Holy moly...that is a stunning pair of RMs! Welcome to the forum!

My two cents worth--------------------to keep the ball rolling.

Reg. #643, shipped December 19, 1935, 6 1/2", blue, a Cheely gun (as new) sold at Gun Broker auction within the last two years for $7500---no box, no tools, no paper, and for damn sure no screwdriver.

Ralph Tremaine

And yes, this was my gun; not something I pulled off GB records. The only thing I'm not sure of is if it was sold on GB, rather than direct, hand to hand. (My collection was disposed of by David Carroll who does so as he sees fit----and does it rather well, thank you very much!! Some, probably most were sold via GB. Some, probably most of the higher end items were sold direct.)

Maybe it’s just my old tired eyes, and I know this is very subjective, but those guns look better than 95% to me. I’m thinking 96-97% for the 6.5” & 97-98% for the 8.75”.

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Terry Lester

My dad was a collector of all things Smith, and Colt as well as Winchester. I have never shot them, and never will. I shoot my Ruger old style Blackhawk. I do not think my dad ever shot them, at least not in my presence. I do have a tight hold on them, and they reside in my best safe.

Wow! Very nice guns, and don't see many with the boxes and accessories you have.
The letter I got with my gun is 2 pages. Page 2 has the info about the gun. If yours are the same, just take a pic of page 2, That way you don't have to worry about removing the name, since it is on page 1.
An article about the Registered Magnums by Roy Jinks has a chart for how many were produced each year.
If I read it right, your earlier gun is SN 51270 and REG #2210.
According to the the chart, probably shipped in 1937. In an earlier post you said you thought one of the guns shipped in 1935.
The early guns had the logo on the left side, below the thumb latch. I do not see that on your guns. That change was made after July of 1936.
Have included a pic of my gun, SN 47138, REG #657 that shipped December 24,1935. I think you can see the logo on the left side.

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David Reynolds

David.
According to my letters 51270 shipped May 4 37. 57717 shipped Feb. 2 39. Neither of these have the insignia on the left side. Bill

Wow...what else can I say! A couple of magnificent S&Ws. You are indeed fortunate to have been the recipient of these family treasures, and you have most of the members of this Forum drooling on their keyboards!

Living outside Whitehall I am interested in the Butte connection as well as hearing more about those two fine RM's.

For those outside MT the ACM referred to Anaconda Mining Company.

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Front sight and squeeze

Wow, this thread changed in tone very quickly! Initially, it was very joking.........then sweetwilly45 shows his pictures of his "extraordinary jewels" and BOOM! It got serious!! Thanks so much for the pictures. You are a very fortunate man, and your father had a fantastic collector's eye. Thanks for sharing them with us, and I look forward to seeing what else you find out about your guns.
Larry

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Miss My Buddy crsides!!

To all..
If and when I discover any new facts or general info. I will be sure post what I have. Until then Thank you all for the posts. I had no idea what I got from my Dad. You have been more than patient and understanding for a tech. challenged old-timer. I am grateful for all. Bill

Dang, the 44 mag ain't no slouch either!

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A Future and A Hope.

Good catch, Summersteel! While I was drooling over the two RMs, I scrolled right past that early .44 Magnum (1956-57) in its original case. That gets another "wow"! With s/n S167451 it should be a late 5-screw revolver, produced just before the 4-screw models (s/n S167500) and before the "Model 29" began in 1957 with S179000. Add another $4k+ to the value of your inherited collection!

I would pay $28 k for the two packages and I may be low. Congrats ! Your dad really knew his stuff. Dave

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Illegitimi non carborundum

Bill:

We are very grateful for your sharing. An additional observation:

The brochures you have with your guns are actually slightly different and representative of the two dominant pre-war Magnum brochures. You will note that the one (the earlier brochure) has the primary image of the gun with an attached grip adapter, while the other (later brochure), shows an image of the gun with magna grips and a grip adapter in the inset.

