Hello everyone and Merry Christmas, I am trying to help a friend identify his revolver that had been passed down through his family. I will attach some pictures here to see if anyone has any ideas, the serial number is 731970 without a letter in front, that same number is stamped on the cylinder and the bottom of the barrel. It also has on the frame and the swing out holding the cylinder the number 58741 on both of them. I am stumped because there is no ejector rod locking shroud and I thought that was added early on in these old smiths lifetime. Anyways, thanks for any help.

That appears to be a cut down M&P, probably a pre-Victory, and has been heavily buffed and refinished. I'll even go so far as to suggest it may have been a British Service Revolver and chambered for .38 S&W rather than .38 Special. A lot of these were modified that way by several shops in England after the war, but it could also have been modified stateside by someone who wanted a snubby. Many of these have also been rechamber for .38 Special but there is a size difference between the two - .38 S&W diameter is .360 while the .38 Special is .357/.358.

How do the chambers look? Are they bored straight through or is there a step part way in?

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Non illegitimae carborundum

I have not had the pleasure of inspecting it in person yet but I will ask him to look at it. My guess was that it has been cut down or re-barreled and from the loss of the definition of the logos that someone had taken the buffer to it.