I'm trying to help someone identify a Smith & Wesson hand ejector revolver, and I'm stymied. It's a .38 Special, 6" tapered, pinned barrel, blued. 5 screw, 6 shot. It has the Made in USA, Marcas Registradas, Smith and Wesson, Springfield Mass four line address. It has the later style no diamond magna grips, but they are not marked inside, so they are probably not original. It has the post 1920s style, non-mushroomed extractor rod. Inside the yoke cutout is M over 95480 over 3, no MOD. Service sights with half moon front blade with a notch cut out. Logo is on sideplate. Square butt, short throw hammer. No lanyard ring or hole. So, everything points to postwar pre-model 10, right? Late 1948 through mid 1950s, right?
Here's the weird part. Serial number on butt is US 21939. On barrel underside is 21939. So, what do we have? Only reference I can find to US on butt is early WWII, but this gun can't be that, plus serial number is wrong for that. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

I'm waiting for an answer on this. For the indicated time period, the serial number for an M&P (assuming that it is an M&P) should have a "C" prefix. I haven't heard of a "US" prefix. That one might be worth a factory letter if no one knows.

Can you post a clear photo?

Is the number also under the barrel & on rear of cylinder?

The original number may have been removed and a made up serial stamped by whomever stole the gun (that is one possibility).

Could also be you are misreading the number. It does happen.

Without seeing it we can only guess.

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No life story has happy end.

Not the best I know, but it's what I have. As I said, number is also on underside of barrel w/o US. Standard Catalog 3rd mentions US on butt for early WWII, but as I said, this gun appears to be too late for that.

Could it be an early post war S number that some previous owner added a U on the front of?

That's a short action gun so it's at least from the fifties. Sn. has been ground off and restamped. Is there a Sn. anywhere else?

S prefix SNs did not begin until the low S 800000 range. So that cannot be. The butt stamping does not appear to have been done by S&W. It's on a slant, and numerals are too large. How about the SNs on the swing-out part of the yoke and behind the extractor star, in addition to those on the barrel and rear face of cylinder? Those two locations are difficult to read, but are the least likely to have been altered. It must be late 40's to mid-50's, therefore originally a C prefix. There should also have been the SN stamped on the back side of the right grip panel, without a letter prefix (assuming the grips have not been switched). Everything is pointing toward its being a contraband gun.

Can you show a picture of the SN that is under the barrel?

Definitely, the SN on the butt was not stamped by the factory.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

I like it. Contraband? Maybe. I'm thinking authorized (by who) re-stamp.

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Why, I aughta.....

I figured that about S prefix, but one thing I know is that I don't know everything.

Grips are from post 1965 cause no diamond, and as I said, no number there. No cylinder number either. I'll try to get a pic of number on barrel.

As I said, short hammer means post 1948, serial is on underside of barrel w/o US, but not on cylinder.

I'll ask about extractor star.

Your picture above shows exactly how to read the SN on the yoke - just look down a chamber. You may need a flashlight, and the numbers are tiny. The fact that there is no SN on the rear face of the cylinder is highly suspicious.

Would there be a serial on it if it had been replaced?

The gun certainly has the short action, but does not have the squiggle hammer that S&W called the Speed Hammer. This hammer dates from at least the mid to late 1950's.
Does the frame have the usual Model 10 stamp? Swing out the cylinder and look at the frame.

If not, the gun probably dates from about 1955-57. If the stamp is present it cannot be from prior to 1957, prob. 1958.

Is there a trigger shoe on that trigger? Get it off. The trigger may rust under it and the things are an abomination, in my view.

The short ramp front sight and the shape of the hammer should have immediately told you the app. date the gun was made. Those features are very distinctive. Unless something has been changed, like the gun being re-barreled, it probably dates from no earlier than 1955, and probably later.

If there is a Model 10 stamp, if there is a suffix, like Model 10-5, that will narrow down when it was made. But I think your first post said no model number? (No Mod.)

On what; the yoke?

No, cylinder face.

Here is hammer and under barrel.

Yea, no model number. I wasn't familiar with the short ramp though. When was that used?

Please see photo of hammer in post above. I thought that hammer started pre 1950.

Ah, ha! Number on yoke visible through charge hole is 336664. Hmm, so does that mean serial is C336664? That would make it, what, 1955? So, what should I tell the owner to do?

To me (not really any sort of expert) that revolver looks like a Model 10. That means I think it was made after 1957 when model numbers were applied. It has the front site and hammer usually seen after 1957.

The US21999 doesn't look like a proper S&W serial. The butt stamp does not look factory. The barrel stamp looks iffy to me as well.

At this point I can only make a wild guess.

Is there any possibility the gun was purchased by military or a clandestine agency (CIA, etc) and is "scrubbed" meaning it was made with no serial or it was removed? Perhaps the US21999 was added when it was sold as surplus or was added by a previous owner thinking it needed a number? Maybe it was supplied to a foreign government for covert operations?

Pretty wild speculation, but at this point I don't have any other suggestions.

BTW- I have a Mauser M98 that was made in 1955 for Israel and it has no markings other than a 4 digit number. I have heard the CIA kept guns that couldn't be traced. Who knows?

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No life story has happy end.

What about the yoke number though?

Probably a C-series at that time. That SN would date it from about 1956, prior to the start of the Model 10 designation. Did you check to see what's the SN behind the extractor star?

Is it legal? I have no idea. The SN has obviously been changed, but we do not know the circumstances nor when it was performed. Best I can say is that its status is questionable. I probably wouldn't worry about it. But a factory letter to find out the origin of C 336664 could be interesting, but I don't know if it's $50 worth of interesting.

No number behind extractor star, just "machining marks".

It appears someone tried to sanitize this revolver, but forgot about (or didn't know about) the number on the yoke.

I think you have a 1948-1955 frame on which a barrel, cylinder and hammer from a decade or more later have been installed. Trigger too, probably. The original serial number was polished off and the created serial number that you see was applied to the butt and (without the alphabetic characters) the flat underside of the barrel.

I don't know if you can tell without removing the cylinder from the gun, but is the gas ring part of the cylinder or part of the yoke?

Does the ejector rod screw in with a right-hand thread or left? Left means the cylinder assembly is post -1961.

I wonder if the serial number we see now was dictated by ATF as part of a gunsmith repair. I have no idea how such things work. I know that guns can be reserialed, but not if they could have had a US prefix.

Not a collectible, but potentially a decent shooter and possibly legal. (Not that I would bet on its legality if the serial number was modified in an unapproved manner.)

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David Wilson

And the yoke number? 336664

I suspect the yoke is original and that the number reflects the original identity of the frame: C336664. In that case, the gas ring would still be on the cylinder, but the unnumbered cylinder points to either a factory-provided replacement part or original installation on a later revolver from which it was removed to be installed on this frame. About 1957-58 the factory began the practice of NOT numbering parts with the serial number of the frame.

That looks like a 10-5 barrel to me. What do the roll markings on the side of the barrel say? I would expect the caliber designation to read .38 S&W SPECIAL CTG, but in the whole-gun photo it doesn't look like the stamp is long enough to contain all those characters. On the other side it should just read SMITH & WESSON.

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David Wilson

Yes, barrel says 38 S&W SPECIAL CTG and SMITH & WESSON.

A closeup picture of the knurled end of the extractor rod would indicate if it is left or right handed threaded. Left-hand thread started in 1961, so it is probably right handed. There is a groove behind the knurl which indicates a left-hand thread.

Would this do?

Anyway, thanks so much for your help, everyone. Glad we got to the bottom of that one.