Question on another forum about proving when S&W pistol was made:

[Marcus von W.]

I, saw this on Calguns, thought I would post it up here to see what kind of response/information it gets, and relay it back:

Proving a gun is 50 years or older - Calguns.net

I'm wanting to purchase a handgun off of GunBroker. I'm in California, the seller is in Michigan. The gun is a Smith and Wesson model 18 handgun and according to a website I found that lists all Smith and Wesson serial numbers and years, the gun was made in 1969, making the gun 50 years old and C & R eligible. The FFL that will do the paper work requires substantial proof of the year of manufacture such as a letter from Smith and Wesson acknowledging that the gun WAS manufactured in 1969.
So, my question to all of those who have purchased a gun, what did your FFL holder (that did the DROS), require to do the paperwork and make California happy?

 

[andy52]

That one would be cutting it pretty close to the line to be C&R eligible.
I'm not sure if I were the dealer I would accept a C&R for that one just to be on the safe side.

 

[Doc44]

S&W made and shipped guns out of serial number order, so a gun, by its serial number that would be expected to date early in a calendar year, may have actually been made an shipped up to a year later. If I was doing the transfer, I would want to know the shipping date of the revolver from S&W's records. If the shipping date verifies the gun as being C&R, I would see no problem with proceeding.

Bill

 

[DWalt]

If it is a Model 18-3, it would be from 1967 or later. And that is about all I can say. You are probably already aware that the 1969 production date SN range is given as K848,782 – K946,391. The C&R regulation mentions only production date, not shipping date (which is obviously later than the production date).

 

[jag22]

I'd like to know what website he found that lists all serial numbers and years. It's been a while since I went looking, Winchesters and Colts were easy, S&W not so much.

 

[AlHunt]

I, saw this on Calguns, thought I would post it up here to see what kind of response/information it gets, and relay it back:

Proving a gun is 50 years or older - Calguns.net

It seems to me that the question should be put to the potential receiving dealer as to what he/she would accept as proof.

 

[mh51]

Marcus,
S&W did not keep records of date of manufacture.....they only kept records of date of shipment from the factory. If the date of shipment shows it to fall in the C&R range, then it should qualify as a C&R transfer.

 

[dsf]

It seems to me that the question should be put to the potential receiving dealer as to what he/she would accept as proof.

The receiving dealer is asking for an S&W letter.

Part of the issue is that if the gun is fewer than 50 years old it can't be imported to CA and sold via FFL to "common citizen". They could do a SA exemption, but a dealer hinky on date may demur when it comes to SA exemption.

The sense I get from reading the thread is that even if we hit 2020 the dealer will want an S&W letter. That plus shipping, transfer fees, shipping & other CA fees will probably add $200.00 to the cost of the gun.

 

[Jack Flash]

The receiving dealer is asking for an S&W letter.

...

The sense I get from reading the thread is that even if we hit 2020 the dealer will want an S&W letter. That plus shipping, transfer fees, shipping & other CA fees will probably add $200.00 to the cost of the gun.

On the plus side, the buyer, no matter where he is, will have to pay something to get it shipped & legally transferred to his state and he will wind up with a letter.

 

[H Richard]

Official S&W letters are available, for a fee of $100, and currently a wait of about 6-7 weeks. Up in the heading under downloads is a form you can print out and use. That is about the only "official" record available unless you have the original sales slip with the gun showing the date.

 

[Walter Rego]

If one is a member of the Smith & Wesson Collectors Association, Mr. Jinks will provide the month & date of the shipment in the private (access to members only) section of this forum. If it were me I would do that and print out the web page where Mr. Jinks responded.
The membership is less than the current cost of a letter and a response can usually be had within a few days unless Mr. Jinks is swamped with requests. Only 5 at a time are allowed so it sometimes requires monitoring the board for a few days to wait for an opening.