Quote:
Originally Posted by murphydog
It is interesting to have such a low SN, as the U.S. was turning out VMs for our forces as quickly as possible and I would think guns for export would have taken a back seat.
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Boy, Alan, I don't know. Remember that S&W owed the Brits a ton of money for the up-front payment they got for a light infantry rifle they never produced. They negotiated a deal whereby they would pay off the debt by delivering revolvers. I don't know if this was squared up by April, 1942, or not, but I doubt they were reluctant to keep delivering the BSR to the UK.
Of course, by mid-March they were also producing .38 Special revolvers under the Navy contract (signed on March 2), so production had to be humming along pretty quickly.