I'm looking at a 2" M&P .38 spl w/ a rework star and serial # 385xxx. What is a DOB for it? The barrel markings are correct with all matching numbers....

Best,
Charles

Is there a letter prefix to the SN? If it happens to be C385xxx it was probably made in 1956. If there is no letter prefix, it is a rebarreled M&P from around 1921.

No letter prefix. The barrel number matches. So, that would explain the rework star. I guess.

Best,
Charles

Necessarily so. There were no factory M&P snubbies made until around 1933. The lowest SN M&P snubby I have listed is 6254xx.

Does it have a rework date on the side of the grip frame somewhere?

I asked the seller that and haven't gotten a response yet......

If S&W installed a 2" bbl. & numbered it to match, this could be a special order. It might make an interesting letter anyway.

"If S&W installed a 2" bbl. & numbered it to match, this could be a special order."

I don't believe that could have happened in 1921. S&W would have had no 2" barrels with which to make up a special order at that time. There is no mistaking that it was converted to be a snubby at a much later date. If S&W did it, there should have been a return date stamped on the grip frame. And the matching SN on the barrel would indicate it was done at the factory as that was standard practice. A letter would tell you only that it originally shipped with a longer barrel than 2".

If it happened early enough, into the 1940s, I believe the SW Historical Foundation has progressed far enough with their cataloguing of invoices etc. that you might be able to get something from them once you have it lettered.

I agree with DWalt. The pre-WW2 barrels were forged as one piece, meaning that the
front sight base and blade, and the extractor lug, were part of the forging. I don't believe that they made any 2" M&P barrel forgings at that low serial number.

I suppose that its possible that they could have made up a 2" barrel from a longer one, by silver soldering a front sight on to it.

Regards, Mike Priwer

The guy wants $900. After careful consideration, a rework is a rework regardless of how nice and unusual the gun is. I am going to pass.

Best,
Charles

I'd guess many here will agree with your decision.

Yeah, that's about twice what it is worth. Charles, did it have the 2 line S&W and caliber stamp on the left side of the barrel like the below?

__________________
Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

The GunBroker posting pictures showed that it did have the same two-line barrel legend as above. I don't know what would have been stamped on the barrel of a pre-WWII M&P snubby.

I've been following this thread with interest. I have to agree - with that low of a s/n, it would have to have been re-barreled.

The Pre-WWII M&P Snubbies had a 2 line barrel address, also.
Here's 626366, shipped June 2, 1934...

__________________
Mitch
SWCA 2438

At this point in my life, there are not many guns I am really interested in buying at the right price. And one of them is a pre-WWII M&P snubby.

Well that means the barrel wasn't cut. But it doesn't mean that the barrel that's on there is pre-war.

Guy

__________________
Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

Sorry for the delay in response. It has the same bbl markings that my '48 k frame snubby has.

I think that's the gun I was high bidder, but below reserve, on. The diamond stamped next to the serial made me think it was done at S&W.

Sent from my SM-S975L using Tapatalk

__________________
Regards,
Bruce