I stopped in at the LGS today on my way to the range and ended up with a new toy. Imagine that! When I walked up to the counter, a good friend and shooting buddy of mine was there in the process of trading in a couple of guns to raise money to get another gun he wanted. The owner was trying to calculate values. I saw a blue two-piece S&W box on the counter. My friend asked me if I'd be interested in a model 10. I politely declined to answer, explaining that the LGS owner (also a good friend) was in the process of taking it in and it would be rude to make an offer. For those this has never happened to, it's considered bad LGS manners to buy a gun out from under the shop in front of the owner/employees when someone comes in to trade something while you're in a gun shop. I like to wait until the shop takes it in, or the owner has refused it. In this case, after I politely declined, the owner gave his reassurance that it was OK to look and make an offer, so I proceeded. The model 10 in question turned out to be a 4 screw model 10 no dash! The frame is marked "Mod 10" only. It is a 4" pencil barrel. The serial number is C439xxx, dating it to around 1960 or so, as best as I can tell. It sat in it's original blue two-piece box. The serial number is written on the bottom of the box in white grease pencil, as was done at that time. The PC diamond magnas are numbered to the gun and looked as new. I have multiple model 10s and pre-10s in my collection, but I could not resist making an offer because I've never seen a 10 no dash in person, that combined with it being a four screw and having a box made it better than your average model 10, at least to me. SCSW says they were only made from 1957-61. After some negotiation, it was mine for $350, a fair friend to friend price, I felt. It showed flash marks and had a turn line, so I did test fire it with some Remington UMC 158 gr LRN. I was rewarded with two Xs at 25 yrds, 1 single and 1 double action! Here are the mandatory pictures:




The box:

Congratulations, nice!

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Mike, AmVets Member, Navy Vet

That is a nice one . I keep finding stuff here and there and keep telling myself I cant buy everything.

Great acquisition. Good for you.

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In Omnia Paratus

Very nice!

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Life NRA, Life TSRA, C&R FFL

You did REAL good there! Fixed sight K frames are my favorite S&W's.

No dash model 10's, though not rare, are not commonly seen. If you were to look up the model 10 on gunbroker, there are literally hundreds of them for sale, but you would hard-pressed to find any no dash examples. Sometimes one or maybe two. Yours was bought very well considering the condition and having the box. I bought a 5" model without the box for slightly more last year. I had never seen a 4 screw no dash until then. Enjoy it.

A real nice one

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John

My 10 no dash 4 screw dates to Oct 59, and # C459xxx. No where near as nice as yours.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

In truth all the handgun any of us will ever need. Now WANT is another issue. Great buy..Enjoy!

Very nice! Very nice, indeed! Thanks for sharing!

FWIW, my Model 10 no dash, a 4-screw with a 5-inch barrel - bearing serial number C 477xxx - shipped 12/29/59

Nice catch.
Interesting that the box end does not denote "Model 10."
I'd guess this was an early model marked gun and they were using up the pre-Model 10 boxes.

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John

Well done.
Who wouldn't have bought it for what you paid?

Thank you gentleman for the compliments!

Sodacan,
Thank you for the info. I had a feeling the 10 no dash wasn't real common because I had never seen one before either. I didn't have any real information from an expert though.

H Richard & TripleLock,
Thank you very much for the dating information! I really appreciate it because SCSW is a little vague with the C prefix serial numbers. From your info, I can estimate that mine would be around August of '59 or so. It looks like they were averaging 10,000 a month.

JayCeeNC,

I'm glad you pointed out that the box does NOT mention "Model 10" anywhere. In my excitement, I overlooked that. I bet you are right that they were using up pre-model 10 boxes. The factory probably didn't want to waste parts. They never considered us collectors trying to sort all of this out 60 years later.

Mine dates back 1954....but doesn't look anywhere as good as yours.Congrats for a great buy and good ethical conduct!
Qc

Very nice!

Congrats!

Nice. I have a soft spot for fixed sights. Almost indestructible.