(Didn't know what forum to put this in)

I have been examinining my S&W revolvers a bit more closely and would like to know what all the prrof marks mean.

I see a "N" which means nickel, but what does the R in a diamond mean?

Is there a page that lists all of the various proof marks?

There aren't any "proof marks" on recent S&W guns that were sold in the U.S.

The N does indicate nickel. The diamond-enclosed R indicates that the gun was most likely re-nickeled by S&W. If these markings are on the left side of the grip frame, there should also be a 3 or 4 number stamping which indicates the month and year the refinishing was done.

S&W used various symbols and alpha-numeric stampings to indicate a "re-work" up until the mid-to-late 1970s. These are described in SCSW-3.

All those other marks and numbers are assembly stamps and mean nothing to us.

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Lorin

Using proof mark in it's strictest sense, there is a dot punched inside the frame at the bottom front corner of some older guns. This was applied after the gun was test fired at the factory. As was said, it doesn't show up on newer guns but I don't know when the practice was stopped.

Bob