was produced 1977 – early 1980s. Its a variant of the Model 10 K-frame revolver with a heavy barrel configuration. It was produced with multiple barrel lengths and a few different finishes. Its use persisted after its production ended. It saw use in IDPA competitions in the late 1990’s. It was also issued to baliffs in the courts in Georgia back in the 1980’s, and was issued at various police departments around the country starting in the late 1970s into the 1990’s.