- Joined
- Dec 22, 2002
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The favor of waiting until I finish my post before posting any answers is appreciated. Thank you!
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First of all, I’m grateful to fellow collector JR, whom I’ve known for many years, for facilitating the purchase of this beauty from him at the Lakeland Rifle and Pistol Club’s Central Florida Gun Show, in January 2024. Thank you!
A lot of the information on this post is included on the S&WHF Letter of Authenticity that I obtained for the revolver, as well as on the 4th Edition of the Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson.
The Smith & Wesson .38/44 Heavy Duty model was introduced in April 1930, about half-way through the American Gangster era (1924-1938), for the purpose of providing the law enforcement agencies who liked and used the .38 S&W Special cartridge with a more powerful round commonly given the name .38/44 S&W Special.
In order to accommodate the more potent round, the revolver used the large, square butt N frame with 5 screws, a 5” pinned barrel (Note: There were limited runs with 4” and 6½” barrels), and the massive, 1.57” long 6-shot cylinder. Being designed for police use, they had fixed sights, with the front consisting of a 0.1-inch forged round blade, a square notch rear sight, and a shrouded extractor rod to protect it. My particular revolver has the Magna style stocks and its finish is polished blue; however, nickel plated finish was also available.
Up until the beginning of WWII, only 11,111 revolvers were produced, but in June 1946, it was reintroduced at approximately S/N 62486 of the .44 HE series. Mine is S/N S68698. These post-war revolvers were identical to their pre-war siblings, with the exception of the new rebound slide activated hammer block that was introduced by Smith & Wesson during WWII. In 1948, at approximately S/N S72300, the design was changed to a “short throw” hammer. It remained unchanged from 1948-1966, when it was discontinued.
My particular revolver was shipped from the Stockbridge St. Smith & Wesson factory on August 29, 1946, and it was delivered by express to Belknap Hardware & Manufacturing Co. in Louisville, KY (Notice the comment “Anticipated Production Schedule” at the bottom of the last page of the 1946 Circular, below). My “Heavy Duty” was part of a 20 revolver order, all in the same configuration (probably for a police agency). The price? $31.60 ea.; however, notice the MSRP on the 1946 circular.
I am not going to go into the many fine details related to this model; but it is all available on the afore mentioned Standard Catalog. So; instead, I’m going to show some illustrations below I hope the Forum finds entertaining.
Thank you for looking!
============================================
First of all, I’m grateful to fellow collector JR, whom I’ve known for many years, for facilitating the purchase of this beauty from him at the Lakeland Rifle and Pistol Club’s Central Florida Gun Show, in January 2024. Thank you!
A lot of the information on this post is included on the S&WHF Letter of Authenticity that I obtained for the revolver, as well as on the 4th Edition of the Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson.
The Smith & Wesson .38/44 Heavy Duty model was introduced in April 1930, about half-way through the American Gangster era (1924-1938), for the purpose of providing the law enforcement agencies who liked and used the .38 S&W Special cartridge with a more powerful round commonly given the name .38/44 S&W Special.
In order to accommodate the more potent round, the revolver used the large, square butt N frame with 5 screws, a 5” pinned barrel (Note: There were limited runs with 4” and 6½” barrels), and the massive, 1.57” long 6-shot cylinder. Being designed for police use, they had fixed sights, with the front consisting of a 0.1-inch forged round blade, a square notch rear sight, and a shrouded extractor rod to protect it. My particular revolver has the Magna style stocks and its finish is polished blue; however, nickel plated finish was also available.
Up until the beginning of WWII, only 11,111 revolvers were produced, but in June 1946, it was reintroduced at approximately S/N 62486 of the .44 HE series. Mine is S/N S68698. These post-war revolvers were identical to their pre-war siblings, with the exception of the new rebound slide activated hammer block that was introduced by Smith & Wesson during WWII. In 1948, at approximately S/N S72300, the design was changed to a “short throw” hammer. It remained unchanged from 1948-1966, when it was discontinued.
My particular revolver was shipped from the Stockbridge St. Smith & Wesson factory on August 29, 1946, and it was delivered by express to Belknap Hardware & Manufacturing Co. in Louisville, KY (Notice the comment “Anticipated Production Schedule” at the bottom of the last page of the 1946 Circular, below). My “Heavy Duty” was part of a 20 revolver order, all in the same configuration (probably for a police agency). The price? $31.60 ea.; however, notice the MSRP on the 1946 circular.
I am not going to go into the many fine details related to this model; but it is all available on the afore mentioned Standard Catalog. So; instead, I’m going to show some illustrations below I hope the Forum finds entertaining.
Thank you for looking!
I know that he went after Al Capone around 1936? But I loved the show.
