Had the camera out and shot a few new photos of some of my favorite subjects.

My most recently acquired 22-40 (687594):





And my close to 100% 22-40 that shipped in an appropriately stamped Outdoorsman box (684735):





As always, I love to see photos of any of your 22-40's. After all, isn't that why we all come to this "grown-up show-n-tell"?

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Richard
Engraved S&W fan

One of those is high on my wish list. Very Very Nice!!

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George Jamison

Beautiful revolvers those pre-war Smiths are just stunning. Thanks for posting the pics.

Sweet. I like mine too... (shown here with a First Model)





I picked up a second K-22/40 last summer and it's a little scruffier than my first, but the Pre-War Magnas are serailed to the gun so I guess I'll keep it....







With probably alot less than a 1,000 surviviors these guns are tough to find...

Drew:

That is one of the only sets of K-Frame pre-war magnas that I can recall being numbered to the gun. Your Masterpieces are very nice!

Thanks for sharing,

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Richard
Engraved S&W fan

Well, I just showed this one not too long ago, but since we have a dedicated K-22/40 thread I'll post the pics again. This is 684698, shipped by the factory in April of 1940 and soon thereafter purchased in Rochester NY.






I just love that honkin' big rear sight.




This one even came with its original sight adjustment tool.




Drew is absolutely right about the scarcity of this model. I believe the accepted production figure is 1067 units, of which several dozen must by now have been lost. In terms of scarcity, this model is right up there with other seldom-seens like the .32 Regulation Police target revolver and the Prewar .22/32 Kit Gun. It's not as rare as the K-32 First Model (that's the prewar .32 long target revolver) or the target Ladysmith, but it is still rare enough. I hold a good thought for you guys that are still looking for one; may you find what you are looking for sooner rather than later.

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David Wilson

David:

I never tire looking at your guns and I very much appreciate your regular contribution to our "sport." A question though, does your box number to 684698? The reason that I ask is that my 684735 (some 37 numbers higher than yours) also shipped in April 1940 and it shipped in an Outdoorsman box stamped 22-40, rather than a Masterpiece box...

Here is the box, stamped 22-40:

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Richard
Engraved S&W fan

Beautiful and what better reason to get another of one you already have...a variation! Great photos especially with the Marble's knife. A popular field companion of the period!

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Neat. Thanks for sharing.

The top side plate screw on both guns appears to be a bit proud in those pictures. Is that just a photo effect, or is that characteristic of the 22-40s?

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Dave

"I love to see photos of any of your 22-40's..."

I wish I could....

The best of the best. Thanks for posting.

GF

Dave:

I think that it is just the lighting on the photos. The screws on these guns are just like all of my other pre-war revolvers... BTW thanks for all that you do to make this forum rock (I love the speed of the new server)...

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Richard
Engraved S&W fan

Richard, my box does number to the gun, but I couldn't be sure until I took this photo. Digital imaging brings up contrast my eye couldn't see even in bright light. The label is worn and shelf-darkened, but you can still make out 684698 in the middle.



Even without the barely legible digits, the gun's story suggests that it has to be in its original box. The collector from whom I acquired it reported that he got it 30 years ago from the original owner, who had kept the box, docs and SAT together for 40 years.

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David Wilson

Those are some beautiful guns. Love this place. The closest for me would probably be a Heritage Model. The coolest part of these guns is the way the rear sight on the top strap looks like part of the frame. To think mkk41 found his for 500, wow. Larry

My gun came with some documents. I won't show the Helpful Hins brochure because that one must date to the late 1940s or early '50s; it was added to the box.

Here are pics of the trilingual caution note (English, Spanish, Portuguese) and the K-22/40 brochure that were also in the box. I don't know if this would have been in the K-22/40 box or if it would have been a targeted insert for Brazilian 1917s in either the 1937 or 1946 contract.




K-22/40 brochure, partly unfolded, exterior. Dated March 1, 1940:




Partly unfolded, interior:




Fully unfolded:




I will try to make a flat-bed scan of that K-22/40 brochure and upload it as a PDF file. It would look a lot better.

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David Wilson

Mkk,

That was a STEAL! These guns routinely bring 4-6 times that...

Glad you saved it!

Drew

I only have one left, and its part of a pair of guns done special for
Fred Miller, in 1940. Here is the picture from the auction catalog :



Col. Rex Applegate had put together a sub-collection that he called
"Guns of Famous Shooters". These two were part of that collection,
and were featured in the 1999 Amoskeag auction that sold the bulk
of his estate.

The guns are a matched pair, with the special front sight blades, and
unique Roper grips. Perhaps you can see the extra decoration near
the top of the grips. The K22-40 is the upper revolver.

Mike Priwer

Mike,
Gorgeous pair!! Poor Fred missed the boat. What a special .38 that would be if Fred had ordered it with the new 22/40 Micro sight! I love pre war guns with special order factory alterations like these two guns.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Here's mine with one of my pre-17s.

