Chiefs Special Airweight, Earliest Serial Number?

Goony · #1 02-15-2023, 03:00 PM

A little over 9 years ago, member ar15ed posted an excellent thread in which he laid out in detail the early production history of the Chiefs Special. He stated that the earliest serial number he'd seen on a Chiefs Special Airweight was 2430X, which was shipped in February of 1953.

First, a little background on these. Supposedly only the first 3,777 were produced with an alloy cylinder, which reportedly didn't hold up well, although I've never seen an account of precisely the problem(s) that resulted. It's my understanding, however, that whenever one of these was returned to the factory on any basis for service, the alloy cylinder was replaced by a steel one as a matter of course. So from a collecting standpoint, unaltered examples ought to be just that much more scarce.

Which brings us to mine, which does retain its original alloy cylinder. Its serial number is 2424X. It shows some slight evidence of having been carried but little, if any, of having been shot. It doesn't have the additional locking ("bug") screw for the large upper sideplate screw that some have been observed to incorporate.

Has anyone documented one of these with an earlier serial number?

two-bit cowboy · #2 02-15-2023, 04:29 PM

According to Dr. Jinks, production began at 24000 in late '52.

I've seen 24004 on the auction block.

I'm not going to "scoop" my own article in the Spring issue of the S&WCA Journal so I'll let you read more when you get the magazine in hand.

ps: you might also look on the Chiefs Special database on the S&WCA website to get a lot more info on ones earlier than yours.

Just as a teaser, there are 85 Airweights listed with lower serial numbers than your 2424x.

Goony · #3 02-15-2023, 08:30 PM

That's a definitive answer. So while mine's collectible enough, it's still fairly ordinary in the bigger scheme of things.

two-bit cowboy · #4 02-15-2023, 10:56 PM

Well, let me offer a bit of perspective.

While the database may "document" ship dates and destinations for more than four score of numbers smaller than yours, only a handful of those have been "seen" in the wild since I started building a database of Chiefs.