I just acquired a 686-3 and on the wood grip there is a date stamp of March 5, 1990. Also some small stickers on the left side near the base of the butt. One is white with 34 and the other is yellow with 4 on it. I have 3 other 686's and none had these. Any ideas what they mean. Does the march 5, 1990 correspond to the date the gun was made?

Well my 629-2E has two round white stickers at bottom of grip frame but they are covered up by the grip. I was thinking it might have to do with production/assembly or quality control down the line?

I agree with fortyshooter. I have had a number of S&W’s that had numbered stickers applied to grips and label area of the box which must have something to do with inspection, inventory or random, unknown system. If it was important enough to care about, it would be stamped on the gun like assembly numbers we see.

Yessir, I agree with y'all that those stickers are QA or QC labels to show the gun has passed some sort of inspection prior to shipment. Thanks for confirmation.

Also, it sure would be nice to confirm that that date stamp on the inside of the wood grip March 5, 1990 was the actual date the gun was manufactured.

The date stamped on the grip will be ballpark, but remember they could have been switched out sometime in its life. Still, Standard Catalog of Smith and Wesson 3rd edition shows production of the -3 starting in 1988, with the -4 starting in 1993, so they fall right in that range. Provide the first 3-4 digits of the serial number and we can narrow it down quite a bit more. In January 1988, serial numbers started at AYE-AYM, plus AYY. The last prefix listed in 1992 is BFV, for September.

SCSW says "These are approximate serial number start dates."