I purchased this Model 14 today. Its a little beat up with a few scratches and some holster wear. It is SN K3200XX which the SCSW shows 1958. It has no model number or serial number under the crane. It is a 4- screw, 10 lines on the backstrap and along the top.

The book isn't specific enough to tell if it is a 14 which I think is a 5 screw or a 14-1 which is a 4-screw.

What do you think.
Do you think the grips are correct for 1958?

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The engineering revision number is stamped right under the yoke

If there is no dash after the model number then it is the original engineering revision.

Many folks refer to this as a No Dash

This image is of a 329-1

__________________
"Acta non verba"

If it has no model number, I would think it’s a K-38 (pre-model 14). I have a 4 screw pre model 12, that dates to 62. I think S&W didn’t start stamping model numbers on everything all at once.

The wear on this gun does not show as strictly a target or range firearm. I'm not 100% sure if the grips are correct to this gun but the wear on the grips do not match the wear on the gun particularly the right side.
Specifically the side plate and the area under the target grip. The wear marks seem to under the upper section of the grips where the web of the hand for a right handed person would be.
Maybe the gun was carried in the field as a sidearm or used by a LEO for a duty gun? I apologize if I sound critical but besides the wear how are the mechanics of the gun? and do you feel that you paid a fair price?

thanks for the replies.

There are no markings under the crane, photo below



There is evidence that the gun had a set of magna's at one time, the scratches continue under the target grips. But the target grips could still be correct?

I paid $400 for it, so I am happy with it even with the scratches. It is very tight and I don't think it has been fired much just carried a lot.

The serial number points to the beginning of 1958 right after Model number stamping.

Was the Model 14 no dash a 5- screw, this is a 4 screw.

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I personally like the gun and I think $400 is very reasonable for it, especially with those diamond target grips. However, something about those grips on that gun just doesn't look right to me.

Some original dark walnut period magnas would look better to me. I think you did well on it though.

You got a great bargain, the grips are easily worth a couple hundred bucks. There’s a lot to be said for guns that are shooters and not safe queens.

No. Model 14 and 14-1 were four screw.

They did away with the 5th screw before model marking so there both 5 and 4 screw K38 Masterpieces (pre-14), like yours.

You have a K38 "Heavy" Masterpiece,
The word "Heavy" was introduced around 1950 to distinguish the new (then) wider rib weight matched version from the earlier narrow rib version, since that lighter version was discontinued around 1954 the word "Heavy" was dropped by the time yours was made IIRC.

Model marking did not begin all at once and some Model marked guns shipped before some non Model marked guns.

As my friend Chris once commented it might technically be more accurate to refer to your gun as a "Non model marked Model 14" since model marking had likely begun but yours escaped non Model marked.

When SW began Model marking the K38 Masterpiece it was during production of the four screw with right hand threaded ejector rod exactly like yours.
The left hand threaded ejector rod/cylinder four screw versions were stamped as the Model 14-1 to identify it had parts that were not interchangeable with the previous version.

Your target stocks have the correct checkering pattern for 1958 , the football cut came out around 1956 with the introduction of the Combat Magnum ( Pre 19).

Excellent posts and just what I needed to know. Thanks to all who posted.

K320000 very likely shipped in the autumn of 1958 and I would not expect it to be model marked. We don't find Model 14s showing up until about serial number K339000. (There is one known exception: a special order 4" unit that shipped in July, 1958, but it is a one-off). Hence, you do not have a Model 14; it is simply a K-38 Masterpiece.

As others have pointed out, the fifth screw was eliminated in 1956, fully two years before model marked guns first appeared.

Regarding the K-38 Heavy Masterpiece, the first one (K66222) shipped on February 4, 1949. By 1952 it had supplanted the K-38 tapered barrel version. The catalog stopped showing both variants the following year IIRC. We are pretty sure the last of the tapered K-38 barrels were cut to 5" and installed on .38 Combat Masterpiece revolvers to fill a special order from the Missouri State Highway Patrol in 1952.

Interestingly, there apparently were still some boxes labeled "K-38 Heavy Masterpiece" around when model marking was implemented in 1958. I own an ANIB Model 14 (no dash number) that shipped in July, 1959, and came in a box with that label. I know it is the correct box because it is properly marked with the gun's serial number.

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Jack
SWCA #2475, SWHF #318

OP, your K38 was built in a time when the factory was more interested in making good firearms than in marketing markings. As a shooter, that $400 gun was a great purchase! Congratulations.
Froggie