The history of the Smith & Wesson Number 3 revolver through its first years, at least up to the end of 1878, is really a history of the Russian contracts. By far the majority of № 3’s manufactured were sent to Russia. The American commercial production of the Number Three was heavily influenced by the Russian contract changes and when changes were made to the First Model Russian contract revolvers, the changes were incorporated into the commercial models just as soon as existing parts were used up. The contracts received from the Russian government in the 1871-1879 period far exceeded those they were to obtain from the U.S. government up until World War I. There were between 131,000 and 143,000 revolvers purchased in the Russian contracts as compared with approximately 60,000 revolvers made for the commercial market. The Colt became the gun that “won the west” because the № 3 was the gun that was “winning the East”.

The Russians placed their first order for 20,000 S&W № 3s on the first of May 1871. They requested 9 basic changes to the original American design. The most notable, or at least visible, change was the interlocking barrel latch on the hammer.

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Left the American style hammer without the interlocking barrel latch, right the Russian version with the latch

All first contract revolvers were marked with a Cyrillic barrel address line and an Imperial Acceptance mark.
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The barrel rib address line seen on all First Contract Russians

The address line contains the following text in old (pre 1917) Cyrillic letters:
См********та ******** Вессона оруже********на******** фабр********ка Г. С********р********н********ф****************ь********ъ Амер********ка
This translates to:
“Smith and Wesson weapons factory C.(ity) Springfield America”
Note that there is no serial number on top of the barrel rib on the First Model

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The Imperial Acceptance mark seen on all Russian First Contract revolvers.
The Initials KO under the eagle are for Capitan Kasaverii Ordinetz (Касавер**************** Ор****************не********) who inspected the Smith & Wesson production for Russia until early 1876.

The First Model Americans had a German silver front sight, the Russians asked that it be changed to steel for durability.

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The pinned steel front sight blade found on First and Second Model Russian Contract Revolvers (Third Model barrels have an integral front sight).

continued…

Russian First Model Contract Revolvers (continued)

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The First Model has a square trigger and a hammer operated cylinder stop (Second and Third Models have a pointed trigger and a simpler trigger operated cylinder stop).

One of the most important changes was the cartridge used by the new revolver. The original Model Three was chambered for the 44/100 cartridge which was essentially a .44 Henry rimfire cartridge converted to centerfire using the Berdan system. The charge hole of the cylinder for this cartridge was a simple, straight through, constant diameter hole.
The Russians asked that the chambers of the cylinder be bored oversize by twice the thickness of the cartridge case (.010 inch) for the length of the case. The cylinder was not bored to the size of the bore and thus a case shoulder was not needed. The case mouth was crimped into a groove in the bullet which had a uniform diameter. The net result of this design was an increase in velocity with a reduced powder charge in comparison to the American version. The .44 Russian is the first modern revolver cartridge.

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This picture shows the step in the cylinder chambers for the .44 Russian cartridge - the American model is bored straight through with a constant diameter charge hole.

1st Issue First Russian Contract Revolvers
The first 500 revolvers were numbered the same way as the American production, with assembly numbers. The true serial number was placed on the bottom of the butt of the revolver and inside of the right grip plate. A master assembly number was placed on the right side of the frame under the grip plate and then the barrel latch, barrel extension, and cylinder face were given the matching assembly number.

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The serial number on the butt and grip plates.
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The master assembly number (18) on serial № 438

continued...

Russian First Model Contract Revolvers (continued)

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The other parts to be numbered on the revolver; the cylinder, barrel assembly and barrel latch were all given a matching assembly number.

The Russians decided they didn’t like this system as it would be easy to mix the hand fitted parts when cleaning several revolvers at once – which was common practice with weapons at that time. Sometime around serial 500 the system was changed and from that point on, all the major parts were given full serial numbers. The assembly numbered revolvers are known as “first issue” revolvers. There are only 2 of the 500 first issue revolvers known to exist. Here are pictures of both of them.

Serial № 211
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Here is serial № 211 Assembly № 3O2 (not 302)

continued ...

Russian First Model Contract Revolvers (continued)

Serial № 438
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Here is serial № 438 Assembly № 18. The barrel on this example has been cut to 6 ½ inches like a 3rd model, a common practice in the Imperial Russian Infantry and Navy.

2nd Issue First Russian Contract Revolvers
The second issue revolvers were mechanically identical to the first issue revolvers. The only difference being the use of full serial numbers on the frame, barrel, barrel latch and cylinder face. There were only about 2500 first and second issue revolvers completed when the Russians decided that they wanted additional significant changes to the design, but that is the next part of the story.

