I cleaned a revolver for a friend and have now become curious about it. It seems my friend received it from their father who was apparently part of an alphabet agency. Whether or not this was an issued or duty weapon is not known.

It is a 5", six shot, 38 S&W cartridge caliber, parkerized revolver, with a serial number of C 95XX.

I looked over your forum discussions and couldn't find anything close in appearance, so I am hoping someone out there can shed some light on manufacturing date, customer, or ant history of the firearm.

I have a number of pix I was going to add to this email, but the permissions gods have not been benevolent to this spanking new member.

Thanks in advance,
Harry

You don't need permission to post pics, just follow the instructions:

How to Post Pictures on This Forum

And we look forward to seeing them!

Thanks... I'll get to it tomorrow.

Just for fun guessing, it sounds like a very early post-WW2 M&P, in the
new serial number series. The M&P's started at C1, whereas the target models
started at K101. What is curious is the caliber - 38 S&W . That is not one of
the listed calibers in the 1949 /1950 All Model Circulars. If it were some
special agency, its possible that a special run was made up. A letter might
be a good idea.

Later,Mike Priwer

Harry, Welcome to the Forum. If you can't get a question answered here, the answer doesn't exist! Your gun is a Pre-Model 10, shipped in the early 1950s. You might want to post your question in the post 1945 catagory also. If you are sure about the caliber being .38S&W and not .38S&W Special, then one possibility is that the gun was part of a special order for that caliber for use by police women. Some dep'ts did that as they felt the .38S&W Special was too much recoil for smaller female hands and difficult for them to control as needed for accurate shooting. Los Angeles P.D. was one dep't that did that.

Thanks for the feedback so far. Here (I think)are the images that I loaded into photobucket.
It looks to me like an adjustable sight was removed too.
Any feedback on this curiosity is greatly appreciated.

Hello,

It looks to me like a C series S/N M&P that has been rebarreled with a .38 S&W Victory barrel. A modification was made to the topstrap, but it doesn't look like it was to mount an adjustable sight.

Take care,

The top strap almost appears to have been punched-to narrow the sight picture.
Grips are Sile, I believe.

Maybe it's just the camera angle, but that barrel looks like either it or the frame is bent downward. The bore axis does not look aligned with the chamber axis. That missing cross pin for the locking bolt is another indication that the barrel is a replacement for what would otherwise be an early post WWII .38 Special M&P.

It has a barrel from a WW II Victory or Brit Ser Rev. Note the cut for the large ejector knob.
So, it has been rebarreled and refinished. They left out the pin for the locking bolt (the plunger under the barrel), so be careful, or you will lose it.
The cyl MAY be replaced- if it does not have the same serial number as the frame, it has been. Have you checked the chambers to see if they are 38 S&W or 38 Special?
The rear sight groove was peened and filed, presumably to "improve" it.

Well - this goes to show how wrong guess's can be, with very little information !

As noted, its been rebarreled, is missing a pin or two, and goodness knows
what else has been done to it.

If anyone is planning on shooting it, I would advise a visit first to a competent
gunsmith.

Later, Mike Priwer

Thanks for all the feedback. Let me address some of the responses to this post.
The "barrel bend" is an optical distortion from the camera.
The cylinder S/N does match the frame S/N and it does chamber 38 Special rounds.
It will not be shot. The lockup on one of the six cylinder positions is not positive.

I am surprised at the crude finishes of the barrel and the sight groove but I now better understand what's going on at the rear sight area.