I have just purchased a 1905 M&P Target from a gentleman on this forum and came with a letter from Mr. Jinks indicating a ship date of 1931 to Folsom Arms. I was a bit suprised, there was little specific information regarding the gun in the letter. No finish, bbl length, grip type not a mention of it being a target model. It would be of further interest to learn the extent of work done upon it being sent back to S&W in 1981. I have been led to believe that the gun was refinished and a lanyard loop added at that time. Although I have no written documentation of that. I do have the exact date the gun was returned by S&W to the origonal owner and his location. As the origonal return shipping box was provided with the gun. Now I get to my queston, might Mr Jinks be able to fill in the blanks regarding this gun given the information currently available? As always your comments would be most appreciated.

Rgds,
Ray

You must remember, Roy is not clarvoyant. He has no idea what your gun looks like today. Remember this gun was back to the factory at least once for mods. In the request for a letter the writer is supposed to tell him what finish and barrel length it is now and them I'm sure he should have pointed out what the gun was like when it shipped. All letters I have seen have that info unless for some reason it was not available.

__________________
Dick

Ray, Your letter from Roy reflects what the shipping records say, and they are not always that good in telling you all the features that any specific gun might have possessed when shipped. Especially if the gun was one of several in the shipment. The invoice for the repair work done in 1981 may be filed at the CVHM S&W archives, however that's a pretty late date for saving the repair invoices. Those are filed by the name of the owner and date the work was done.
If the gun was shipped as a target gun in 1931 then the rear sight base will have the gun's serial number stamped on the bottom of the sight base. You have to remove it to see. Besure you use the correct screw driver to get those sight base screws removed as they are very small and bugger easily. If there is no number under the base, then that's pretty good evidence that the 1981 work included installing target sights on the gun and the gun was a non-target when shipped in 1931. It's quite probable that who ever requested the original letter from Roy did not tell him the date and owner's name , etc. for the 1981 repairs. Without that info. Roy would have had no knowledge of it and could not have looked to see if the work/repair invoice could be located. You should probably order a new letter and include that info. Have you checked back with the original owner for info. on the gun? Ed.

Should have been clearer as to the timing of all this. The letter was dated 1981 just prior to the gun's return to S&W. The information provided to me verbally was the only work done was the refinish, installation of the lanyard ring and restamping the S/N to allow for the lanyard ring pin, 3 digits before and 3 after as the pin would have been in the middle of the origonal stamping. All numbers match and only a single date stamp on the butt for the rework which matches the printed material I have. Everything seems to make sense but would be nice to add the documentation to a very pretty, albeit, some what unusual gun.

I agree it makes sense to send off the documentation on hand to Roy for his input and possibly connect the dots for me.

Thanks for you comments,
Ray