Age/Model?

[oldS&W]

I got this old S&W 32 Long from a friend of my dad's. I'd like to know the model number and age. The serial number is on the bottom of the grip. It's 5037xx
Thanks

[Waidmann]

There are two possibilities. Where exactly is the serial number you cite located? If practical post a photo without the after market grips.

The model may be a 1903 Hand Ejector or a Regulation Police. Grip shape and serial number location determine the difference.

[mbliss57]

It's either the .32 Hand Ejector Third Model or the .32 Regulation Police pre war like Waidmann said. They were numbered concurrently and your's is one of the later models. Probably 1941-1942. 1942 was the last production of this model stopping at SN 536684 in 1942.

[opoefc]

hey guys, it's a .32 hand Ejector, 3rd model. Not a Regulation Police, as he says the serial numbers on the butt, not on the front tang. Close serial numbers were shipped late 1940. Ed.

[DCWilson]

May I offer a minor clarification on the date? Serial numbers just above 500000 were shipped as early as 1929. Since sales of small-frame revolvers collapsed during the Great Depression, there was a lot of unsold inventory to wade through. Even though this gun was probably assembled in the late '20s/early '30s, it could have shipped any time in the next decade.

[Hondo44]

To answer your question about Model #, Smiths only had model names until 1957. Your Model .32 Hand Ejector became the Model 30 in 1957 and it was stamped on the frame in the yoke from then on.

[mbliss57]

DCWilson...
The SWSC says that these .32 HE 3rd models were manufactured fron 1917 to 1942. With SN range from 263001-536684. If manufacturing continued until 1942 did S&W just start up in the 1941-1942's just to meet new orders & to finish up the model run before changing to the Pre 30? And.. you have another source beside the SWSC. Can you reveal that source?

[glowe]

This is an interesting model, since it appears that all guns were probably manufactured well before they were shipped. I checked the S&W Database and find some very interesting ship dates for late serial numbers.

Serial Number Model Ship Date
450xxx .32 HE\ 3rd Model (I) 12/00/1941
504xxx .32 HE\ 3rd Model (I) 12/00/1941
504xxx .32 Regulation Police 04/00/1929
509xxx .32 Regulation Police 03/00/1930
513xxx .32 HE\ 3rd Model (I) 10/00/1929
513xxx .32 HE\ 3rd Model (I) 11/00/1941
520xxx .32 Regulation Police 03/21/1937
520xxx .32 HE\ 3rd Model (I) 01/00/1931
521xxx .32 HE\ 3rd Model (I) 00/00/1948
521xxx .32 HE\ 3rd Model (I) 09/00/1949
522xxx .32 HE\ 3rd Model (I) 12/15/1941
522xxx .32 HE\ 3rd Model (I) 12/15/1941
530xxx .32 Regulation Police 03/00/1939

If you look at 513xxx serial numbers, you find one was shipped in 1929 and another was shipped in 1941. The factory must have thrown them all in a bin and randomly grabbed them for shipment.

[DCWilson]

Originally Posted by mbliss57

DCWilson...
The SWSC says that these .32 HE 3rd models were manufactured fron 1917 to 1942. With SN range from 263001-536684. If manufacturing continued until 1942 did S&W just start up in the 1941-1942's just to meet new orders & to finish up the model run before changing to the Pre 30? And.. you have another source beside the SWSC. Can you reveal that source?

I don't have another documentary source, but I have made my own observations of I-frame serial numbers because I am interested in a couple of small-frame models.

First, the lowest serial number in the third model range actually starts about 258000, not 263000. That refinement has emerged only in the last year or two as low-numbered specimens of .32 Regulation Police revolvers (which are third-model guns) have been found.

Second, I don't think there was any commercial manufacturing in 1942 and maybe not even in 1941. If there was any non-military assembly, I imagine it was limited in nature and perhaps a consequence of special orders that could be somewhat easily filled. S&W had their first British manufacturing contracts in late 1940 and had begun to turn over factory space to assembling the large volume of guns they needed to produce for Commonwealth use.

The reply from glowe shows that serial numbers from the range that interests us here were available in the late 1920s and early 1930s. That may mean that guns were assembled and stored, or it may mean a few thousand frames were produced and numbered, then stored as parts until the period when commercial production was in decline. Then in response to occasional commercial orders frames could have been taken from storage and built out as complete guns years after guns with similar numbers had already been shipped. I don't know that this is what happened, but there are other cases of numbered frames being built out long after their manufacture (the second contract Brazilian 1917s, for example, or the earliest postwar transitional I-frames).

[Hondo44]

Welcome to the forum, I see this is your 1st post. I don't know how much you've read this forum before but this may be your 'rude awakening' that we've all experienced about the disparity between when Smiths were produced and when they were shipped/sold.

The disparity has many reasons but is mainly influenced by market demand and what order completed guns went into the inventory safe versus what order they came out (usually reverse order).

When guns were produced can not be verified from the records, only detective work about the guns features and evolutionary changes can help get us close. The shipping date of course can be verified from the shipping records by request to S&W. The provided information is very helpful in verifying the originality of the gun and some provenance as to where it was shipped and when. Also as Glowe has provided, confirmed shipping dates in the database of same model guns with near serial numbers to yours can give you a possible shipping period.

However, I also find it very enligtening, to try and determine when a gun was actually produced in the evolution of Smith revolvers. The number of screws, roll marking placements and styles, thumbpiece and ejector rod styles, details of the stocks and medallion monograms, etc., all play a roll in this detective work and add to the interest of each new find. Production periods can align more with serial numerical sequence, but not always and it's far from being a hard and fast rule!