If anyone can put a build or ship date to this it would be greatly appreciated.
It is a 32 S&W Long with a 4.25” barrel and the numbers are: 424xxx.
Sorry for the double post.

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Welcome to the forums from the Wiregrass! That's a 32 Caliber regulation police revolver that shipped around 1924.

Guy

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Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

I agree with Guy above, Highly likely it was built and shipped sometime in 1924.

It should have MADE IN U.S.A. on the right side front of the frame which was first marked in 1923.

HISTORY:

The .32 Hand Ejector with round butt and its cartridge, the 32 S&W Long are both historical. The .32 HE is the first side swing out cylinder produced by S&W, built on the first I size frame, and introduced as the 1896 Model (1st Model) along with its new cartridge.

It went thru several evolutionary changes until it became the 32 Hand Ejector 3rd model in 1917 when a sq butt version, with most common barrel length of 4 1/4", was introduced as the 32 Regulation Police beginning at ~ #258001 in the same serial range as the 32 HE. The 32 RP was not marked Regulation Police on the barrel like the 38 S&W RP was, reason unknown. In the late 19th century, it certainly was the official firearm of some police depts. But as the 20th century came and progressed, confidence as an adequate self defense cartridge waned.

Target models with adjustable rear sights were available with 6" barrels as well as very rare 4 1/4" barrels (including 196 with 4" barrels in 1957), and with 2 screw extended target stocks.

By 1920 the cyls received a heat treatment for additional strength as did all S&W revolvers.

The 3rd Model HEs and RPs had the 2nd type hammer safety block change ordered in 1925 to WW II.

Both were reintroduced after WW II in identical form except for the change to the much more fool proof post war sliding bar safety. They went thru more evolution in the 1950s, and in 1957 became the Model 30 w/round butt and the Model 31 for the Reg Police w/square butt, and finally in 1961 were upgraded to the slightly longer J size frame which added -1 to the model #s.

Eventually both versions were combined as just the Model 31 in 1976, until discontinued in 1991. Various iterations were later introduced using the 32 H&R Mag and/or the 327 Fed Mag, both of which will still shoot the 32 Long as well.

Any currently available 32 Long ammo in standard loadings is perfectly safe to shoot in your 32. You’ll be happy with its accuracy and light recoil.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

425650 shipped in 10/1925.

Wow thank you guys for the quick information and history! Yes it is marked on the other side MADE IN U.S.A.

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I maintain a database of the .22/32 HFT's that share the same serial number blocks with the .32 HE's. I checked and only have one gun listed in the 424xxx serial block FWIW, it shipped in November of 1925.

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James Redfield
LM #497

Ok so it’s ‘newer’ that previously thought!

That is a definite maybe. S&W did not always build or ship in numerical order so a revolver with a lower serial number could ship after a higher number.

Kevin

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Unshared knowledge is wasted.

Yes I think I read somewhere they built them in lots and just grabbed and shipped whatever/whenever so higher serial numbers could go out before lower serial numbers.

I have sn. #46473, with 4 1/4 " barrel. I think it was made around 1904, or so. It is an I frame with round butt and black plastic type of grips. It has a returned to factory mark on frame of 8.42, where I think it was reblued and the action is very tight. Just shot it today for the first time, fairly accurate.

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Kevin in Oregon

As you'll see, producing or shipping guns in serial # order would be an extremely labor intensive and costly endeavor, and a migraine level headache!

Here's the story of the production process in brief including when and how the 'work numbers' are used to this day, and when parts were serialized from 'the man' himself.

"I will give you a general outline of the manufacturing process up to about the 1957 period when the soft fitting department was eliminated. The company is divided into departments, forging, frame, barrel, cylinder, small parts, heat treat, stocking department, soft fitting, polishing, finishing, hard fitting, test range, final inspection, [storage in the vault], and shipping. The flow is roughly in that order.

"Bar stock is forged into frames, barrels, hammers, triggers, and side plates stamped from flat stock. These parts are all trimmed and sent to the appropriate department. In each department the parts are machined to a finished stage.

