Picked up a 5 digit 5 screw K22 today ,
Its the taper barrel style with high speed hammer ,
and modern style ejector knob.

Serial K 18529 with one line Made in USA" address (Guessing late 1947?)
Was in the original grease penciled gold picture box,

Unfortunately no docs or tools .
What is puzzling me is there is no serial number stamped inside the grip.

Has anyone else found K magnas from this era without serial numbers?
The grips finish are quite nice with one minor ding repair .


Will post some pics tomorrow along with a 4" pre war M&P I picked up.

I would guess that unnumbered diamond magnas were probably a separate purchase that found their way to the gun at a later date. In the late '40s, I would expect original grips to be numbered to the gun.

That's probably early 1948. I have K14784, which was shipped in January of that year. The change to the four line address was ordered in April 1948, so your gun could have been shipped any time up to (probably) May or June.

Nice to have the box. I'm looking forward to seeing the pics.

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David Wilson

Count your blessings...

Hello Engine49guy
I am showing the last K-Frame serial sequence number to be made in 1947 was serial number K-18731 so it is safe to say that Your's may be from Perhaps January time span of that year, as the 1948 Serial Number sequence started at K-18732 ? We have to keep in mind that S&W was running wide open back then tying to catch up with flooded customer order's as this was only The second year of Civilian gun production since 1940, and in 1946 they only got 513 K-Frames out of the factory with a serial sequence of K-101-K-614 . Is there any frame stamp date codes that would indicate a date or rework of the guns internal parts ? The reason I ask this is that it was not uncommon for S&W to send a gun back to it's owner that had been back to them for some kind of service work with a set of factory replacement stocks, if the gun was shipped to them with no stocks for service I think this was a Friendly gesture on their part. My 1947 K-22 came with it's original High Horn Magnas on it and they are serial numbered to the gun on the right stock panel.





It is much earlier than your guns serial range wise being in the low K-3000 serial sequence of numbers but shipped late being November 1947, so this just goes to show how many K-Frames were shipping out of the factory at a very, very high rate of production in that year. Mine also has the Larger Prewar style extractor end mushroom shaped knob on it does yours ? They did ship some of the lower serial number sequence K-22's that year with these extractor knobs but from what I have seen of other members K22's here in the forum, that most of the "Transitional Models" Having this feature with these Larger styler extractor knobs were of less then The K-5000 sequence of serial numbers.





The correct tools and documents of that time span would have been either a Black Oxide Knurled sight adjuster, or the Nickel handled variety. Mine came with a Black oxide knurled sight adjuster shown, but I have a friend who has his Father's K-22 that was bought brand new by him in 1947 that came with the "Nickel variety knurled sight adjuster" . I guess it all depended on what sight adjustment tools were handy that day in the supply bin's when they were packing these guns up for shipment. The only documents I am aware of for a gun of this vintage would have been the Helpful Hint's Paper folded Pamphlet with a Policeman shown on the face of it wearing slacks shooting what appears to be an M&P revolver off hand, and inside it showed how to adjust your sights and on the back cover it shows a cut away of the M&P revolver, and a Factory Warranty card to be filled out by the owner of it and returned to S&W.






The gun would have been wrapped in Rust Knox Paper with the Famous S&W Logo on it as well when it shipped. Shown here in the forum many times before, but in keeping with your thread content, here is my 1947 K-22 shown with it's original serial numbered Magna's on it, and another Photo of it shown with a later set of Factory Target stocks in front of a factory box that has the Dry Fire Target which is a small sight in target and on the rear it shows one how to adjust the More modern Micro Click sights, the Rust Knox paper, under that it is the Helpful hints Brochure, Black oxide sight adjuster and Period correct warranty card. Please Post Pictures of your 1947 K-22 as I simply Love the One Line K-22's being that 1947 was the last known year for this as in 1948 they switched to the newer Four Line address stamp on the lower right frame knuckle. It would be cool to see "just 1947 K-22's" in this thread as well & I hope other's post Pictures of theirs here for us all to see the last of the "One Line address" guns, and a dedication to your thread content being about the 1947 K-22. Regards, Hammerdown

Thanks for the remarks,

I snapped a quick pic last night before running out the door.
I Will take some better ones later today.


