Howdy,

A fella I know who's helping with my daughter's hunter safety class brought in this 28 yesterday. From what I can tell, it's a standard 4" born in blue, and blinged later in life. The serial stamped on the loading face of the cylinder, and one other place I can't recall is 127xxx, with no letter prefix. I couldn't see the model number marked anywhere on the gun. I don't know diddly about old Smittys, but thought it was a pretty neat gun and told him I'd try to find out a little more on here if I could. Any insight as to year mfg, any other distinguishing characteristics etc. appreciated. Apologies for the bad cell phone pics. Thanks.

Is there an N in that number on the butt? if so 1972-74

Pete

It is an early (mid-1950s) .357 Highway Patrolman, prior to model stamping as the model 28. You should see the letter S in front of the number, but it may be separated from it somewhat. Hope this is helpful.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

I'm sorry, I didn't check the butt. The cylinder and I believe barrel or frame had the127xxx. Neither had a letter prefix.

There is an "S" on the cylinder face. What is six digit number that is also on the face? (Is that the 127xxx number?)

Apologies, I looked at the pic I have of the cylinder face, the S is there, way back. Yes, that's the 127xxx number. Any way to peg a specific year from there?

S103,000 – S139,999……Late 1954 – Early 1955 (manufacture). On my N-frame SN list I have several nearby SNs which shipped during the late 1954-early 1955 period. Looks as though the hammer, cylinder release, and trigger may have been gold-plated. Collectors would call it a (refinished) pre-Model 28 Highway Patrolman.

The HP was the "plain Jane" economy version of the .357 Magnum (later the Model 27), which was made to sell at a more reasonable price to law enforcement agencies by cutting corners on the quality of the finish. I don't believe many, if any, left the factory nickel plated. See: The story of the Highway Patrolman revolver...

This is the third Model 28/pre-28 I have seen that has been refinished with a nickled frame and gold trigger, etc.

Some ivory grips would make it a nice BBQ gun

I'm pretty sure that one was owned by the infamous Marcas Registradas........

And Welcome to the Forum!

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Even older, even crankier....

Marcus got his name engraved on a few of mine also!

Thanks! Been around awhile with a J, a BG380, & an M&P15. Unless you mean the unofficial "real man forum", Hand Ejectors . Alas, my only big wheel is a GP100. Unless one of you kind gents wants to help a fella with a lotta young mouths to feed into a 686-4 Plus Mountain Gun

Not only has it been refinished, someone put the flat head screw back in the wrong place.
Should be a nice shooter, however. Hard to beat an HP for heavy use.

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Jack
SWCA #2475, SWHF #318

Technically 686-4 Mountain Guns don't exist. There were 686-5 Plus Mountain Guns and recently made 6 shot 686-who knows want Mountain Guns. Either one would be quite a bit lighter than a GP 100 but you couldn't predict which would shoot better.

Were picky about the details. Welcome to the forum.