2 inch M&P Questions

103 · #1 06-10-2017, 12:08 AM

I just received a new to me M&P snub in trade with another forum member. It has some minor rust spots, but I love it. I have wanted one of these for as long as I can remember. It's on my never sell list next to my 3.5 inch pre-27.

Question, though. I can't gauge the likely year of it. Serial is C127xxx. It has the service grips instead of magnas. When did that switchover happen? I figured from discussions with the seller that this was a circa 1950 gun, but I thought they all had magnas by then. The serial (minus the C) is stamped in each grip panel.

Absalom · #2 06-10-2017, 12:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 103

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Question, though. I can't gauge the likely year of it. Serial is C127xxx. It has the service grips instead of magnas. When did that switchover happen? I figured from discussions with the seller that this was a circa 1950 gun, but I thought they all had magnas by then. The serial (minus the C) is stamped in each grip panel.

I believe those are correct for a round butt. I have a picture of another 1950/51 r-b snub I tried to buy a while ago in the C171-range which also had numbered service stocks. I'm just wondering about both panels being stamped.

PS: As you can see from the two pictures in the first post of this thread, pre-war and post-war r-b service stocks are distinctly different.

I Tried to Buy a Gun With the Wrong Stocks

From other old threads a general impression emerges that there was a multi-year transition period, late 1940s into 1951, when both magnas and service stocks shipped, until magnas took over completely.

jsfricks · #3 06-10-2017, 12:56 AM

Very nice early post war snub. Mine is a little earlier than yours with the same style grips but my grips are prewar. Mine had specks of rust too. Apparently sat unused as a house gun, hardly fired.

Muley Gil · #4 06-10-2017, 06:51 AM

Very nice. Round butt K frames fit my hand very well and hide much better than the square butt revolvers.

boykinlp · #5 06-10-2017, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsfricks

Very nice early post war snub. Mine is a little earlier than yours with the same style grips but my grips are prewar. Mine had specks of rust too. Apparently sat unused as a house gun, hardly fired.

Wow, your gun really has me drooling! Super nice!!

BARgunner · #6 06-10-2017, 03:26 PM

Your revolver was probably shipped in 1950 assuming that it didn't get forgotten on a back shelf in the warehouse for a few years. I have a 2" .38 M&P serial number C121705 that shipped in July 1950 and it was somewhere around C140xxx and up for 1951 ship dates.
You've got a nice snubbie there and I wouldn't sell if it were mine.

DWalt · #7 06-10-2017, 04:13 PM

I don't have any SNs very close to C127xxx on my list, but from those I do have, I'd also say it was a 1950 shipment. I show no SNs that low as being shipped in 1951, even very early 1951. BTW, both round top and Magna grips are "Service Grips" just different styles. As opposed to target grips, combat grips, etc. Just another way of saying that a service grip pair is the normal standard equipment supplied by S&W for the majority of its guns. Before (and during) WWII, they were mainly round tops, with the big changeover to Magnas occurring after WWII (with a few Magnas being supplied before the war). Likewise there were a few round tops supplied after the war.

quinn · #8 06-10-2017, 05:36 PM

103, you're breaking my heart! Been looking for the RB version of a 38 M&P snubby for a while. You are very fortunate. Beautiful gun.