Help Identifying my S&W .38

[Asbrand]

I bought this revolver a year or so ago for $100 off of a fellow member of my local cigar shop. I've shot it, and it works great. All the finish has worn off, and is just bare metal, but it is still smooth as butter.

I'd like to know all I can about the manufacture date, revision history, rarity (if any), and what it is approximately worth. I don't plan to sell it, but eventually it will go to my eldest daughter some day, and I'd like her to have all this info.

Serial number is: 105240
Barrel: 4"
Screws: 5
Left side of the barrel says: 38 S & W SPECIAL
U.S. SERVICE CTG'S

Here are pics:

[murphydog]

Welcome! This is a .38 Military & Police from about 1907. The "U.S. Service CTG" at the time was the .38 Long Colt, and S & W didn't want to stamp the C word on their products.

Collectors would call it a model 1905 round butt 2nd (engineering) change, or a model 1902. Don't need to go into that debate here . It should be used with target or standard pressure .38 Special loads only. Hope this is helpful.

[Asbrand]

Thanks!

Any idea if it is worth the $100 I paid for it?

[DWalt]

Yes, it's worth $100, and maybe a few hundred more. From 1907-08. I show nearby SNs in both years. In general, K-frames with round butts would have been called a Model of 1902 back at that time. Some collectors call both round and square butt versions the Model of 1905.

[rwsmith]

I think ANY decent make of .38 in good working shape is worth more than $100 nowadays. Probably a lot more.

[DWalt]

A little more information on the "U. S. Service Cartridge" stamping. As previously stated, that refers to the standard U. S. Military revolver cartridge of the time, also known as the .38 Long Colt. The .38 S&W Special cartridge is dimensionally identical, other than length, the .38 S&W Special being slightly longer. Think of the difference between a .22 Short and a .22 Long Rifle cartridge. Your revolver was actually chambered for the longer .38 Special cartridge, but being slightly shorter, the .38 Long Colt cartridge will also fit and fire correctly, just as you can fire a .22 Short cartridge in any gun chambered for the .22 Long Rifle cartridge. The .38 Long Colt cartridge is essentially obsolete at present, as it no longer serves a useful purpose. There are still a few old Colt revolvers around that must use the .38 Long Colt, as the .38 Special will not fit in them.

[JP@AK]

This one would be sort of fun to own and shoot. I agree with Alan on the likely ship year.
At $100, it was a bargain, in my opinion. Even though the finish is almost completely gone, the gun appears to be in working order (assuming it passes a few simple tests) and it looks as if the stocks are original. If I saw it on a table at t a gun show for $250, I'd probably snap it right up, just because of its age and potential fun as an old shooter.

[Asbrand]

Thank you for all the information and help. Appreciated!

[samandglove1]

Nice gun. Also, great job providing all the relevant information and pictures. It makes it so much easier to provide information and advice when the details are right in front of you.

[hardscrabble]

I've got 104724. It's an old re-blue with a not-so-great polish job (they were really, really careful not to polish out any of the stamps, so the side plate is a little wavy looking held up to the right light) and a set of worn out but well fitted round-butt diamonds on it from the 50's. I think I gave something a little short of $300 for it. The rifling is there, but it's mostly dark and there's some minor pitting. My guess is that's due to the corrosive primers in use at the time. It really looks pretty sharp if you don't look at it hard, and the action is totally like out of the box new.

It still shoots very well with mild loads (I loaded a bunch of 158gr lead semi wadcutters over just over the starting load of HP38). I don't see that it's any less accurate than any other hand gun I have that is equipped with sights meant for the eyes of a 20 something with 20/20.

It was purpose-bought and serves well as the current designated reptile population control device (I had a pup bitten by a copperhead this summer...she's fine). I ran out of .22 snake loads (go try to find some of those) and bought Speer shot capsules and loaded up enough .38 shot loads to last into the next millennium.

I think you did really well. I thought I might try to find an original set of grips for mine. They aren't easy to find (there are some modern replacements out there), and it would be pretty easy to pay as much for the grips that are on your M&P (which look really nice) as you paid for the gun. I don't know too many folks that shoot their toys that wouldn't pay twice what you did in a heartbeat and be completely happy with it.