There has been alot of discussion over the years about the markings on the Customs service 686 CS-1's. Some of it has been incorrect.Obviously all the Custom Service CS-1's have the "CS-1" stamp inside the crane area. There has been much confusion and conflicting info on the "M" and "2M" stamps.

SmithNut told us back around 2005-6 the following info.

The production of the 686 CS-1 occured during the recall for the L-frame hammer nose bushing. At that time there were over 4500 686 CS-1's in service. S&W had incorporated the recall modification in production. So some of the 4500 in service revolvers were modified, and some were not.

The US Customs Service decided to do the recall modifications on the in service guns at its Glynco GA facility. S&W sent four factory armorers to Glynco GA. All the in service CS-1 revolvers were run through the inspection. Those that were found to already have the modifications were given a "2" stamp to the left of the "M" stamp. The unmodified guns were corrected and given the "M" stamp.

For those interested in whether their 686 CS-1 saw actual service, without lettering it, SmithNut suggested the following. If your 686 CS-1 has a "2M" stamp and is wearing Pacmayr Compacts it is a pretty good bet that yours is actually one of the CS-1's that saw service. SmithNut also suggested lettering the gun for verification of same.

Boxes - I have seen much about the 686 CS-1 boxes. Yes, it appears that the majority of the blue folding cardboard boxes with the white lettered "revolver" on the cover, that the 686 CS-1's shipped in, were indeed destroyed. However not ALL of the boxes were destroyed. Many were not. The two 3 inch 686 CS-1's I own/had both came in their original boxes. No tools were included in either. Both had the original warranty cards and owners manuals. The first one had a small red sticker on the top of the box. Handwritten in black ink was "Treasury $421". Both Julian dates were for mid 1988.

If you have the matching box for your CS-1 check your Julian date code under "spec order" and let us know what yours says.

It is possible that S&W made new boxes for the 2500 used 686 CS-1s that were at the factory under the Sales Exchange program - and subsequently released directly to distributors, when Customs transitioned to the S&W 6946.

Of course all the overuns were shipped with CS-1 markings and in brand new boxes as well.

We will tackle numbers produced next.......