Curious if anyone can help me date & value this handgun. It's a 38 S&W (not special). 4 inch barrel and hand ejects. Holds 5. The serial number is 111,XXX and is on the butt end of the handle. It was given to my wife many years ago and we have no info about it. Thanks in advance!

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Welcome aboard from Wyoming.

Should say "Mod. 33-1" inside the yoke. If those are the original stocks they should have a serial number inside the right one that matches the number on the butt, and that would likely put your wife's Regulation Police being made around 1967. It's built on the J frame.

Value is a bit tricky because of all the damage to the blue. Maybe $400, but I might be a bit high.

Cheers,

Bob

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Wrangler of stray Chiefs
Bob

I'd start by giving it a thorough rub down with some good gun oil (I like RemOil) and some bronze wool. A lot of the freckling of the finish might just clean up to the point of being almost un-detectable.

After the oil and bronze wool buff job, a nice coat of wax will keep the freckling from coming back. Johnsons car wax is a good all purpose wax that works pretty well. You can get the bronze wool, and Johnsons wax at Ace hardware and Walmart sells RemOil.

You may find that a little elbow grease really pays off. If it cleans up real nice, it could add up to 50% to its value.

Yep, I recently bought a model 33, and that's what it looks like it to me. By the time your gun was made, the model 33's were J frames. They were originally I frames (a bit smaller then J frames), then Improved I frames. I think they went to the J frame in '61, if I remember correctly.

I paid $450 for mine a couple of months ago, but it doesn't have the surface detractions that yours does, so I think two-bit cowboy is very close on value. Mine does have wear on the bluing - muzzle and cylinder - but is otherwise quite clean.

Thanks for the info and the tips for cleaning it up. I will definitely give that a try. Much appreciated!