Dwayne W. Charron spent almost 50 years in the employment of Smith & Wesson. Many of those years were as the Director of Research and Development and in his fascinating new book, MY LIFE JOURNEY WITH SMITH & WESSON, Mr. Charron makes the following statement: "Over the years, I received many requests for a design, which for one reason or another, never went beyond a one-of-a-kind prototype."
I can think of no reason why Mr. Charron's predecessors in his position, during the time of manufacture of this "Mystery Gun", wouldn't make the same statement.
Bob
Yes...and for every Model S & W came out with, there were the developmental stages, and, whatever 'Branches' of the developmental stages as did not become the final design or configuration, as well as Models, finished to whatever degree or purpose, which were never produced.
We know approximately the number of specific Models and to a large extent, the variaitons of those Models, which S & W made over the years, or, maybe we know exactly, but likely there are some not-so-clear areas here and there also.
But, we have no way to know how many distinct or particular Models or variaitons of a Model, S & W considered to produce, had finished In-House examples of to handle and discuss evaluate and or show prospective Buyers...and, then, never produced them.
And, over time, unless given to friends or favored employees otto design asociates or Shop Personel who had been involved, or put in Storage which continued to be managed and cared for, where they may come to Light at some point or other, the disposition of these 'never made it to production' examples, will be unknown, as would be their very existence in the first place.