Thanks again for sharing,

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Richard
Engraved S&W fan

Gotta tell you sweetwilly, in all the years I've been hanging around this place, I've never seen ANYONE toss TWO high-condition registered magnums on the table in their first thread! Wow!
Oh, and a beautiful early .44 magnum just to sweeten the pot!
Wow again!

Wow Richard, you don’t miss a thing! Interesting that the earlier brochure showing only the Wesson Grip Adapter configuration was included with a gun wearing Magna grips. I’m assuming here that the Magna grips on both guns are serial number matching to the frames.

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Terry Lester

Terry
would the grips be numbered inside? Nothing on the outside.
Neither gun had the grip adapter, if they had one to begin with.
Bill

I believe there should be a stamped number inside the right grip. Should be the same number as the gun if the grips were shipped with the guns. The magna style stocks that you have did not come with the grip adapter.
Your S&W letters should tell you what grips your guns were shipped with.

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David Reynolds

Yes, underside of the right side grip like pictured below…..


and should match the butt serial number…..

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Terry Lester

Terry and David...

Never had the grips off the guns, so I will have to look and verify. David.. my letters both indicate that they were shipped with Magna grips. Hey I am not a multi-tasker, I can only do one task per day, so I can not look at my letters and the guns at the same time, so I miss some stuff. LOL I will take the grips off and verify the serial numbers. Thanks for keeping me honest.

Bill

DJ...

At this point I will be keeping the guns. All of this took me by surprise, so not doing anything until I have it all sorted out.

Bill

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To all

Here are the pics of my letters and the matching grip numbers.

Bill

Bill, I think the Forum members would also like to see pictures of the right side of both guns. Also you posted the same grip twice (51270). If you add additional thumbnails I will post them here in full size.

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Terry Lester

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Terry
There you are, I think I got all.

Above thumbnails added to post #78. Even though the pictures are a little fuzzy, those guns look more like 97%+ to me in those right side views!

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Terry Lester

To all:
Sent my info to SWHF, hope they can find some more facts about my guns. If so I will post, if and when.



Bill

Hi all..
As promised, an up-date on the results of my search for information. Just received a note from Bill Cross. He could only find info reg.#4415, as the info for Reg #"s 2213-2216 is missing from his files. He will be sending what he found for 4415 next week. To top this off, I contacted the director of the Butte-Silver Bow Archives, and they have most of the records from the Montana Hardware, and she spent several days searching, and found that the records that might have helped me were missing for the years 37-40. Seems like I am not meant to find information.


Bill

I'm a late comer to this thread, but WOW you have some nice Reg.Mags.
They are the nicest revolver I have ever shot!

To all.....
As promised here is the documentation received from Dr. Bill

Bill[IMG]dscn0029.jpg[/IMG]

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I got to visit sweetwilly45 in Idaho and see the Registered Magnums he posted about.
The guns looked great and Bill was a nice guy.
We visited a while and then went to lunch with Bill and his wife.

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David Reynolds

Thanks for sharing, great thread and what a pair of revolvers

David...
Thank you for those nice words. It was a pleasure getting to meet you while you were on vacation.
Had a good conversation as well as a nice lunch. Thanks again.
Bill

I think sweetwilly is the type of guy you can shoot craps with over the phone.

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Where we go one, we go all

You sure had the right "Family Tree". Very impressive!

It has been just over two years since I posted this thread. During that time an exhaustive review was done with all Butte PD, and Montana Hardware records on file at the Butte archives. With the only reference found was a note indicating that a Smith and Wesson revolver was sold to the Southside Hardware Co. in 1939.
So it seems a dead end. The only thing I can say with any degree of certainty is that once these two RMs arrived in Butte they stayed there till I moved them to Idaho.
All was not for nothing, as Doing all this I was able to pick up an
early Highway Patrolman, 54-55, S 111868 complete with box and tools and all numbers matching. Also a nickel M&P 10-5,C 647230.
So thanks to all who followed the thread with expectation of some
important information. If any more facts are forthcoming, I will post it. Again thanks for your interest. Bill