I have posted before that I have had such a problem with finding holsters I like for guns I have that now I buy holsters I like then buy a gun to fit them.
Here's a pretty cool holster I bought at Tulsa made by a Houston Saddlerey company


The other day I ran across this...a FACTORY nickel pre-15 SN #235004





The SCSW dates this gun to 1955, as you can see it still retains the 5th screw even though the book says the 5th screw was dropped in 1955.

At K235004 this would have been made roughly in the first quarter of the year. If anyone has a later SN with the 5th screw still present it may
be helpful to narrow down the transition.

I have posted before that I have had such a problem with finding holsters I like for guns I have that now I buy holsters I like then buy a gun to fit them.
Here's a pretty cool holster I bought at Tulsa made by a Houston Saddlerey company


The other day I ran across this...a FACTORY nickel pre-15 SN #235004





The SCSW dates this gun to 1955, as you can see it still retains the 5th screw even though the book says the 5th screw was dropped in 1955.

At K235004 this would have been made roughly in the first quarter of the year. If anyone has a later SN with the 5th screw still present it may
be helpful to narrow down the transition.

Any comments??

Yeah. I wish it were mine.

__________________
John

The serial-number cutoff for 5-screw / 4-screw is suppossed to be about K250,000 ,
so this gun ought to be a 5-screw, which it is.

Another interesting feature is the two pins that retain the front sight. They are
not polished flat to the barrel rib, but project out just a bit. That is factory,
and its always interesting to see. I'm not clear as to when that practice was stoppped,
and the pins ends were polished flat.

Nickel finish tends to show off the scratches, etc , but otherwise it looks to be
all original.

Later, Mike Priwer

Mike...S&W polished the two pins flush to the barrel rib when they started finishing the front sight blade/ramp in nickel...maybe 1967 or so.

Bill

Curtis,

Very nice, indeed! You don't see those every day.

Jerry

I have noticed that the pin issue is fairly common with K-frames of this vintage. I have a 4 screw pre-17 with a red ramp front sight that is all blue that has the protruding pins.

About 98-99% of the nickel remains on this gun, but you are right Mike the nickel tends to show up the minute scratch marks worse than blue. That and the fact I cant take close-ups without the flash turned on with the camera I have. It's kinda like a good paint job on a car...if you get down to it you can see the polishing marks.

JayCee...I am probably not going to keep this one as it does not fit in my collecting parameters of either being an N-frame, or a 1966 vintage.

I forgot to mention in the OP, but the flat on the bottom of the barrel has the "N" for nickel, but it is stamped in such a way as to make look like part of the SN it looks like KN 235004