So I've had a couple of these odd little revolvers and have one left so wondering if I could get advice on build date and the rumors I recall years ago that these were built as a NATO contract gun ?

When I had my smithing business I recall the factory guys often would tell me things like I've heard of them but we don't have any parts for them, or they were a special foreign contract we don't support. I'd be real interested in any legitimate background info on these guns if somebody knows.

547 3" sq butt
16D0573

Thanks
Regards

You have a great gun. The S/N puts it somewhere in 1982 according the Standard Catalogue. Someone else will have to help you on the story. I have the 4" but sold my 3".

__________________
Dan
Ps 96 SWCA 2930 SWHF 524

There are more than ten thousand of the 547s that were manufactured from about 1980 to 1985



Your 547, like mine is a 1982 revolver

You know what they say about the value of rumors

Presuming these rumors had any truth to them, how could Smith and Wesson produce something for NATO but not support it? Would they ever get a military contract after that?

Of course the factory had parts and supported the firearm.

Yea I know what you're saying but the first 547 I picked up was buggered up by some bonehead who didn't understand the extractor system and related fingers. I got the gun cheap but had to go searching high and low for extractor parts. This is how I ran into a wall at Springfield on parts. I finally got them later from a Canadian gunsmith buddy.

I might add gunmakers in this country have historically built arms under foreign contracts with no requirement to maintain a support system on this end since the guns were never offered domestically.

Regards

My recollection is they were initially ordered by Israel to arm an indigenous Palestinian police force. It seems they didn't want to arm the Palestinians with magazine fed weapons, but at the same time they wanted to be able to utilize 9mm Parabellem cartridges because they had them in abundance.

S&W made quit a few M547's, and some, not all, were shipped to Israel and used for awhile. For some reason the guns were returned to the US after a few years and sold off through S&W's normal distribution channels. I'd never heard of any NATO connection to the M547. At one time it might of found a nitch in European police use, but it came to late. Since the early '80's the semi auto pistol has dominated the LEO and military market.

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~ S&W aficionado in training ~

That's interesting and may well be the crux of it, however I too heard the factory ramped up and made a substantial run of these revolvers very quickly. That they were very costly to make so the contract must have been sweet. The NATO connection may well have been bogus and just another rumor based on similarities to the truth.

One thing that is for certain is that though they made thousands of these guns there aren't many that came back. The extractor system on these guns is a high wear and the beryllium copper fingers could be a failure prone component. Not sure about fatigue life cycle of this alloy but when they do these guns will be hell to fix.

Your gun is most likely shipped April/May 1983 time frame.

NATO does not procure weapons.
Member nations do that.
NATO does establish common standardization agreements: STANAGS.

__________________
-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

Like the Kernel, I recall no specific NATO contract or connection. That means one of two things: (1) the Kernel and I are running with the same people and getting good information; or, (2) we are both senile and have forgotten anything we once knew about it.

As best as I recall they were designed to comply with a French police contract for a revolver that did not require using moon clips. If memory serves the French either cancelled the contract or only bought a portion of the original number planned resulting in significant numbers released for domestic sale

I have two that a dealer imported from Israel in the mid 1980s. I am not sure, but I believe I saw a couple in holsters of the police in Charles de Gaulle airport. I did not ask the officers but the hammer is a give away.

I have never had an extractor problem with any of my 547s, nor have I heard of a failure of the extractors. Beryllium copper is used for springs so fatigue would not be an issue. Failure of the extractor would likely be due to mishandling.

I thought they were on a French RFP.
Ruger got the contract, though.