Recent content by DCWilson

When I was a teenager in the late '50s, the big argument in the gun and hunting magazines was whether the .220 Swift was a sufficient deer cartridge. I thought then and still think now that it should not be, and would extend that to any caliber under 6mm. I acknowledge that a lot depends on the...

SCSW5, p. 167, col. 1, near bottom: "The serial number range 525670 - 536684..." Both numbers are incorrect, though they originated in serious studies that are basic research tools for S&W collectors. 525670 is a .22/32 Heavy Frame Target shipped in June of 1931 to Buenos Aires, the sole .22/32...

Thanks for the S/N, which makes this definitely a post-WWII revolver. But I think it would tale a letter to nail down a ship date, which might be as late as 1950 for the reasons I mentioned above. I have a vague memory of a NYPD order in 1948 for a hundred or so 32 RPs for women officers. Maybe...

Nice specimen! Have you confirmed the ~1948 date? The pinch-waist thumb release and sharp corners on the checking fields, not to mention the left side corporate logo, are usually taken to be features of pre-WWII production, though a very few postwar revolvers are known with those features...

I have a first full year HP (S127255, May 1955) that came in a box exactly like the one in the top post, save that the bargain-basement label is so faded that it can barely be read. Here's a thread about it from 15 years ago...

It would be a fairly early postwar .32 Hand Ejector, probably shipped 1951 or not too far away on either side. It doesn't have a strain screw, so we are into the coil mainspring era. It also has a four-line address block, which was introduced in 1948.

I just wanted something that would be easy to remember as I got older.

The kukri is my favorite edged tool. I have both a house and a yard kukri. The yard tool gets continuous use in vegetation management. I usually don’t have to chop or slash things indoors, so the house kukri is mostly ornamental. But yeah: way cool.

Ernest Hemingway said that a moral act is one you feel good after. I don’t think there is any way that a prevailing opinion can or should answer that question, so I decline to address your request for comment. Our brains are time machines. Just look ahead and determine how you feel about either...

And how I would like to have one of those! I haven't thought about them in some years, but IIRC (a big if, these days) there were 10 shipped to a dealer in Ohio on a special order.

Gary, I don't think I would ever be comfortable calling some of the earliest compiled aggregate production tables incorrect, but I wouldn't shy from thinking they might be only as accurate as they could have been with the documents available at the time. I generally have broad trust in tables...

The highest serial number I have found for a K-38 shipped before the end of 1948 is K46109 (Dec). Any serial number lower than that would be from 1948 (though possibly shipping later if it got stuck in the vault), and possibly a few numbers higher could be 1948 as well. Barring one or two...

SCSW5, Model 696, page382, second column, line 3: "The introduction serial prefix is CBS2xxx." I keep notes on this model, and many specimens of the 696 no dash have lower serial numbers with CBH, CBN, CBP and CBR prefixes. The lowest dated serial numbers known to me are CBH9385 and CBH9484...

Caj, many thanks for the summary. I have an unrelated Wilson's Colt book and once worked out the proper distinctions among a dozen or so Colt revolvers I haphazardly purchased when I was starting my S&W obsession. Your explanation is more complete than my notes, and a printed copy of your...

EDITED TO ADD: Dwalt and Wiregrassguy posted this point while I was still hammering on the keyboard. The serial number indicates original assembly in 1924. As others pointed out above, an older M&P was returned to the factory for service work (indicated by star next to serial number) that may...