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S&W Hand Ejectors: 1896 to 1961 All 5-Screw & Vintage 4-Screw SWING-OUT Cylinder REVOLVERS, and the 35 Autos and 32 Autos


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Old 12-23-2008, 11:40 AM
BillyJack BillyJack is offline
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] Hello! I just picked up my first old S&W revolver. It is an M&P 1905 4th change made about 1918-1920! Overall it is in good mechanical condition except for some slight barrel pitting and the finish of course. My question is do the pictures show extreme flame cutting or is it machined that way with a relieved area on the topstrap? It looks too uniform to be flame cutting. Anyway thanks for any information.
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Old 12-23-2008, 11:40 AM
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] Hello! I just picked up my first old S&W revolver. It is an M&P 1905 4th change made about 1918-1920! Overall it is in good mechanical condition except for some slight barrel pitting and the finish of course. My question is do the pictures show extreme flame cutting or is it machined that way with a relieved area on the topstrap? It looks too uniform to be flame cutting. Anyway thanks for any information.
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Old 12-23-2008, 11:41 AM
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Old 12-23-2008, 12:07 PM
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Welcome to the forum. The indent you see is called the fouling cup. Its a leftover from the blackpowder days when residue would collect around the forcing cone. This gave it someplace to go. It not flame cutting.
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Old 12-25-2008, 08:42 PM
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pace40 is halfway correct. The oval recess is the fouling cup or relief found on early hand ejector revolvers. If you look closely at the front edge of the cup there is a transverse line across the top strap which is right over the barrel-cylinder gap. This line can be either gas cutting or lead fouling, hard to tell from the picture. If lead it will scrape off, and if gas cutting it will be below the surface and rough. As well as it can be seen in the photo this is exactly what gas cutting looks like, either way.

In the early days of the .38 Spl. it was available in black powder loads. Black powder causes much more rapid gas cutting than smokeless powders do. You don't give a serial number, but it appears to be significantly older than your 1918-20 estimate.
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Old 12-26-2008, 06:03 PM
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A really great picture, and thread.

I learned something here.
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Old 12-26-2008, 06:03 PM
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Anyone know when Smith quit doing that ?
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Old 12-26-2008, 09:34 PM
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Quote:
Originally posted by JohnK:
Anyone know when Smith quit doing that ?
John,

Don't know specific year, but it was before 1927 as my latest .32-20 dates in that period and doesn't have it, while an M&P from about 1920 does.
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Old 12-27-2008, 06:06 AM
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Quote:
Originally posted by JohnK:
Anyone know when Smith quit doing that ?
38 M&P s/n 2868xx shipped in Oct 1917 still has it.

38M&P s/n 3831xx shipped in June 1921 does not.

I've not found it listed anywhere as to an order being given to discontinue it.

Mr Priwer?...Mr Jarrett?
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Old 12-28-2008, 05:49 PM
Peter M. Eick Peter M. Eick is offline
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Most of my 1930's Heavy Duty's have the fouling cup cut out on them. It had to have occured after about 1931 if I remember right.



By the way, here is a good shot of a flame cut for comparison.
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