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Chris
SWCA #2243 SWHF #292

That must make a "French 75" something Really Special!
Love the paper David. Look forward to the scan.

Bruce, I see you have one of those "Caution" cards too, so I guess they must have been part of contemporary box stuffings. Would those have been standard inclusions with all late-'30s models? I haven't seen one in any of the few boxed guns I have from that era.

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David Wilson

David:

I have 4 or 5 copies of the Caution cards, several of which were in K-22 Outdoorsman and Reg Mag boxes, so I would guess that they were standard.

One of my pre-war boxes also had a green "guarantee" card. This is the only one that I have seen, so I'm wondering if it was standard, and if so or not so, what period does it relate to... Any thoughts?

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Richard
Engraved S&W fan

I was loving life 'til I spotted this thread. Guess I'll turn over the furniture and see if I can add to the change jar...............And GEEZ Sebago, I thought you was a saddle-tramp and you come out with iron like that!! What can be said.....? WOW!!

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Go big or stay home

I IS A Saddle Tramp....

Tough hauling around all my K-22's in boodle bags...

Jim

That would have been very interesting. The letter specifies that the
guns were built to Miller's specifications, so I guesss its what he
wanted. At the time, he was a foreman, or a manager, so presumably
he knew what he was doing.

Interestingly, Charlie Call was still working at the factory, in 1940.
He'd only been there for 58 years, at that time !

Mike Priwer

Wow, beautiful guns and the party is over in two days.

Folks, these are the cream of the crop for pre war .22's. That's why they are known as the First Model Masterpiece's.
Ok, here is another one.

enjoy,
bdGreen

I'm a little confused, which isn't that unusual, but most often I can sort it out before embarrassing myself in public...which I am probably about to do.

Based upon expert testimony, there were only 1067 of the .22-40s built, and most of the examples here fall into the 684xxx range, and yet bdGreen shows a pair serialed at 691386 and 691387. Did I miss something? Is there a reason for the break in the numbering?

The K-22 Outdoorsman, K-22/40 and .38 M&P were all numbered in the same serial number series. It was not uncommon for the company to produce, say, a few hundred of one model, a few hundreds (or even thousands) more of another model, and then go back go make more of the first one. Sometimes, for reasons of their own, they produced and numbered frames out of strict serial sequence, later going back to fill in the blanks. Serialization studies can be a big deal among S&W collectors.

Another example: there are only 1200-1500 prewar .22/32 Kit Guns, and their numbers are found grouped in small blocks (200-300, say) within a range of about 5000 serial numbers. The other numbers were assigned to other I-frame models (or possibly even not used, which seems to have happened from time to time).

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David Wilson

Somewhere I've seen a list of serial numbers. If it exists, it must have come from Roy at one point or another. I've got one with a 682,000s and another up in the 692,000s. The gun I've got in the middle is an M&P target. Look at the top of the page and you'll see my gun. Except the caliber is different. Mine even has the HBH, a very rare option on K frame center fires. But I'd trade Dave for his!

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Dick Burg

The table below is from Neal & Jinks, Smith & Wesson 1857-1945, p. 52:

Serial number ranges are mostly short; I have grouped them by thousands (third digit of the serial number) to make them easier to peruse.The numbers after each range are the number of K-22/40s produced in each serial number block. The total number of guns represented in these serial number blocks comes to 1083, 16 more than the standard reported total of 1067. [ADDENDUM: In Roy Jinks' History of Smith & Wesson (1977), the earliest serial number is said to be 682420, which is 16 higher than the number reported in Neal & Jinks. If the later starting number in the first range is the correct one, then the figure of 1067 appears to be correct.]

682404 - 682469 66 (in the later source, 682420 - 682469 or 50 units)
682909 - 682951 43

683112 - 683210 99

684289 - 684330 42
684401 - 684455 55
684621 - 684628 8
684674 - 684698 25
684729 - 684752 24
684783 - 684858 76
684888 - 684933 46
684984 - 685050 67

686451 - 686500 50
686901 - 686950 50

687551 - 687600 50
687801 - 687850 50

688326 - 688375 50

690703 - 690782 80

691383 - 691432 50

692958 - 693037 80

696395 - 696434 40
696921 - 696952 32


I am not aware of any K-22/40 serial numbers that lie outside the ranges reported in that table. With the addition of a couple of numbers that surfaced in this thread and of which I was previously unaware, there are now 35 K-22/40s whose serial numbers are known to me. (This post was edited to include references to serial numbers reported down through post no. 40 in this thread.) If the known guns are randomly distributed, the average distance between any two serial numbers (adjusting for known gaps between number blocks) should be about 30. The lower limit would of course be 1 (adjacent numbers) and the probable upper limit would be somewhere between 75 and 100. (Just a crude guess; I didn't do any statistical analysis of distances between serial numbers of known guns.)

