Recently I acquired a model 629-1 in excellent condition with an 8-3/8" barrel.
I'm just curious to know how old the gun is and would appreciate help from anyone here who can give me an approximate date of manufacture.
Serial No BAS 06XX
Would have posted a pic but haven't taken any yet.
Regards
Campfire

The triple Alph serial numbers are usually hard and move around a bit, but the only BAS year shown in the standard catalog is 1988 so most likely there or a year before or after as I think the book uses reported numbers and not factory data.

Steelslaver, Thanks for your help.

Campfire

Not true!

Triple Alpha s/n's are far more predictable than S&W's prior s/n method. With triple alpha s/n's I can routinely estimate a ship date to within a few weeks or months. The old s/n's were accurate to the year at best, and even that was questionable at times.

It's also true that there's is always a small percentage of outliers. Serial numbers outside the range of the vast majority. This, I would not be surprised to learn, is done on purposes, in part to help conceal S&W's production methods and capabilities.

For example, look at this thread from a few days ago. I was able to estimate a member's ship dates based on the s/n alone. Later in the thread the member posted the box label with the precise ship date. My previous estimate was accurate to with a few weeks.

**please close** 2 -Model 60 no dash

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