Post-war Pre-war 2" M&P

bruce5781

bruce5781

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Picked up my first 2" M&P a couple of weeks ago.
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Old style hammer block, no sign of an "S" anywhere.
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Seems to have been carried a lot, based on the wear at the grip frame, but shot little.
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Regards,
Bruce
 
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That's really interesting. A serial indicating 1940 production. By that time, full-scale production for the military contracts, especially the British/South African etc. had started, so the round-butt frames must have just been put on a shelf for the duration.
 
Very interesting.
It is the first true pre-war style M&P I've ever seen that shipped post war.
Cool.

It appears to have satin blue. Correct?
Are you dead certain it does not have the modern hammer block?
 
handejector said:
Very interesting.
It is the first true pre-war style M&P I've ever seen that shipped post war.
Cool.

It appears to have satin blue. Correct?
Are you dead certain it does not have the modern hammer block?
Click to expand...
Correct. Satin blue, in great shape aside from wear on the grip frame.

I have not pulled the side plate, but I have compared it to several of my pre-war M&P's and also to my one other post-war K frame. There is nothing inside which moves downward as it is cocked.

Regards,
Bruce
 
I remember other postings with similar snubbies which had pre-WWII round butt frames and black plastic grips, but shipped after the war. About the only way to explain it is the previous speculation that S&W had some boxed-up prewar round-butt K-frames which remained in storage throughout the war which they made up for commercial sale during the postwar era. You likely have a quite valuable piece there, maybe a lot more than you assume.
 
Bruce:

Beautiful M&P snubbie. It would be hard for me to own such a valuable gun, because I just can't resist shooting all of my guns. Well, I'll bet it's been shot at least a little bit...probably wouldn't hurt to run a few rounds through it. I know that it's heresy, but they were made to shoot!!

Billy:

Just three years later, see all of the changes (please excuse the wrong era T Grip... Had it on for a shooting session)... Anyway, note the walnut stocks and hammer change as well. Shipped in 1949, three years after Bruce's gun, but looks significantly different.



Best Regards, Les
 
Last edited:
DWalt said:
I remember other postings with similar snubbies which had pre-WWII round butt frames and black plastic grips, but shipped after the war. About the only way to explain it is the previous speculation that S&W had some boxed-up prewar round-butt K-frames which remained in storage throughout the war which they made up for commercial sale during the postwar era. You likely have a quite valuable piece there, maybe a lot more than you assume.
Click to expand...

I've owned one of the early post war M&Ps with a RB and the modern hammer block that have a long action.
They are numbered in the 800,000 range. There is no S on the butt because there is no room- the 6 digits use it all. The S is with the barrel number.
They look just like this- satin blue and black grips.

I wonder when the frames were numbered?
Perhaps a block that was numbered higher than the current production in the 30s, or numbered with the second million in 1945-46??? If numbered after the war, why didn't they use a smaller font so the S would fit on the butt? I doubt we'll ever know.
 
les.b said:
Bruce:

Beautiful M&P snubbie. It would be hard for me to own such a valuable gun, because I just can't resist shooting all of my guns. Well, I'll bet it's been shot at least a little bit...probably wouldn't hurt to run a few rounds through it. I know that it's heresy, but they were made to shoot!!

Billy:

Just three years later, see all of the changes (please excuse the wrong era T Grip... Had it on for a shooting session)... Anyway, note the walnut stocks and hammer change as well. Shipped in 1949, three years after Bruce's gun, but looks significantly different.



Best Regards, Les
Click to expand...
Les,
Never fear, I shoot all of mine too. Even the 1899 Target.

Regards,
Bruce
 
bruce5781

That was a very cool find. Congratulations!

What would be most interesting to me is whether the other nine units shipped to Warshal were also prewar guns. Since at least 100 round butt 2" revolvers with serial numbers in the S833xxx range were shipping at about the same time as yours (I show some that left the factory in August, 1946) one wonders if the 10 that went to Seattle were a mixture of prewar and early postwar guns, at least by serial number. If all 10 were prewar guns with lower serial numbers and lacked the sliding hammer block safety, that would be an interesting historical anomaly to know about. Can anyone shed any light on this?

Fascinating!
 
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