Hello Friends and Merry Christmas to you all.

Here is a model 66 with the strange Ampersand & seen on some of
these in this 4K and 7K serial number ranges.

This one should be about February 1975. So it is approaching its 39th birthday.

Found Saturday Morning at West Palm beach gun show.From a pawn shop no less.

Fired a bit, but otherwise completely unmolested. Stainless rear sight.
I added the stocks, bought some years ago for $30 still new in the package.


Pictures;





This ampersand is unlike any previously seen or since.
Some designer really took artistic license to the extreme with this one.
























If you are freezing at home , sorry. It is 80* down here in South Florida Hell.







Regards,
Allen Frame

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NRA cert.instructor&R.S.O.

I like it! What do you think of the stainless sight and no red ramp? My 67 has the same setup and I'm not real fond of the sight picture. But maybe my eyes are just getting old. 80?!! Ya don't have to go very far north to find cooler weather. I'm just north of Orlando and it's 64 here. But I just got off the phone with my daughter in northern Indiana and it's 8 there. I can't complain.

Allen that is indeed a bizarre ampersand !
Also does it have the older "Dot Dot" R side barrel caliber abbreviation ?

You know my OCD is off the charts seeing those combats on 66 no dash,
And I know you have the proper football relieved targets somewhere stashed in your toy box.
Merry X mas ...yes AC is STILL ON ...HELP ME !

That style of ampersand was first used in 70-71, but only for two or three years. I guess S&W used it on a few Model 66 barrels also. Good information to have.

Bill

Allen, here is mine also a pawn shop rescue from a couple years back with the lazy &, like yours.

Circa 4K949XX here, so a bit later production. Sorry, have not refinished the grips to bring this back up to do some glamour shots. This is more like a morgue picture. (oh and you last picture, 80 degrees, woke up to a single digit here)

Enough of the sunny weather. I can't take it anymore!! Nice Model 66 BTW!!

Look at all that snow.
Time to buy a Rokon.

__________________
What would Jim Cirillo do?

Beautiful gun.

I know how you feel it is 80 in here also!!! Lucky you I'm jealous. Merry Christmas to all.

Hhahhahahaa!!!! Let us all know how well that glorious Florida sunshine is working out for you next June, July, and August!

Allen, that ampersand looks an awful lot like several of the ones I have on several different S prefix N frames in the 4 line address on the right side. The loops on mine are a bit more exaggerarated, but not by that much. The bottom part of the line sticking out to the right has the same crab claw look to it as yours. Very interesting topic IMO.

Well - mine is a bit different. It was rescued from a Police Commissioner on the
Island of St Lucia in the Caribbean. First of all, mine is a 4-screw frame, as you can
almost see the screw in the trigger guard in this first picture.



But, where it is really different from the Model 66's in this thread, mine is a Model 15.



Maybe the reason for the this model difference is that this one is chambered in 38
special. But - it is stainless steel. You can see the big S stamped on the underside of
the barrel in this next picture. Maybe this is more like a model 67, than a 66 .



Here is another stainless revolver that is interesting.



This gun is chambered in 22 long, as you can see in this closer picture of the barrel.



What is most interesting is that it is a Model 65 .



Regards, Mike Priwer

Mike those SS oddballs need to be returned to S&W to be destroyed, Send them to me and I will make sure that it is done in a timely manner when I get around to it some day....Very Neat.

Now where is that Model 66 serial K-949100 ?

Allen, nice gun.

Interesting ampersand.

Have you ever seen one like this?

This is on my 64-1 4" HB serial #1D21xx.

I have never seen one like this either.

Just noticed that on the right side of the barrel it is imprinted

38 S.&W. SPECIAL CTG. and on this side it has a normal ampersand.

Stu

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NRA Benefactor/Cert Instructor

Add it to this thread.
First I have seen on a Model 64.

Only Model 66's (K949xxx's) I have seen with the '8c' ampersand on them too...

