I am new to the forum and I hope I have placed this in the right area.

My Father was a police officer and deputy sheriff starting in the late 60's thru the middle 80's.

I inherited the S&W revolver that he carried. I also carried it for a short time as a special deputy escorting prisoners.

I have searched the web for hours trying to determine it's Model Number and Year Made, but to no avail.

Stamping on the 1 1/4" Barrel: AIRWEIGHT 38 SPL. CTG.
Stamping on the yoke and grip: ***'m No: 52936 and a Capital P
Serial Number Stamped on Bottom of Grip: C 4370XX
The Revolver Frame is Aluminum.

Any help that anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated! I do not want to use the wrong ammo.

Thank You, Bob

If it is a 6 shot revolver it is a model 12.

Hope that this helps.

Peter
EDIT,,, it should be a 6 shot with a "C: Prefix.
The barrel should be measured from the front of the cylinder to end of barrel and it should be 2"
Year is 1960
The Model 12,,, is a great gun no longer made and it should be ! ! ! !
Peter

__________________
Need 1/2 moon Chiefs special

Welcome to the Forum!

With the "C" prefix serial number it is 1960 Model 12 (it should be Model marked in the yoke)

Thank you.

It is a 6 shot and the barrel is 2" from end of cylinder.

The yoke is only marked with the ***'m number and a capital letter P below that, that's what does not make sense to me.

I read online somewhere that the alum frames expanded when fired and need less powerful ammo, is this one of those revolvers?

Again, Thank You for you Assistance! Bob

Thank you.

It is a 6 shot and the barrel is 2" from end of cylinder.

The yoke is only marked with the ***'m number and a capital letter P below that, that's what does not make sense to me.

I read online somewhere that the alum frames expanded when fired and need less powerful ammo, is this one of those revolvers?

Again, Thank You for you Assistance! Bob

Basically repeating what VM and Pred said, correctly, with a comment. What you have is a 1960 Model 12 with out a dash change. It should be marked M-12, but what should be insn't necessarily always.

What you have heard about the Airweight guns is mostly a bunch of ****. Surprisingly the more recent Scandium/Aluminum alloy frames seem to have more issues with failure than the older 6061 or 7075 alloy frames ever did. The K-frame Model 12 is capable of shooting any current .38 Special ammunition including so-called +P. As with any mechanical device it will wear out faster the harder you use it, but you won't have a catastrophic failure with a Model 12 from using +P ammunition in it. It would be considered "good practice" to shoot mostly standard loads for this reason. This story started from the original M-12 guns issued by the Air Force as the Aircrewman which had aluminum cylinders and which did have failures of the cylinders. Yours is not one of those guns.

Thank You to everyone that has replied to my post, your information has been very valuable.

I just purchased Supica/Nahas Standard Catalog of Smith and Wesson, great book, which has me baffled.

The S&W 38 special Airweight I have has the four screw configuation, finally removed the stock (grips). According to the book, both the pre model 12 and model 12 both have the 5 screw configuration.

The front sight and trigger are serrated. The barrel is pinned. It is stamped with the 4 line made in USA.
The frame width is the same as a K-22 masterpiece 3rd model I have.

S/N: C4370XX

Since there is no model number stamped on the gun, I am confused. Or, am I just over thinking this?

No, you are not over-thinking it, and it sounds like you are reading S&N carefully, but you may not have understood Alk8944's comment. The model number SHOULD be stamped on the frame, but the fact that it isn't is not exactly surprising. I have a 1958 K-22 with all of the characterisics of a 1958 K-22, and it doesn't have the model number stamped in the frame. "Everbody" knows that they started stamping model numbers in 1957, and some of us folks know that they didn't ALWAYS stamp model numbers after 1957. Now you can be one of us folks.

Thanks, now I am one of you folks.

I have a K-22 Masterpiece that has no model stamped on it either. Posted it in the other forum to try and get a date.