I thought I had a handle on dash numbers. Then along comes this one gun and I'm all confuddled.

First, I thought that when they came up with a new modification, and issued a new dash number, they quit making the old ones. For example, when they started 10-6, they stopped making 10-5. Apparently not so.

With the introduction of the 10-1, in 1959, they started making heavy barrels. I thought that meant they stopped skinny barrels.

In 1961 they introduced the 10-2 AND the 10-3. Hmmm.

Then in 1962 they brought out the 10-4, 10-5 and 10-6. All the same year. And the –4 and –5 were both modifications to the skinny barrels. But I thought, with the intro of the -1 in '59, they quit making skinnies. Hmmmmm.

A guy asked me to date his model 10. Well, if it has a model number, it is at least 1957. If it just says Model 10, it must be 57 or 58, since they started 10-1 in 59. So they should not have made any more no-dashes.

He gives me the SN. C483212. THE BOOK says ‘61 or ’62. That should make it anywhere from a late -1 all the way up to a -6. He says it’s a no-dash. As I said earlier, I thought when they started making the heavies they quit making the skinnies, but he says it a skinny.

So, like I said, I am thoroughly confuddled, here. What the heck is going on? Is there no rhyme or reason to dash numbers? Do (or did) they make two or three different dash numbers at the same time?

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I always take precautions

In most cases, S&W used the engineering change (revision level) to identify a major change to the specifications. In those cases, they used up the old inventory and then produced guns and parts to the new specifications.

Sometimes they used the revision level to distinguish between variations or special runs of a model and produced several engineering change levels simultaneously (sometimes more than two). The Models 10 and 36 were treated this way, rather than assigning new model numbers to the heavy barrel versions. I suspect that was a marketing decision trying to capitalize on the popularity and reputation of these guns. They certainly weren’t worried about confusing future collectors! The frames have a different taper and profile where they meet the barrel and frames were blued in batches, so S&W need to schedule and track the various parts separately. If you’ve ever worked in manufacturing or dealt with inventory, you know how much of a problem it can be if you have several non-interchangeable parts with the same part number.

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"I also cook."

There ya go. This one sentence pretty much sums up this type of question about any model ever made.

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Pace

If you want more confusion, look at the model 60.

That's a fact. I've got a C-prefix pre model 10 that was shipped 8/15/1958 with a 2 inch barrel the has the round front sight on it. According to the Standard catalog of S&W, the front sight should be a ramp on anything made after 1952. Strange.