The second issue revolvers still have the straight frame, old style hinge screw and small diameter trigger pin seen on the first issue Russian contract and First Model American revolvers. Serial numbers on the second issue revolvers run up to almost 5000 but the documentation says that the next set of modifications took place after only about 2500 revolvers were completed with another 500 in process.
The highest second issue serial number observed is 4159 and there are a series of straight frame revolvers in the 3200-3700 contract serial range (C.W. Pate). First Contract revolvers in general are rare and of the 20,000 First Contract revolvers manufactured only about 30-35 are known. This makes it VERY difficult to try to determine if the second and third issue revolvers were numbered in batches or simply mixed, numbered and shipped (the first major shipment was 9003 revolvers on 30 March 1872).
Since the serials on observed second issue revolvers go much higher than 2500, it is assumed that second and third issue revolvers are mixed in the period of production from around serial № 500 to approximately serial № 5000. Finding a third issue with a serial in the range below about 3500 would help prove this.

Of the approximately 30-35 First Contract pieces known, only six or seven 2nd issue First Contract revolvers are known to have survived.

Serial № 2873
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Serial № 2873 a second issue. The straight frame and early style hinge screw is easily seen on this revolver

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The full serial number can be seen on the barrel extension, latch and cylinder face
continued ...

Russian First Model Contract Revolvers (continued)

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Master serial number on the butt of the revolver

The Third Issue, First Russian Contract Revolvers

After about 2500 first and second issue revolvers had been completed and another 500 were started, but incomplete, the Russians decided they wanted more changes. The first major change was the enlargement of the trigger pin boss on the frame and a larger trigger pin. The second was a different arrangement for the hinge pin. On the original revolvers the hinge pin was simply a pin with a threaded end that screwed into the right side in the frame and a locking screw on the left side prevented it from turning and working loose. In the new system there was a pivot pin put in from the right side of the frame with a counter screw and locking screw put in from the left side.

The Russians thought these changes to be very important. In fact, so important that they wanted S&W to take back all of the completed revolvers and replace them with the improved model. S&W had a lot of time and money invested in these revolvers and needed to find a way to recover their investment and still not offend the Russians who were their biggest customer at that time.

Smith & Wesson found a buyer for the revolvers in Schuler, Hartley & Graham (SH&G) of New York City. Smith & Wesson's agent, R. W. Robinson, had been previously contacted by SH&G about buying a large number of Model Threes for another government, but the Russian contract was taking all of the production at that time.
SH&G was willing to take the revolvers and a deal was made. However, at the last moment the Russians decided go ahead and accept the finished revolvers. The probable reason for this final turn was that it was likely that the 2500 revolvers would have gone to the Ottoman Empire. Turkey was a traditional enemy of Russia, previously fought in the Crimean War (1853-56) and to be fought again in 1877-78 in the Russo-Turkish War.

The 500 unfinished revolvers with the old style frames were completed and sold as Commercial revolvers marked “Russian Model” in English on the barrel rib.

Third issue revolvers are identified by the reinforced frame, enlarged trigger pin and improved barrel/frame hinge pin. This is also the difference between the First Model American and the Second Model American models.

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Left - the old style straight frame used on the first and second issue revolvers. Right - the new reinforced frame and enlarge trigger pin.

The barrel/frame hinge pin was changed from one piece to 2 piece. The first type was inserted from the left side and threaded into the frame, the new type was a hollow pin inserted from the right side and internally threaded to receive a locking screw inserted from the left side.

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The hinge pins/screws on all first contract revolvers look the same from the left side.

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Left the new style hinge found on third issue revolvers. Right the old style hinge screw which threaded into the frame on first and second issue revolvers.
continued ...

Russian First Model Contract Revolvers (continued)

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Serial № 13300 A First Contract third Issue revolver.

Like the second issue revolvers, the third issue revolvers have full serial numbers in the frame, the right grip plate, the cylinder face, the barrel extension and the barrel latch.

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1_13300butt 1_13300grips 1_13300K1
continued ...

Russian First Model Contract Revolvers (continued)

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Serial Numbers on the latch and barrel extension

The First Russian Contract was for 20,000 revolvers. The third issue revolvers are the most common of the First Contract revolvers with approximately 17,500 being shipped to Russia. The Second Contract revolvers would be the improved Second Model and very different from First Model. After the orders of 1880 the First Model was left in use by the cavalry and horse artillery units of the Russian Army where they were literally used until they were totally worn out.
Of the 20,000 First Contract revolvers produced, only about 30-35 revolvers of all issues are currently known; 2 first issue, 5-7 second issue and about 20-25 third issue.

Joe

Joe, Congrats on a fantastic dissertation! I'll be pulling out my old notes and updating the info. Have you ever encountered a first contract Russian that had the barrel address in English, instead of Cryillic ? Ed.

No, I keep hearing rumors that they exist, but no one has ever been able to show me a real example. There are certainly cyrillic marked commercials. For me to believe that it is a true contract revolver, it is going to have to have that acceptance mark or very good documentation.
Joe