I'm new to this site and as of today became a proud new owner of this .22 S&W Long Rifle CTG revolver. It's been in my family for quite sometime, and though I have fired and owned many different and higher caliber weapons between my time in the Marines and since being out, I have always had my eye and heart set on this piece.

I'm hoping someone may be able to help me determine the year this pistol was manufactured so that I may know exactly how long it has been around.

If my knowledge serves me correctly, the serial number has six digits and begins with "K 174XXX".

I've located another set of numbers on the pistol that have five digits, but honestly have no idea what those could be for.

Any and all help/feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Semper Fidelis.

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Welcome to the forum. K174xxx should come from late 1952. It was known as the K-22 Combat Masterpiece back then and bacame the Model 18 around 1957 when S&W started using model numbers. These guns are well liked around here.

Let me add, thank you for your service to our country.

Thank you for the information and for your comment. It seems I have inherited one very nice pistol.

Is there a website or some sort of database that you can look up the exact serial number and acquire more specific information about your guns?

We use a book, the Standard Catalog of S&W, 3rd Edition. It has a tremendous amount of info about S&Ws.
In order to find out more about your gun you would probably have to send to S&W for a factory letter. That will tell you when and where the gun shipped to and how it shipped but it will cost you $50.

Where can I find an address to send such a letter and what all do I include: pic? Serial number (of course). Anything else?

As 'bamabiker' said, Thanks for your service to the country, and welcome to the forum.

There aren't any records on when any S&W was actually built, but you can find out the exact date it was shipped, and where it was shipped to by obtaining a factory letter from S&W's official historian Mr. Roy Jinks. The fee for the letter is $50 dollars, and it may take as long as a couple months before you have it in hand - depending on how many requests are ahead of yours.

Somewhere on the forum there's a link to the request form you can print out and fill in the info, but I can't seem to find it now. I'm sure someone will post that link for you shortly.

Mark

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S&W Forum Member #721

Take a look at this sticky. It has a link to the factory letter request. Give as much info as possible and pictures are good.
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Thank you both for your comments and your advice/knowledge. I really do appreciate it.

Let me give you a little broader perspective on a series of S&W revolvers so you can understand your gun in context.

After WWII, S&W committed to the production of a series of adjustable sight revolvers that they called their Masterpiece series. They were available in .22 LR, .38 Special and .32 Long. All were built on the mid-size K frame, so they were called respectively the K-22, K-32 and K-38 Masterpieces. The K-22 began shipping in serious numbers in 1947, the K-38 in 1948, and the K-32 in 1949. All these guns had six inch barrels.

In 1950, the company announced that it would build four-inch versions of the .22 and .38 revolvers. The four-inch .38 Special was simply called the Combat Masterpiece, with no caliber designation involved. The rimfire model was called the 22 Combat Masterpiece. A few four-inch K-32s were made on special order, and they never got a separate model designation.

All these guns shared the K-prefix serial number sequence, so .22's, .32s and .38s with target sights were all numbered together. The numbers began at K101 in 1947 (1946, actually, but only by a couple of days). K200000 was reached in late 1953, so I would estimate that your gun would probably date to sometime in the third quarter of that year. But there is a wrinkle to S&W serial number interpretation, because the company recorded the dates on which particular guns were shipped, not when they were manufactured. Thus it is often the case that guns with lower serial numbers shipped later than guns with higher numbers. It depended exclusively on the order in which they were taken out of inventory for order fulfillment.

The Masterpiece models are regarded by many as the premier target revolvers of the mid-20th century. Some have found that the four inch guns are more accurate (or at least easier to shoot accurately on the very first outing) than the ones with the longer barrels. My first time with a 22 CM I certainly shot tighter groups than I had with any six-inch .22 revolver up to that time.

"Combat" is a term that reflects the shorter barrel and the snag-free ramp front sight, which were expected to let the gun be produced from a holster more quickly in a combat situation. While the CM in .38 caliber was used as a LE model in some jurisdictions, the 22 CM was primarily a training gun when used in a LE context. Nobody seriously expected it would be issued as a standard sidearm, so the model name can be a little misleading the first time you hear it.

I bought my first 22 CM a couple or three years ago, and recently agreed to purchase another one. It will be coming from out of state, and I hope to be able to pick it up from my FFL in another couple of weeks. The serial number is a little under K250000, so it is probably a 1954 gun, or maybe early 1955 if it sat in inventory for a while before migrating to the shipping dock.

Looks like your gun has been sitting unattended for a while. It wouldn't hurt to go after its surface with some good gun oil and bronze wool. You don't really have to grind away at the surface to clean it up. Just a good steady light pressure rub with oily fine bronze wool will make it look a lot newer.

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David Wilson

David has, as usual, given you a very fine summary of the shipping history of these early postwar K target revolvers.

For purposes of illustrating his point quoted here, let me tell you a little K-22 story.

I had a K-22 that I recently sold to a friend. It had the one-line-address that we are quite certain means it was produced in 1946 or 1947. But, according to Roy Jinks, it didn't ship from the factory until December, 1949! That is quite a while for a K-22 to sit in the vault unpurchased, and illustrates well how serial numbers cannot actually predict with any certainty what the ship date was on a particular revolver.

Jack

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Jack
SWCA #2475, SWHF #318

i just picked one up like it this week and can attest to its shootability. it is more accurate at 40 yds than my 6" 5 screw k22. the balance, fit, finish and trigger are superb. i will buy all i can find for a reasonable price to pass on to my kids & grandkids.

The K22 CM is equal the the K22 masterpiece in shooting ability. I was lucky enough to find a CM (or some like to refer to it as a Pre 18), about 1 1/2 years ago in a pawn shop. I have a buddy that collects Rugers and he alerts me when he spots a S&W for sale and I alert him wherever I spot a Ruger for sale. He called me one day that he had been in the pawn shop and they just put out a K22, he didn't mention it was a 4", but did mention it was a 5 screw. Since I have a nice 17-4 I figured well maybe, I have to drive right past the pawn shop on the way to the trap range this afternoon. Then I thought hmmm, 5 screw, I better not wait. When I got there and noticed it was a 4" I had to take a real close look. Bluing was a little thin, it definitely had bee used, but not abused. When I saw $435 on the tag I just asked if that was a hard # or if there was any room, and he gave me $425 and I threw a copy of my C&R on the counter along with some dead presidents. Great shooters, and very accurate.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244