Here's the thing. Smith & Wesson has some records and depending on the guy who is digging for them, you can get some interesting answers when you ask questions.

Rule #1 is always in place: With Smith & Wesson, anything is possible. And Rule #1 will always be in play here. But consider what makes sense.

It makes precious little sense that S&W would have built that 745 many years after the last ones they made in 1990. Even the ones made in 1990 pretty much appear to be a "clean-up" of parts and such. Gather these frames, dig up the parts to make guns out of them, assemble them and ship them somewhere. Or assemble them and shelve them until we find someone to sell them to.

Regarding S&W giving out information... the validity of that information... and what is likely, what makes sense? I've got a really good example I'll use. I have no solid answer but you look at what is offered and come to your own conclusion.

Little more than a year ago, I tracked down a grail gun from a known collector that is somewhat local to me. The pistol is a Performance Center 3566 Limited and it's a sweetheart. The seller bought this pistol new and at some point much later, he used it to compete. (USPSA perhaps? I don't recall the discipline) As such, he sent the entire pistol back to the Performance Center back when it existed, and he purchased from them a 9mm chambered barrel and he asked them to fit the barrel. They did this for him and returned the pistol.

So when I bought it, it came with it's original .356TS&W chambered barrel and a 9x19 barrel that was fitted by the Performance Center. Sadly... it did not come with it's original box end label. But the history of these pistols are well documented in a few places, including Roy Jinks factory letters, and these guns were built specifically for competition (and unfortunately were pretty much ruled against by the folks in charge due to the hot new chambering...) and the entire run of these were built in 1993 and in to 1994. Of the 5-inch target sighted Limited models, 427 are known to exist.

Yet when I contacted S&W a couple weeks ago with my serial number to ask when this one was made, they told me it was April 21, 2006. So did Smith & Wesson make 426 of these back in 93-94 and then one sunny morning in the spring of 2006, they decided to make the one I own?

Believe the date they told me? Or did I get told the last date they recorded, perhaps when it was sent to them for the purchase and fitting of a 9x19 barrel?

My guess for the 745 with the oddball box that was in service MUCH later than the 745's were all made is that the pistol made some trips in S&W circles and was shelved and eventually, someone told someone to "sell these pistols that have been sitting here" and a new end label was printed and a current box was grabbed and out the door it went. Or something similar to that. likely the specific route as was stated in your letter, or maybe far more than the details that Roy elected to share for that particular letter.

Rule #1 is the certain answer. Roy Jinks letters tend to be a good answer, but I've found mistakes in them, and though I hate to sound like a critical jerk, occasionally these mistakes aren't what I would deem "insignificant." With sincere apologies to Mr. Jinks, though I truly doubt he cares what I think.