On May 10th, I sent for two Historical Letters. I got them today. Fastest turnaround I have ever had on a letter.
My first revolver was a near mint M&P M1905 4th change. It was shipped 7-17-1940 to Thompson-Diggs Co. Sacramento, CA. and was ordered by the Sacramento CA Police Dept. A single unit order. # 683938.
The pre M19 # K262336, was shipped in an order for 50 alike units to Shapleigh Hardware Co, St. Louis, MO, billed at wholesale for $58.40 each. These must have been a PD order as I doubt a regular hardware store would order 50 revolvers.
No way to tell on the Combat Magnum, but it is very interesting that a large PD like Sacramento would just order one revolver.
Big Larry

You are talking about a huge hardware store that could have sold 50 guns in a single day! There are multiple posts on this Forum with guns that were sent to this store. Put Shapleigh in the search engine above and you will get 24 pages of results.

Take a look at the building and some information about the store.

Shapleigh Hardware Company

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Gary
SWCA 2515

Interesting, I looked it up and Shapleigh Hardware was kinda a big deal back in the day.

I'm fairly certain Shapleigh is/was(??) not a "store" (in the retail sense), but rather a monster distributor/jobber/wholesaler (pick one). I have more than a few guns that were shipped to Shapleigh. (Never mind I may or may not have spelled their name correctly.)


Ralph Tremaine

My Shapleigh Hardware revolver that was part of a Missouri State Highway Patrol order of 255 that was received in May of 1948.

Attached Images

IMG_0921.jpg (180.0 KB, 40 views)

A single unit ordered by an agency usually has one of two explanations, especially if it appears in suspiciously good condition:

First, it could have been a sample ordered for evaluation which then ended up with a higher-up who had the clout to appropriate it but didn't actually have to lug it around on patrol.

Second, it could have been a similar VIP who ordered himself a gun that wasn't general issue on the department tab. I don't know anything about Sacramento PD's guns, but if you find out that they issued Colts in the 1930s (at that time still the majority of American PD's), one of those two reasons almost certainly fits.

I'm thinking there were more than "a few" Commercial 2nd Model .455's that have lettered as being sold through Shapleigh's, so they were around - and moving a lot of S&W's for a lot of years.

Mark

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S&W Forum Member #721

Thanks all for the info. Big Larry