I recently bought this S & W Revolver at auction and would appreciate any info.
38 S&W SPECIAL
US SERVICE CTG

Last Pat. date on barrel looks like Dec 17 01

6 1/2 barrel, fixed sights
Serial # 909xx
Which grips would have been factory?

Thanks for helping

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Serial number would help date it. Might be your photo making hammer and trigger nickel plated. S&W never nickel plated the trigger or hammer. Sign of an after marked finish. It is fairly early model by the big knob on end of ejector. Probably had plain walnut service grips or checkered with a medallion. Service stocks never went above the grip frame and had round tops

Thank you, I did note the serial number
909xx

Serial # 909xx would make it from around 1906-07, a Model of 1905. Check the SN stamped under the barrel. If there is a "B" there, it was originally blued. Appears that you have Pachmayr "Presentation" rubber grips on it. The U. S. SERVICE CTG refers to the .38 Long Colt. Basically a shorter and lower powered predecessor to the .38 S&W Special. It indeed was the official U. S. military cartridge from around 1890 until 1911 when the Colt .45 M1911 using the .45 ACP cartridge was adopted. That dual-caliber barrel stamping ended at slightly above SN 100,000 (ca. 1908-09).

Pre 1910 walnut stocks were concave top without a medallion. I cannot tell if the gun is a round butt or square butt?? They made rubber grips that could fit either butt-frame. If round butt, they would have had black hard rubber stocks. Here are a couple of period examples.

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__________________
Gary
SWCA 2515

Thanks for the reply,

It is a square butt. and thanks for explaining the B that is on the barrel. I thought that the barrel might have been replaced

The square butt K-frame forging was introduced late in the 1902 model production ca November 1904 @ S/N 58000. Both round and square butt versions continued in the same s/n range thereafter. In the spring of 1905 the 1905 model came out, distinguished by the screw in front of the trigger guard that retained a spring-loaded plunger for the cylinder stop. The starting s/n for the 1905 model is in the books, (62450).

The next important change was the addition of the rebound slide, that improved the smoothness of returning the trigger forward and is still a part of the S&W revolver mechanism to this day. That version is referred to as a 1905 First Change. That happened in '06. Again, the s/n is listed in the books (73251).

Your revolver I think is either a first or second change 1905 model. Refer to the books for the difference as there is an overlap of serials between 73251 and 146000, ending in 1909.

One interesting feature of the guns made from ca 1896 to 1909 is that the cylinders were not heat-treated as they were later on. To keep the lockup tight, hardened steel shims were placed in the cylinder stop notches to keep them from widening as the notches were engaged by the hard steel cylinder stop. You may need a magnifying glass to see the shims, as they were polished smooth to the cylinder surface after installation.