Quote:
Originally Posted by RufusG
The way I read the SCS&W, they were introduced in 1954 and only 900 some were made until 1966, when the alloy frame was introduced.
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Allow me to rough out the chronology and production quantities for these.
The "pre-39" started shipping about 1955. These were all alloy frames. Some 1600 had gone out the door when in 1957 Smith & Wesson adopted model numbers, hence the Model 39, of which over 100,000 were made. Along the way, in the middle 1960's, steel frames which had been made in the pre-39 era were completed as whole guns and released for sale. These numbered a little over 900 units. They were marked as Model 39's.
Around 1971, the Model 39 was superceded by the Model 39-2 which had a revised extractor design. By the time production of this model ceased (circa 1982) the total made of pre-39's, Model 39's, Model 39-2's, and Model 59's (collectively known as "first generation" S&W automatics) approached 3/4 of a million guns.