"In the frame department once the frame is partly finished a yoke is fit to it and the yoke and frame are stamped with a work number. The frame is then sent to the man who fits the side plate which is swaged onto the frame and the side plate is given the work number in the slot cut for the hand. The yoke and side plate are over size so the frame with these parts in position are sent through the machining operations so that they are blended together.

[The serializing scramble begins immediately after they are serial number is apllied in the next step and continues every step of the way to the shipping dept.]

"When the frame is finished it is sent to the stocking department where a pair of stocks are fit to the frame. Once the stocks have been fit, the frame, yoke [on the rear face visible thru one chamber] and the stocks are stamped with a serial number. Only the frame will have a letter prefix if one is assigned to that model. The frame is then sent to soft fitting and the stocks to finishing and when they are done to the inspection department.

"In soft fitting the frame is fit with a finished barrel, cylinder, and internal parts. The barrel, cylinder and extractor star are stamped with a serial number[barrel and cyl with letter prefix as well]. The gun is disassembled and the small parts placed in a bin and sent to hard fitting. The frame, barrel, and cylinder are sent to polishing then to get a blue or nickel finish.

"Once completely finished they are sent to hard fitting, where the gun is assembled, the fitter stamps his mark in the yoke cut, and its inspected by the floor inspector. From hard fitting the handgun goes to the range where it is test fired and marked with a prick punch mark in the lower front corner of the cyl window, usually.

"From the range it goes to the inspection department where the first inspector finds the right numbered pair of grips and puts them on the handgun. It then goes to final inspection where all the features are inspected for proper function. Then it is packaged and moved into the vault. From there it goes to the distributor."


The few opportunities for guns to ship in serial # order or even close proximity to serial # order are:

>Special orders of small production quantities with an assigned serial # block for 2 or more guns
>Fast sellers like the M&P models
>Slow sellers with small quantity production groups with serial # blocks of 25, 50, 75, etc., (low production models)

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Thanks for the information. Its always great to know the history on something you own.

Jim, that is a great explanation of the production process at S&W. Perhaps that should be made a "sticky" for future reference.

I will add a little from my study of the .22/32 HFT's or Bekeart model as it is known by collectors.

The first run of the .22/32 HFT was for 1,050 guns and we are told that it was the inspiration of San Francisco gun dealer Phil Bekeart. S&W supposedly required Bekeart to place a large order before they would do the tooling necessary to build a .22 caliber revolver using their large I frame platform normally used for the .32 caliber guns.

As it turns out, Bekeart only received 294 of this first run of 1,050 guns shipped in 1911 and the balance was shipped out to other S&W's distributors of the day. These guns were produced between serial numbers 138,226 and 139,275. Bekeart received 6 shipments and the serial numbers are all mixed up with some higher serial numbered guns shipping before their lower numbered brethren. The fact that Bekeart did not receive all 1,050 from this run begs the question about him being required to place an order for 1,000 guns. Within a week of Bekeart's first shipment guns were shipping to other dealers.

Later in 1914, M.W. Robinson ordered 490 pieces of this model and they are numbered between 207,926 and 208,415. Although Robinson received all of these sequentially numbered revolvers, they too did not ship in serial number sequence with numbers scattered throughout the five shipments.

So just a couple of real examples of the production and shipping process at S&W showing that selling guns was their primary business. Keeping serial numbers and shipping dates in order was not.

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James Redfield
LM #497

The greatest disconnect between serial numbers and shipping date was during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Gun sales were very slow, and factory inventory of finished guns built up. It wasn't unusual for some guns to ship several years after manufacture. For example, an M&P with a SN in the low 6xxxxx range could have shipped about any time between 1929 and 1936.

Yes indeed. My commercial 1917 left Springfield, Mass about 6 years after most in my serial number range shipped.

"...black plastic type of grips."

These are made from hard rubber, not plastic.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

So, it's NOT some guy with a ball peen hammer and flat ******* file after all! Great description of factory production process by Hondo44.

Just to keep the record straight, when I indicated the quote was from "the man" himself, I was referring to Roy Jinks, the S&W historian.

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Jim
S&WCA #819