The known serial numbers are consistent with that kind of distribution, so I imagine the table above is pretty accurate and would not need more than slight adjustment if specimens continue to turn up. There is only one range in the table (the last) in which a numbered gun has not been reported.

EDITED TO ADD: I have been informed of the existence of 696952, so there is now at least one known specimen from each serial number block in the table above.

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David Wilson

Here is #682435. That is 31 numbers above the start of the first block. Does anyone have an earlier one? I bought this at a Greg Martin auction about ten years ago. They offered one a year for at least three years in a row, possibly from the same collection. Mine came in box #690713; I keep hoping that they got switched and someone else on the board bought the opposite combo.

Bob #946

Rick here are pictures of

the 1st



the 2nd was engraved by master engraver Benno Huene

Dan:

That is the one that I was remembering!!! I had forgotten that in addition to being beautifully engraved, it was also "tricked out" by King. BTW I love the cockeyed 22/40 hammer. I'm pretty sure that that one, if it had ever come anywhere near my home, would still be safely stored in my safe.

Thanks for re-posting the photos!

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Richard
Engraved S&W fan

David,

Did I ever give you the numbers from my pair? Can't recall....

Drew

Yes, I have them. Thank you.

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David Wilson

AWESOME revolvers !

I am curiouse if the K22/40 Masterpiece was created by upgrading 4 parts on the existing K22 Outdoorsman ?

If not than besides the new micrometer rear site /taller front site, "Short action" hammer / trigger are there any other differences?

Thanks for sharing those beauties!

I'm not completely sure, but I think the hammer stud may have been staked in a slightly different position. There were custom modifications available that involved shifting the hammer stud about half its diameter, and pictures of one such mod have appeared on this forum in the last 18 months. I don't know if the factory changed the lock speed by changing the hammer design alone or by moving its pivot point as well.

There was also a thread last year in which it was discovered that a K-22 OD hammer would function in a K-22/40. I'm not sure we ever came to a complete understanding of how that worked.

The literature for the K-22/40 also mentions an overtravel stop. I haven't yet opened my K-22/40 so I don't know if that is a separate small piece (as in the postwar masterpieces) or just a feature of the trigger design.

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David Wilson

David,

I believe it was a thread about a 22/40 that came from the factory with an OD hammer and a poster proved it would work and that the hammers were actually interchangeable IIRC.
Pre-war K-22 Masterpiece value

I always thought that was a reference to the step in the back of the hammer. But I'm very curious to know what you find in your 22/40.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

I have no dog in this "fight" but i want to thank all of the posters in this thread for their contribution. Education like this is hard to come by and I sincerely appreciate all of what has been said above. Thank you.

Outstanding pictures thank you all for sharing them and all the info. as well.

David,

Here is one for you, 693027.



Notice the box number is 2 digits off the K22/40. I bought the box from a member earlier this year and the box was in Montana. I was walking the isles in Kansas City last month at the S&WCA annual meeting and looked on our Lee Jarrett's table and my heart skipped a beat when I saw the serial number and told him I would be right back. Went back and looked at my box, that i had brought with me, and WOW 2 digits off.



Next week I will have another post for you.

Regards

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Mitch
SWCA 2597

I'm not as clever as Dan (smile)...from the above I thought you were talking about a box on Lee's table.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Here are pictures of a reunited gun to box. I bought the box from a member from Montana. I bought the K22-40 from Lee at the Annual meeting last year that was 2 digits off and traded the 2 digit off gun for the original gun in Wyoming and reunited the gun and box back together after 63 years. The thrill of the search and the satisfaction when it comes together, what a feeling.

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Mitch
SWCA 2597

Mitch,
That is a super package! "Reunited and it feels so good!!" How did you find the numbered gun you needed?

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Miss Buddies crsides & fat tom

Did you trade boxes with Lee???

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Lee didn't have a box 693027. So for now i have a K22/40 and a box 2 digits off.

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Mitch
SWCA 2597

So Lee's box was 2 digits off from your box 693029 but the wrong direction for your gun, as in 693031?

Or 2 digits lower from your gun as in 693025?

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Jim
S&WCA #819

I think he bought the gun from Lee and matched it with his box that is 2 digits off. Nice gun and about as close as you can get in matching them up

Dan

I had the box with 693029 serial number on the bottom of box and I bought the K22/40 from Lee with serial number 693027. The gun was only 2 numbers off from the box. Let me add that the S&WCA Annual meeting was a great experience and I will be in Columbus Ohio next year Lord willing.

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Mitch
SWCA 2597

I have found the K22/40 693029 that matches the box and I'm trying to make a trade for it to reunite the gun and box.

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Mitch
SWCA 2597

That's awesome! I hope it works out. You must have some kind of built in sonar!

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Jim
S&WCA #819