Also found a pre war M&P (below) that serials to about 1942

Hammerdown. My #K 4339 transitional, was shipped 9-23-1947, with narrow rib and 1/10" Patridge front sight, to Marshall Wells Co., Portland, Or. All numbers match. BTW, thanks for all that good info. I am relatively new at this. Big Larry

This is K19591, the grips are not original.

Attached Images

K22Pine.jpg (62.0 KB, 54 views)

These guns are from 1946-1949 era....



All of them have Magnas numbered to the frames, including the top example which is a shooter and wears Targets for this photo...

Drew

Hammerdown,
That's excellent information about the early K22s and packaging. And a very nice example. Just FYI, although yours does have the immediate pre war or 2nd style ejector knob, the 1st style or 'mushroom' ejector knob was dropped circa the end of the '20s and looked like this:

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Hello Hondo & Big Larry
Thank's for the Kind words & the extractor Information Jim, I knew there were different variations of the extractor end's but I was not certain of the time frame's of them. My 1925 Regulation police has a different looking extractor end on it as well.


Big Larry
That is a Super Looking Transitional model you have there. I have not seen all that many Transitional models in the k-22 series, they are a Very Hard one to locate. Glad you enjoyed my response, These K-22's are addicting, and the 1947's are very neat...

I copied and pasted some of this info on a word document to save. Thank you all for this wealth of info.

Yes, and a 1947 one line K38 is also on my list. I have a nice 1948 K38. It all started with # K 4339 found at the Big Reno show last summer. I did get a box with it, but it looks like the box was run over by a tank of some kind. Now, as the addiction gets worse, I have K22's from 1947 and 1953. Also a 1952 K22 Combat Masterpiece. Add to that a 1948 K38 and two from 1956. Oh the humanity!! I cannot wait for this years Big Reno show. Lots of nice S&W's show up there. Better start saving up for it. In the meantime I have much to learn. This forum is a great place to do just that. Good folks here. Big Larry

I have a 1951 ??? pre 18 #@ 106xxx with unnumbered diamond magnas. I believe them to be original due to the overall condition of the gun 99%, including the grips, and also because they are high horn magnas. A 99% 1951 gun in the original box would not likely have replacement grips. I believe they just didn't stamp all of them. I also believe this because its my gun, and not some else's


Charlie

Charlie,
Yes I agree with you. I also have a similar vintage pre 18 with what I believe to be original but un-numbered Magnas. I am constantly reminded that with S&W, the main rule is, there are no hard and fast rules. Un-numbered grips may be uncommon but seem to have slipped thru on occasion.
I'm not sure what you mean by high horn Magnas since they are all the same height and the term "high horn" is commonly applied to early Centennial Mod 40 & 42 Magnas that are quite a bit taller than standard J frame Magnas. Perhaps you're referring to the more distinctive ridge of the horn contour on pre-war and early post war K and N frame Magnas. I have several early post war guns with this type of Magnas with the pronounced ridge contour.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

I have ser # 1852 and it has serial numbered grips. Just posted a snapshot of it on the 1947 K22 thread.

Hello Gang, I have a K22 here with a Serial # on the butt
K 221538 .Wonder what year this .22 came out
Mayhaw

Jim -

You are right about the high horn magnas. When I first came on the board I had a mod 26 and someone said it should have the high horn magnas on it. Further discussion confused me more, but I finally saw the higher ridge contour grips. Is there a proper name for these?


Mayhaw - I use serial #'s in the mid 250,000 range as a guide to age of K22 and mid 250,000 was around 1955, so yours maybe a yr earlier. This a close approximation. And its free.


Charlie

Hi Charlie,
Early Magnas with pronounced ridge is the usual description I'm familiar with but there are experts here that may have a more proper collector term.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Hello Mayhaw
Welcome to the forum. Your K-22 with the serial number you provided is a 1954-K-210096--K--231255. I suspect and early 1954 model run at that.

This 1947 is on it's way, been re-blued, but got it for a good price.

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Sure you did