Quote:
Originally Posted by DCWilson
Actually a Pre-35 would be considered an improved I-frame gun, as would the 35. The first J-frame .22 target would be the Model 35-1, introduced in 1961.
There is a cylinder dimension to help us out here. If the cylinder is 1.32" long, it is an improved I frame. If 1.44" long, the gun is a J-frame gun. So say the fine folks who brought us the Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson.
This is not at all an easy or obvious observation to make. The Model of 1953 revolvers seem at a glance to be so differently proportioned that it is easy to think the J frame features all appeared there. But it actually took a while for all of the dimensional changes that define a J gun to be introduced. I think we can say that a small frame gun made before 1951 is built on the I frame, that a small frame gun built after 1961 is built on the J frame, and that in between we have a mix of I and J frames depending on the model, and some models that have dimensions that blur the lines between the two.
Is that clear enough? 
EDITED TO ADD: Hondo44, who knows all things I and J, got in fast while I was slowly and laboriously typing this reply. His is the crisper way to state what I was trying to get at. |
Thx David. Now I'll illustrate why my friends grow to hate me...
I differentiate between the Improved I frame, 5 screw guns and the Models of 1953, four screw guns for two more reasons:
1. The Mod '53 22's, Kit Guns & Targets, began a new serial range.
2. The Mod '53 22's, Kit Guns & Targets, transistioned to increased cyl dimensions of 1.304” cyl OD, 1.340” vertical window height and 1.390" cyl length; inbetween the nominal 1.25" reported in the SCSW (or David's more accurate actual measurement of 1.32") and the 1.44" of the J frame .22s.