On this day 70 years ago, Tuesday, July 25th 1939 my Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver shipped from the factory. The gun was special ordered with the 3 ½ inch barrel, blue finish, humpback hammer, Magna grips and a King red bead front sight with "U" notch white outline rear sight. Further, it was specified that the gun be sighted in at the factory using .357 Magnum ammunition at a distance of 25 yards and using a 6 o'clock hold. The revolver was ordered by Sutcliffe Hardware Co. Louisville Kentucky. It is not known if the .357 was ordered for a specific individual or to use as company stock.

This is the pride of my S&W collection. The gun is all original with all matching numbers except the grips that were provided by a fellow forum member. I have been unable to find any more information about the gun or who might have originally purchased it. I am hoping that thru the efforts of the S&WHF someday I might be able to find out more about the history of this grand old Smith & Wesson.

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John
S&WCA Life Member

An absolute beauty. That would the pride of anyone's collection. Congratulations!

David Wilson

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David Wilson

HAPPY BIRTHDAY...a GREAT EXAMPLE OF A GREAT GUN...
THANKS FOR SHARING...

Thanks for giving us another look at that beauty.

Jerry

Sir, you have every right to be proud of this fine example of S&W Workmanship. Thanks for the photos and the period advertisement from Sutcliff as they also seem proud to sell the S&W(Top of the Line). Very nice special order revolver. The unknown"History" of the individual to whom the gun was sold is enough to maintain your search for answers. Nice Smith and good luck with the search.

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Sam
S&WHF 333 S&WCA 2198

Now that's a gun!

Thanks for sharing!

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S&WCA # 2045

That is a very beautiful piece!

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Richard
Engraved S&W fan

Beautiful gun and the price was just right when I was 6 years old.

Very Nice! ~ Thanks for Sharing ~

Rod

beautiful piece and excellent story.

very nice, what a great looking gun. what's the ser#. i have a set of pre war magnas that belong to a RM.

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George Jamison

Thanks for all the nice comments. One of the best things about owning these old S&Ws is trying to find out the history of them...

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John
S&WCA Life Member

So did you throw a big Birthday Party? Sorry I missed it.... I've got an FBI Registered that has it's 70th coming up in December.....

Drew

Sir my compliments, that's a beautiful pre war mag. It'd be the centerpiece of my collection as well.

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Sie vis pacem parabellum

Great! Seventy candles on top of the cake! Blow 'em out/off (don't exactly know what the right expression is because I'm from abroad.

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Regards from Germany
Stephan

beautiful weapon...happy birthday!

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SWCA#2208
KK4EMO

I'm a bit late to the party, but great looking piece - hope you enjoy it for many years to come.

I'm a proud owner of a J-frame 2nd edition, then on my 60th birthday I made a deal for a Target Model 66 1st edition, "no dash". I'd only be happier, if the temp would get below 110 to try it out, but then if the temp drops my wife will want to come along and I'm likely to loose it to her!)

But it hasn't always been like this, I purchased my first firearm 2yrs ago next month and I've had some catching up to do. Plus, I started with a prejudice against S&W.

As I was getting started, I was ask to check out a new Sigma 40 for a friend. I was NOT thrilled w/ it. Our son came home a couple weeks later on R&R from Iraq, we had "a shoot" here, with over 30 firearms and 10 guys; experience ranging from 16 to 76yrs old and as many years with guns, plus an ex-cop. Everyone tried everything. I was particularly interested to see if it was just Newbie Me having a problem w/ the Sigma, NO-Way, no one emptied or wanted to empty an entire clip! (It was returned to the owner, who returned it to the dealer for something else.) The trigger was horrible, I think it would have taken a fish scales to measure the trigger pull.

But, friends persisted - told me that that one was the exception not the norm and now I'm happy with my older S&W's. If someone has the book, I'd sure like to know the age of my Model 66 #9K977xx and the J-Frame which I believe is around '53-'54 #647xx (both numbers from under the grip on flat butt frame).

Thanks for the help and for the great forum. (It's getting harder and harder to find good forums.)

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Unless we keep the barbarian virtue, gaining civilized ones will be of little avail. - T. Roosevelt