I just purchased this new to me revolver. I believe it is a model 1905, 4th change. It is a 5 screw, 6in barrel, has mushroom cap on ejector rod. small S&W logo on the left side under thumb latch. Serial number 374255 is on the bottom of the frame, on the cylinder, flat of barrel and yoke. Patents on top of barrel include oct. 01, dec 01, feb. 06, and dec. 14.

The magna stocks on it are not original and not numbered. It is in great shape for its age, with no rust or obvious corrosion.

Please correct me if any of the above is incorrect.

Can some one identify when it was made / sold? Thanks in advance. Photos attached.

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Nice. Looks to be in overall decent shape and all-original.

The presence of the small logo and absence of MADE IN USA set the outer limits to 1920 to mid-1922. This gun was likely made in the earlier months of 1921.

I usually can get closer to bracketing something than this, but the other folks will no doubt fix that--------------------

#264678 shipped March 1, 1917
#404219 shipped September 9, 1922

And once you get through with the number crunching, keep in mind you have accomplished nothing beyond demonstrating your arithmetic skills, and a letter from the S&W Historical Foundation will tell you exactly what you're looking for----unless your gun left the factory in somebody's lunch box.

Ralph Tremaine

And see--somebody else already did!!

Thanks for the info. What would OEM stocks look like? I'd like to get some.

The round-butt guns, like yours, usually shipped with black hard rubber stocks.

For wood, non-medallion convex round-top stocks. These were in use from 1920 to 1929/30. Before and after the stocks had medallions.

This M&P is from 1923.




Not my photo:

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s/n 3608xx shipped 12/1920
s/n 3771xx shipped 3/1921


The closest I have to yours is s/n 3947xx. It shipped 12/1921 and has a 5" barrel.
real friend poem

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Mike
S&WCA #3065

That is a very nice revolver you have OP. You see less of the round butt variety and it is a shame the gun is not pre 1920. Always a slight chance it could be, but you would have to letter it to find out for sure. The reason I say it's a shame is because the large gold medallion round butt grips would look the prettiest on your gun of all the options in that time frame. These are the grips used on 1910 to 1920 round butt K frames. In 1920 till 1930 they used the convex non-medallion grips.Pictured here is a set of the kind of grips I am speaking of from before 1920.

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Mine is a square butt frame nickel 6-inch, serial number 357xxx and it lettered to May 31, 1921.

Everyone always says that you know nothing until you get a letter but frankly, it’s rather pricey for what you get unless it is something potentially very rare and valuable. I’m certainly not saying “oh don’t get a letter”, but I am saying that for a high volume production gun, a factory letter probably isn’t going to put you on cloud nine, especially at it’s price.

With the small logo on the gun, there is really no chance it could be pre-1920. On the other hand, there was always a transition period when peripherals like grip styles changed, and the medallion stocks from the 19-teens would not be misplaced on a 1920 vintage gun.

The gun was almost certainly shipped in 1921. It would have round butt black hard rubber stocks. The image of these stocks can be found in Post #5. I do not believe that the factory made any walnut round butt convex topped stocks. Your revolver is very nice and deserves a nice set of hard rubber stocks. Watch ebay and they will show up quite regularly. You can also get some nice looking reproduction black round butt stocks for now until you find a nice original set. vintagegungrips.com and other sites have them (SKU: 3911G/7379). With the escutcheons and screws, they will run around $60.

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Gary
SWCA 2515

.38 M&P serial 353307 was shipped in October 1922. .38 M&P serial 377178 was shipped in March 1921. .38 M&P serial 391838 was shipped in April 1922. .38 M&P serial 434127 was shipped in March 1923.



In my opinion, I would leave the stocks on that are on it now. Replicas and black rubber replacements will not be as comfortable when shooting and won't look as good. Of course, you could put some Grashorn or Driskill elkhorn stags on it to really dress it up. AGAIN, IMO.

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Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

Gary:

These were apparently exceedingly rare, and the SCSW manages to avoid any concrete statement in several places, but I did finally find a picture of one on p. 163. So they did make some

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Less common.
Not rare in my observations.

By the mid to late 20s they are definitely seen. I can't say how early they appeared, but wood grips were an option from the earliest K frame days, so I bet they were available from 1920 onward.
565XXX

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

Thanks for that. As of this thread, I have now seen two sets, so I am sticking with rare!!

Would the the scarcity of this style stocks support the speculation that round butt K frames were scarce in the Twenties? I did pull out a ("D3" from 1923 - correction) catalog only to find that K frame round butt revolvers were only offered with wood stocks and no options for hard rubber!! My 1925 catalog states that only black hard rubber stocks were available for the round butt revolvers. Lastly the 1931 catalog also states hard rubber only for the round butts.

Interesting development.

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Gary
SWCA 2515

I based my “rare” opinion purely on not being able to find any pictures at all of one on the web, and my finding skills are usually not that bad

On the other hand, there are tons of pictures of the pre-1920 recessed-medallion round butt stocks to be had. I was starting to suspect they continued those on round butt wood through the 1920s when I came across the photo in the catalog.

Well, we know that round butt hard rubber stocks were shipped on 2" M&Ps from the 1930s until the early 1950s. I don't recall the date of the D2 catalog you mentioned, but the stocks certainly existed in the period I mentioned.

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Jack
SWCA #2475, SWHF #318

Sorry, it was the D3 catalog catalog with price list that dated March 1, 1923.

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Gary
SWCA 2515