Model number / serial number discrepancy?

[4570Tom]

I have a bit of a minor mystery that I was hoping someone might be able to clear up for me. I have posted this in this sub-forum, but if the S&W Standard Catalog forum is better please move.

I have a Model 36, serial number 1J58XX, which, if I am reading correctly on page 489 of the 4th edition of the SCSW, puts a year of manufacture in 1982. It has a pinned barrel, and page 244 of the same book notes that the pinned barrel was eliminated in 1982. It does not have diamond grips, which page 244 notes were eliminated in 1968. The real mystery to me it that the model number on the yoke is a 36-no dash. Simply says MOD 36. But page 244 of the SCSW says the 36-1 models started in 1967, so the Model 36-no dash models would have been made only up to that point. But that runs counter to the serial number date of manufacture. Any ideas as to the discrepancy? Or am I misreading the serial number charts?

 

[steelslaver]

Model 36s have an oddity as far as model numbers goes. All the model 36-1 were 3" barreled. They made other 2" barreled ones at the same time with either no dash or other dash numbers. So a no dash 36 could well have been made after the beginning of the 36-1

 

[jcelect]

Floating J

I believe your gun was made in the 1971-1972 time period, grips can be changed, and the mod 36 does not follow the "dash" numbering protocol. A 36-1 is the 3" heavy barrel gun only!
jcelect

 

[Muss Muggins]

The 36 and the 36-1 were produced simultaneously. The 36-1 is a 3" heavy barrel. As for the pinned barrel, Smith & Wesson was notorious for using up all the parts on hand during engineering changes. I don't know this for sure, but it's possible that a pinned barrel could still have been produced and sent out with a 1983 serial number. Your pistol is correct, and was probably shipped in late 1982.

 

[Targets Guy]

Okay. On to the next mystery.

You guys are so good.

 

[murphydog]

Prefix 1J with a maximum of five numbers total (including the first number 1), 1971. 1J with six numbers total, 1982 or so. The SCSW has a typo in the J Serial Prefix section, 1971-'72 should read 1J1-999J9. Clear as mud...

 

[JP@AK]

The SCSW has a typo in the J Serial Prefix section, 1971-'72 should read 1J1-999J9.

Alan
Are you certain of this? I would speculate it should say 9999J9 or something else with 5 digits. Or do you have information that they never got to the fifth digit in the last group?

I agree that the 1970-72 (another typo, since this scheme was first used in 1970, not 1971) serials would have no more than 5 digits plus the J. That is what distinguishes them from the numbers used in 1982-83, which have six digits.

 

[murphydog]

Yes, meant to write 999J99.

 

[JP@AK]

Thanks, Alan. But now I can't find the typo. Both the 3d and 4th Editions (pp. 399 and 489, respectively) have 999J99 as the high number. What am I missing?

 

[two-bit cowboy]

4570Tom: Welcome aboard from Wyoming.

I show a fair number of 1JX through 8JXXXX Model 36s that shipped in 1970, beginning in June, so I think it's reasonable to believe yours might have shipped in 1970, too.

The highest "floating J" serial on my list is 997J66. There were no Model 36s during this era with more than three digits ahead of the "J."

 

[murphydog]

Thanks, Alan. But now I can't find the typo. Both the 3d and 4th Editions (pp. 399 and 489, respectively) have 999J99 as the high number. What am I missing?

The typo was "J1" instead of "1J1" as I recall.

 

[JP@AK]

The typo was "J1" instead of "1J1" as I recall.

You are correct. It was that way in the 3d Edition, but was corrected in the 4th. I see that I corrected it with a pencil mark in my copy of the 3d some years back. Thanks!