The family of slain Deputy Earl Griffith brought his duty weapon into the Sheriff's Office today. They came into possession of the gun after it was handed down over the years. He was killed in the line of duty May 01, 1947.

I examined the gun and found two numbers. One on the yolk and the other on the butt. The weapon is nickel plated and says .38 CTG. I think it is a 5" barrel however I did not measure.

The number on the butt is 236018 and the yolk bears a stamped number 5522 (or maybe the first 5 is an S). It has fixed sights and an ejector with a knurled end. I count four screws on the frame side.

Can someone give us the history of the weapon?

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The number on the yoke is an assembly number. The number on the butt is the serial number. Does it say 38 S&W CTG or 38 S&W Special CTG? Welcome to the forum! I suspect it dates from around 1917 + or - a couple of years. Whoops. Should have looked at pictures more carefully. 38 Special. It looks like it was refinished at some point.

Does that mean it didn't come in nickel finish?

Welcome to the forum.

There is quite a story behind the slaying of this deputy, the first Washoe County deputy murdered on duty.

Washoe County sheriff’s deputy named Earl Griffith Sr. & Tom Lambert who was “shot in the badge” | Nevada State Personnel WATCH

This is a bit confusing, but the first thing to check is the serial number on the underside of the barrel Open the cylinder, and you will find it on the flat area. If there is a B in front of the serial number, then it was originally blue. At the time they were using the B, nickel was more/less the default.

{While the cylinder is open, check the rear face of the cylinder. It should be stamped with the serial number.}

At some point later, this was switched, and the frame, under the grips, would be stamped with an N. To check for this, simply remove the grips.

If there is no B on the barrel flat, and no N on the frame, then its not clear what the original finish would have been.

Mike Priwer

I don't have the weapon. They brought it in and left.

The gun looks like a 4" barrel, measured from front of cylinder to tip of barrel. That was the most common length. This one is a round butt, not quite as common as the square butt variety. It was called the M&P (Military and Police) .38 Special. The same (nearly) gun was given the Model 10 designation about 1957 when SW switched to model numbers instead of names. The family is fortunate to have this gun for its history and meaning.

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The gun has been re-finished. There are several things that indicate this: Sideplate screws that have been polished flat, hammer and trigger plated, and the gun has been Chromed. It is not Nickel. If you can find a gun that really is Nickel plated simply place them side-by-side and the difference in appearance will be obvious. And it is a 4", not 5".

Hard to argue that revolver has some significant history behind it, I hope it gets placed in the proper memorial display. As far as it's history prior to being owned by Deputy Griffith, that could only be determined by personal accounts of people who were there at the time, absent some sort of written documentation from the Deputy. There is what we call the factory letter, which S&W can provide for a price, but that will only tell you when & where it was shipped from the factory; could be a hardware store.


Tragic, but interesting story about a different time.

The headline in Wednesday morning’s edition of the Nevada State Journal was, literally, a call to arms. After reading of the “gun battle with two bandits” that had left one deputy dead and another fighting for his life, scores of men armed with every conceivable type of firearm converged on the sheriff’s office, volunteering to join the manhunt.

Nowadays any taxpayer that tried that would get arrested, thrown in jail, and pilloried in the media.

And another hard-won lesson that guns don't matter as much as tactics. Here was a basic vicious punk who manged to kill one Deputy and seriously would another, with a low-end .22 revolver.

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