Last week I acquired a S&W Model 17-3 .22 caliber revolver, Serial numbers 18K4676 and 73135A8. Six inch barrel. It has a wide trigger and hammer with a sizeable walnut grip.
Can anyone tell me when it was made, which serial number is the right one and anything about this beautiful pistol.
In the 1950's when I was in the Navy I owned a S&W K22 Masterpiece which was a joy to shoot.

John

the "18K. . ." is the serial number. I don't have a S&W reference right now but I would guess an 18K gun would be 1980's. The company started with "K" (by itself) as a prefix when they resumed production after WWII and added numbers before the "K" as the years went by to keep the serial number length down.

Do you know if the wide target trigger and hammer came with the original revolver?

Your 17-3 dates to 1977.

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Misty

Very, very likely, but the only way to be sure is to letter it, unless, of course, you have the original box.

Thanks for the reply. What do you mean by "letter it"? I don't have the box.

John

letter the gun refers to sending a request to the S&W historian (I think the fee is $50) to research the gun. they can tell you it's original configuration as it left the factory and wher it was shipped to. Most of the time these letters on recent production guns are pretty boring- like gun shipped to a large gun distributor or something. on occasion, it will reveal shipment to someplace out of the ordinary like a gov agency police department or overseas order.

What's this gun worth?

I paid a little over $800 for a minty -3 full target. 8 3/8"er. Big Larry

I would say that the gun is original. A "3-T" gun; target trigger,target hammer,target stocks. I have one just like that myself.