When I stumbled across my 4" 1926 in a pawn shop, I promptly fell madly in "like" with the 3rd Model .44 and dove into some research. Anyone with more or especially more accurate info than I possess ,feel free to chime in.

The way I understand it, the story goes that W&K obtained sole rights to sell the 3rd Model in 1927 because their agreement with S&W obligated them to a production run of 3500 revolvers. The contract ran until 1937. The revolver became a cataloged item for S&W sometime after that. Starting in the beginning of 1937, W&K no longer had exclusive rights which would explain the variation in shipping addresses after that date. The number of guns W&K actually sold is a little fuzzy. I've heard estimates that ran under their contractual commitment up to approximately 4,600.

Any further information would be welcomed.

Best,
Charles