Hello
new to this forum, I hope you can give me some answers about Dads Smith and Wesson. It has been in the family longer than I have, and was his ccw pistol, three diget permit. It has a six inch barrel. four screw side plate, a tension screw, and hand ejector. Bakelite grips, not sure if that's the proper material, I have not been able to find a picture that matches the grips. The pistol has 3 pins in the frame, one under the cylinder release, right under it, hammer pivot I think, one approx. 11/16 below the release screw, and one in line with the cylinder lock notches. The serial number is 447XX. any info will be appreciated, thanks in advance

Welcome to the forum.

A six-inch barrel for CCW carry? Your dad must have been a tall guy

A 6" .38 Special with the serial number 447xx, taken from the butt of the grip, assuming there is no letter prefix, would likely be a Hand Ejector (later the Military & Police model) from the early 1900s. Any letter (it might be stamped far over on the butt) would make it significantly younger.

Some pictures, including of the butt number and other stampings, would be very helpful for a positive identification and further comments.

Welcome to the forums from the Wiregrass! You are going to have to give us some more information. There is a sticky post at the top of the forum that tells you what info we need. Pictures would be a lot better.

Presuming you have a .38 Military & Police revolver, it would be a very old hand ejector AKA Model 1902, 1st Change. The grips are hard rubber, not Bakelite and usually are provided on a round butt frame. Made 1903-4.

Also, remeasure the barrel from the front of the cylinder to the muzzle. It should be 6-1/2". It should look like the upper left gun in this picture except without target sights.

Picture from Standard Catalog of S&W, page 161.

Attached Images

1902-1st.JPG (71.8 KB, 54 views)

__________________
Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

Thanks to both of you, I will work on pictures, Dad was a cowboy so the pistol was mainly used to shoot critters and snakes, but he did carry it to town. I don't think its a military model, the serial number is on the butt, there is no letter with the serial number.

Wiregrassguy:
I will post some photos, the pistol matches the photo without the sights, the pins match the ones in photo #1, I remeasured the barrel it is close to 5 and 15/16, measured as stated in the sticky post.

Flying blind without a picture, but if it is a .38 Special with SN 447xx, it would be a .38 Hand Ejector, Model of 1902, probably from 1904. On my list is SN 437xx which shipped in 5/04. It should have a rounded butt. The grips are usually described as being black hard rubber, but I don't know exactly what the material is. There were very few plastics at that time. It is probably Gutta-Percha, which is a form of natural latex which could be molded under heat and pressure into intricate shapes.

If it does look like one in the picture Guy posted, and since you've confirmed the no-prefix butt serial, Smith & Wesson did call it the "Military Model" at the time, later the "Military & Police".

That has nothing to do with it actually being a military handgun, it was more an expression of hope by the company's sales department to sell to the military, ultimately unfulfilled (except for some small orders) until WW II.

Attached Images

AF 1910.jpg (101.3 KB, 19 views)

There were about 2,000 early Model 1899 revolvers (the immediate predecessor to the Model of 1902) sold to the Army and the Navy, but they were not adopted for military service. It is certainly likely that some of the Model 1902s saw military use through unofficial private purchases by military personnel. During that time period, Colt did a lot better in the military sales department, and they did manufacture the official military service revolver in .38 caliber.

Thanks
All the information helped me out, I understand about the military model and the grips, I also have a Bisley with the same type of grips. Does your information show where the pistol was shipped? Here are the photos I have

Attached Images

	DSCN0296.jpg (133.0 KB, 68 views)
	DSCN0293.jpg (137.4 KB, 64 views)
	DSCN0294.jpg (69.8 KB, 59 views)
	DSCN0300.jpg (149.9 KB, 62 views)

As far as I know, the only way to get shipping information about your revolver is to request a letter from Smith and Wesson.

Here's a link that tells how:

Firearm History Request | Smith & Wesson

Judging by your 4th photo, you should be measuring the barrel length from the end the protrudes into the cylinder "window," not the edge of frame where the tape measure is hooked in the picture. Which may give you the 6.5 inches mentioned by Wiregrassguy.

Be aware that the information in the letter, should you order one, will probably not provide any indication that it was shipped to a specific individual. Other than for some unusual situations (such as sale to some organization such as a police department), the gun would very likely have shipped to some retailer or an S&W distributor, not to an end user. The letter will provide an exact shipping date. The letter is $75.

What a beautiful piece of family history. Welcome to the forum!

Thanks again guys, The picture of the barrel measurement doesn't show it but I measured as you stated, six inches from end to end. I realize that shipping info won't show end user, only wanted to know if it was shipped to my area. Thanks for the link to S&W I will try that, maybe learn some more history. All of my brothers {six of them} have most of Dads guns. most are shoot able. Once again thanks to all of you guys, you all helped me a lot.