Just picked up a new to me S&W revolver I got on the cheap. My local dealer bid on the confiscated guns that the county sheriff offered for auction, and this was one of them.
I'm pretty sure it's a model 65, stainless 3 screw K frame with .357 magnum on the barrel. Fixed sights and heavy 4" barrel. The model and serial # have been filed off by some idiot, but they didn't realize that the number was on the butt under the rubber grips.
The gun has been legitimized by the state of California, and has a clean record with her new owner(me). I'm not real sure about the numbers on the Butt. 388D36xxx.
Mechanically perfect, good trigger, just some file marks under the crane. I figured it was $300 well spent. I've been told that this could be an old Oklahoma highway patrol issue revolver.

That was money well spent. Does it have a pined barrel and recessed chambers? That serial number would be before the switch to the alpha numeric in 1982. Well spent.

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Made it, Ma! Top of the world!

Are all the numbers on the bottom of the grip frame similar in font and size? The D prefix models had up to seven characters in the SN including the letter, so 8D36xxx is a correct format (from 1981) but not 388D.

Also, the model 65 did not usually have the SN on the frame under the barrel, so someone just took off the model stamping.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

Thanks for the info guys. I'm just getting into these old S&W's and rely on this sight for reference. By the by, the 8D36xxx portion of the s/n was all the same font, the preceding 38 were off by themselves.

8D would indeed put it in the 1981 production range. 7D10,001 – 9D44,500……....1981
No idea what the "38" means.

Congrats! That is a great deal. I would love to see pics. I just picked up a model 65-3, can't wait to get it out of "jail."

The 38 is probably an inventory or rack number, indicating it may have been a law enforcement gun.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

I would say that was money very well spent. About 6 or 7 years ago I bought a 3" 65 for $385. I don't understand where the "dark" history is from since it doesn't seem to have been used in a crime. I may be wrong but you did not mention if it was involved in a crime. Guns are confiscated for many reasons that have nothing to do with criminal activity.
Sometimes a person will turn in a firearm they may have inherited but do not want and do not want another person to have. It is possible this gun was given to the Sheriff or it may have been his person gun at one time.

From what a deputy friend told me, 80% of the guns confiscated in our rural county are gathered from illegals growing pot in the national forest for the mexican mafia. There's only 50,000 people in tehama county, which is 2962 square miles. We really don't have many people turning in guns here, they're considered a tool.

It was the practice of my former employer to destroy weapons used in crimes, suicides & the like. In fact over time I believe that all if not most confiscated guns were destroyed. Now about the crossbow that someone tried to use on me........