This gun appeared on GunBroker last fall. It was described as a Model 1905 4th issue .38 S&W. The starting price was 399.99 and there was one bid of 399.99. I kept an eye on it for two days and there were no further bids so I jumped in. Interestingly, there were no other bids and I got the gun for $405.00. Felt pretty good.

The revolver is in very good condition. Has a polished blue finish and has not been refinished. Nice case hardened trigger and hammer. There is a 5-inch barrel and a factory installed lanyard ring. The silver monogrammed grips are also in very good condition and numbered to the gun with stamps. The gun is indeed chambered for 38 S&W and no one has tried to bore it out to 38 Special. Factory 38 S&W ammo shoots very nicely. All numbers match at 767XXX. No expert on SN, I would guess this is around 1940-41. It surely was made for Lend Lease but seems never to have been sent to Britain. There are no foreign proof marks.

Indeed, there is only the minimum number of marks: caliber designation on barrel’s right side, large S&W icon on left sideplate, “MADE IN USA” on right frame, and “Smith & Wesson” on left barrel. There is one exception. On the bottom of the barrel, ahead of the cylinder rod lug, is a small, stippled inscription, Near as I can tell it is “S-W MIL FRASER MI.” Fraser is a suburb of Detroit, Michigan near the small town where the seller has his shop. Mr Google coughed up that the 785 Military Police Battalion was established in Fraser in November, 1942. That’s all I know.

Function of the gun is superb. Trigger is great. They made these very well. I have thought that the 38 S&W is a pretty good little cartridge but have not worked much with it or reloaded it. That will change now.
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Very nice specimen. I can tell you that I have a 767xxx gun that shipped in identical configuration to the British on May 12, 1941. This time was about half a year before revolvers fell under Lend-Lease, so these were bought by the British Purchasing Commission.

Yours apparently escaped marking. However, it does seem to have gone overseas. I believe the barrel marking is an importer mark and says E-W, but I‘m not sure about that.

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I'm no expert on these, but I think it is a Pre-Victory. The markings on the bottom of the barrel would be the importer mark. It would be in 38 S&W not 38 Special caliber. The grips do look as the originals could have been. These were sent to the British in the 1940is time frame.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

GCA-68 requires that importers mark the imported guns to indicate the importer's identity and location. So yours did enter the USA from another country. I have no idea what E-W indicates, and have never seen a listing of importer stamps, but I suppose such a list must exist somewhere. Lend-Lease property markings began fairly late in 1941, around August-September. I agree your gun's SN indicates that it likely shipped in April or May 1941

There was a place called East-West Military in Fraser, Michigan. Appears to be no longer in business.

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“What you got, ain’t new.”

Yep, number disconnected!



East-West Military is a Guns & Gunsmiths company at Fraser,Michigan,United States , Tel is (586)415-8962,address is 32024 Utica Road

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When words fail, music speaks.

This sounds like the perfect suspect.

There were lots of smaller outfits in the 1980s/90s who tried to join the surplus import boom after 1986 but left no large footprint, just an import mark that has folks scratching their heads 30 years later

Pre-War for the US, but definitely NOT Pre-War for the British Commonwealth since they had been pushed into the sea at Dunkirk about a year before your gun shipped.



Perhaps they imported guns from Canada.

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

Yes. We do tend to look at history from an America-centric viewpoint.

The German invasion of The free city of Danzig started on September 1, 1939, which is usually considered the beginning of WWII. I've actually been to the monument to the Poles who tried to defend the city. It is near Gdansk.

If you want to get very technical and push the envelope a bit, you could say the war started with the civil war in Spain in July, 1936. That's where the Nazi army first tried out their blitzkrieg idea and used the Stuka for dive bombing, etc.

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Jack
SWCA #2475, SWHF #318

I always notice that when we talk about the first batch of the Regulation Police 38, introduced and produced in 1917, which the letters call the “Pre-World War I Variation”.

Even Danzig and Spain are just Euro-centric. To wrap the whole complex of conflicts one really needs to start the war with the Japanese invasion and occupation of Manchuria in September 1931, which only ended with the Soviet attack in August 1945 and is thus definitely part of WW II.

Nice gun, great thread.

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Mike
S&WCA #3065

Absalom and others: Great suggestions and I am buying in. Another good look through a good magnifier shows the inscription is indeed "E-W Mil." I suppose it could have come in from Britain or Canada. We would probably have to see the E-W Mil import records. My guess is Canada since it is hard for me to imagine it going to Britain in 1941 and coming back this clean. I am grateful to have found such a good one. Probably not many are interested in shooting the cartridge, but I am.