You will get lots of different opinions on this. Some of the difference will depend on what we mean when we say "quality." My belief is that in any year of its history S&W has turned out individual revolvers that were as good as, or no worse than, the best revolvers they turned out in any other year. But there would appear to be years in which assembly or finish errors were more frequently encountered than in other years. In this case you have to ask yourself how bad the base error rate is that you are comparing to. If the base rate is next to nothing, by the rules of math 10 times next to nothing is till next to nothing!

That said, I like the guns of the 1920s and 1930s. Some of S&W's best designed and best manufactured models were produced in the Great Depression. I also have a soft spot for postwar revolvers from the late 1940s and 1950s.

Any .22 or .32 Hand Ejector with a four-inch barrel and any .38 with a two-inch barrel would get my attention fast. This generalization covers several different models on two different frame sizes.

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David Wilson