Thanks for the link. Much appreciated.

Stu

__________________
NRA Benefactor/Cert Instructor

No kidding, it does!

Don't recall seeing another Model 66 with two dots except the USBP commemorative. (ya made me go look...)



I gotz ta know. One or two dots?

Got me fanning the safe door and just one dot here

All this folk lore around S&W. Mysteries, legendary quality and posts like this along with the recent 19-1 4 screw frame that was off a couple decades, just makes me wonder if "Good Enough" was the internal translation for Bangor Punta?

I just checked all my S&W's and low and behold, my S prefix 27-2 has the dot dot on the right side of the barrel. Obviously one dot is from the abbreviated S&W, the other dot is to designate the .357 caliber stamp, but none of my other smiths have that.

Truth be told, one of those is a period, the other a decimal point. So as you can see, one is literary, the other mathematical. Just the kind of nit I like to pick! Merry Christmas, all !

Larry

Lining up the Smiths and comparing Rollstamp variations and Ampersands is big fun !
IIRC the "Dot Dot" is on most 1969 and older Model 19's (and N frame .357's ?) with a brief disappearance around 1964/65 along with the "Lazy Ampersand" ,
Seems to have disappeared permanently around 1970 and then a 66 no dash from 1975 shows up wearing it...
Whats that expression?
Oh yeah "Nothing is absolute with S&W" .

Merry Christmas

S&W was always changing their roll mark tooling thus creating a challenge for collectors or creating confusion. I checked my Combat Magnums and found S.&W. .357 Magnum was roll marked on all of them up through 1960. My 19-1 (shipped in 62) was roll marked S.&W. 357 Magnum. My 19-2 (1964) has the earlier style roll marking. My Model 66 from 1970 and my 19-3 from 1971 have the later style. Of course, this does not take into account the type of ampersand used on the barrel and on the four lines on the right side of the frame. That is a discussion for another time. My ".357" Magnums from the early 50s all have the early style of roll marking.

Bill

Why do you think they are oddballs ?

Regards, Mike Priwer

You guys have me digging in the safe checking on the .. and the horizontal &. Found one of each. The & is on a 67 no dash with SS sights and the .. is on my 27 no dash 6 1/2". Thanks for the info and Merry Christmas.

I wonder if the additional dot was in keeping with the style of writing back then. Any printing always seemed to have a period at the end. If you've seen old store signs, billboards or advertising pre-WW-II, you'll see it. For example, an outdoor sign might say, "A.SMITH, GROCER." - with the period there.

Went through some and found a Model 19 no dash and an S serial Model 27-2 with a very similar Ampersand,
Also found several of those weird 8c Ampersands scattered between 1970 and 1980

IMO they are super cool...Perhaps S&W thought them odd only shipping 6 of the 20 SS "15's" and destroying 16 of the 17 SS .22 caliber Model "65's" ?
My guess is the sole surviving 65 rimfire may be suffering from depression and guilt seeing his squad cut down in their prime and could use a vacation in Florida .

Here is a letter from the original owner of the SS Model 15. He ultimately sold it to
Wayne Betz, an esteemed S&WCA member up until his tragic death in a small plane
crash. I bought it from the private auction of his estate.



These handful of SS revolvers were the prototypes for the factories entry into the
stainless steel revolvers.

Regards, Mike Priwer

The story of the .22 caliber revolver is different. Here is the factory letter for this
gun.





Regards, Mike Priwer

Mike that project was way ahead of its time,
Shocked S&W would have chose destruction rather than just over stamping them as a Model 18-S etc,
Perhaps being 1978 the next evolution of 3 digit model numbers were just over the horizon and it could have easily become the Model 618 ?

My grail gun is a Model 66 look alike in .22lr with shrouded ejector rod... funny how we want the ones we cant have.

Found another one today, on 4K932xx.

Kinda looks like someone tryin to eat their foot.

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