Alright I got a copy of the Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson and I am working my through it from front to back. First let me say that buying this book is a good idea and a bad idea at the same time. I am finding a lot more pistols that I would like to buy, my list is growing page by page. Back to the question, I have a Model 37-2 that I purchased from a local pawn shop a few months ago and was trying to look up the date. It's serial starts with BPL0*** and I cannot find BPL in the listing at the rear of the book. What am I missing? I am looking at page 400-401 and there are a ton of 3 letter prefixs but I don't see BPL at all.

Alright I got a copy of the Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson and I am working my through it from front to back. First let me say that buying this book is a good idea and a bad idea at the same time. I am finding a lot more pistols that I would like to buy, my list is growing page by page. Back to the question, I have a Model 37-2 that I purchased from a local pawn shop a few months ago and was trying to look up the date. It's serial starts with BPL0*** and I cannot find BPL in the listing at the rear of the book. What am I missing? I am looking at page 400-401 and there are a ton of 3 letter prefixs but I don't see BPL at all.

Assume alphabetical order where BPL came after BPK and before BRF (1993-94). The data is based on ship dates, but consecutive serial number guns may have shipped years apart. Some prefixes were used out of sequence too. You can check the features and revision dates to see if the approximation makes sense. If you really want to know when your gun shipped, buy a letter.

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"I also cook."

With newer guns like this one, you can just call customer service and feed them the serial. In the past they've been nice and told you.

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Dick Burg

Thanks guys, I didn't realize that there would be other prefixes that were not listed in the book. I guess you have to read between the lines so to speak. I did go back last night after posting this and looked at the written section that describes the 37's and saw the section that showed what came and went and when that happened. I was able to see that certain criteria in my gun narrowed down when it was made by looking at what mine had and what was missing. Thanks for the help! I'm sure it won’t be my last question regarding the SCSW.