Was the 44 military maroon box also used for the pre 24 target model?If it was I'm kicking myself in the bottom about now.A 4 Inch box in great shape just sold on ebay for 150.00, and I wasn't home in time to bid.That must be one scarce little box.

Correct S&W boxes are always a mystery as the factory often used old boxes for new guns, as that's what was on hand and had to be used up, if the new gun would fit. It would not be incorrect to say that a .44 Military box could have been used for a pre-24, especially if both were 4 inches. Ed.

Lowhog:
I think that the 4" pre 24 was way past the time they used maroon boxes.
I know that S&W never through any thing out, except for all the things Roy picked out of their trash.
If you would check the date the 4" .44 1950 Target came to market Smith & Wesson were out of maroon boxes and had gone to Gold.
Who is the box/date expert?
DB

I have a 4" Pre-M24 s/n S100XXX that is in the original maroon box and is properly marked on the bottom. It's not uncommon to find Pre-M24s in maroon boxes.

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Dick

Dick:
My guess was wrong.
Larry

I have a theory... and I am open to being proven wrong....

S&W used maroon hinge boxes for 44s for a long time. The 1920s until WWII at least. Because I've never even seen a 4" 2nd model 44, I'd leave them out, kind of. But maroon was apparently the color of 3rd models. I see no reason to separate target from military. The box may have been different, but the one's I've seen just have "target" stamped on them. Probably because target variations were so rare they didn't get a special box. Besides, it was an option.

The 2 piece maroon boxes seem to date in the post war era.

We've been doing so much box matching over the last few years that it kind of invalidates what we used to learn. Finding a gun in its box used to be a strong indicator it came that way. Particularly if the printing on the box matched the contents. These days even the serial #s are faked.

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Dick Burg

Dick:
I forgot about the two piece boxes.
I don't think that they ever made a 4" Second Model.
Larry

Since this thread started, I looked at the serial numbers of maroon box P24s that I have owned. They all lie in the S100XXX to S108XXX range. The ones prior to that are in gold boxes and later are in gold or grey boxes. I don't have that many to draw any statistical correct conclusion, just an observation.

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Dick

Standard catalog of S&W Quote:The early maroon or black boxes had nothing printed on them but would be labeled at the factory when shipped with the gun.Many maroon boxes were used immediately after s&w resumed production following ww2 in 1946.Most of the large n frame revolvers were shipped in these boxes intill late 1950's un-quote So My guess is a pre 24 shipped in 1955 or 56 could have been in a maroon or a gold box.Mike