Another 16-4

LouisianaJoe

LouisianaJoe

Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
Messages
2,465
Reaction score
3,122
Location
Louisiana
I already have a 16-4 with a 6" barrel. This 8 3/8' became available from an estate sale. Now I have 2!
The 6" has a serial number prefix of BHS. This on has a prefix of BET. I do not find these prefixes in the 4th edition of the SCSW.

I hope to shoot it next Saturday, weather permitting.

IMG_1426.jpg
 
Register to hide this ad
I was thinking about removing the scope and putting a red dot on it. I have them on semi-autos but I have yet to put one on a revolver.
 
I will guess summer, 1990 for the BET prefix and spring of 1991 for the BHS prefix. An e-mail to S&W will get you closer dates.
 
S&W did not produce or ship their products in serial number order so dating by number is an educated guess. That said, here are a few with shipping dates:

BHS9346 January 92
BHS9468 January 95 (122 digits apart but 3 years apart shipping)

BET8960 March 90
BET9323 March 90

My 16-4 works best with 11.0 grains of LilGun under a 100gr Hornady XTP with a CCI-500 primer. This is a max load per Hodgdon’s manual.
 
Bastogne71 said:
S&W did not produce or ship their products in serial number order so dating by number is an educated guess. That said, here are a few with shipping dates:

BHS9346 January 92
BHS9468 January 95 (122 digits apart but 3 years apart shipping)
Click to expand...

Interesting and if S&W quoted those dates then it makes sense but I suspect the box end labels for those two serial numbers (if they were both 16-4’s) are a lot closer than the ship dates.

The date the revolver is finished, boxed and labeled is often different than the ship date… so if any typical happy new gun buyer is trying to find a date his revolver was made, I would guess the box end label date is more conclusive than a shipped date.
 
Sevens is correct that S&W started putting the date on their boxes about 1980 so you have the packing date of your gun. But what can you do if the box is missing or if it’s an older pistol? Smith & Wesson did not keep records of production dates so we must rely on shipping dates - the date and description on the sales invoice. Then we can either take a best guess by the serial number or send a request to the S&W Historical Foundation for a letter of authenticity to get the exact ship date.
 
There is the much easier option of simply sending S&W an e-mail asking for the date. That is free and takes 2-3 business days typically.

Not sure if they share a build date or a ship date. Their answer is typically very short and lacking details.

I suspect they answer this way because almost everyone there is utterly clueless about older guns and about… well… most anything.
 
LouisianaJoe said:
I already have a 16-4 with a 6" barrel. This 8 3/8' became available from an estate sale. Now I have 2!
The 6" has a serial number prefix of BHS. This on has a prefix of BET. I do not find these prefixes in the 4th edition of the SCSW.

I hope to shoot it next Saturday, weather permitting.

View attachment 758489
Click to expand...
I went to the range Saturday. After adjusting the scope, I fired these targets at 15 yds with 95gr SWC. 5 shots each. I think that I will keep it.
16-4 1.jpg 16-4 2.jpg
 
Beautiful, and nicely accurate...congrats! I have a 16-4 4" and a 631, both in .32; love that caliber! I also had and sold a beautiful 6" 16 that I'm still kicking myself over.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

686PC
625-6 V-Comp Find
Replies
6
Views
278
colt_saa
colt_saa
Bucknuts44124
PC 625-8 V Comp … Any info?
Replies
2
Views
450
Tanners Owner
Tanners Owner
BC38
Questions about the M60-4 3" CST
Replies
8
Views
645
Papabear1324
Papabear1324
D
Smith and Wesson 16-4
2
Replies
20
Views
2K
NavySCPO
NavySCPO
S
I have a question for those in the know about the value of the 4 screw & 5 screw K-32s as compared to the M-16-4
Replies
12
Views
718
smitholdtimer
S

Latest posts

Back
Top