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Smith stated in an ad that one of the features of their new 1899 pistol was: "Cylinder notches are reinforced with hardened steel pieces, to prevent notches from becoming worn by the impact of the cylinder stop against the sides of the notches." I was not aware of this. How long did this...

By the way, my Russian cut for a shoulder stock is a 3rd model.

I have a Russian model cut for a shoulder stock. As I understand it the stocks look the same, but differ in fit?

I think you may be right, but there was such a large demand for firearms at the time both the North and the South were striping Europe of arms. I would think anything that could be sold would have been easily done without sending them to the West Coast. My first thought was that these were guns...

Very interesting! At that very time the French had attempted on 28 and 31 March 1864 to capture the port and city of Mazatlan from the Mexican Republic and failed. What is astounding is that the 3,000 pistols are half the known production. Also, guns then were generally shipped with...

Another aspect for 1864 is that the arms were intended for the South. Because of blockades, Mexico was the transfer point of least resistance. US guns were generally shipped from New York by steamer down to Mexico and I have noted shipments being seized in New York intended for the South. The...

Thanks Mike! I think what is telling is the marketing of their arms to Mexico. From what I see there are very few of these arms around, most marked with the S&W logo. Though there was a war on here with a high demand, sending them south of the border may have been a way around the patent...

You’re right, will change it.

To be fair, I probably was a little defensive. It seems that posting anything today draws criticism. While I have a fair amount of Smith’s, I really don’t do many early smalls. Really wanted to get a handle on the Springfield and hoped for input on them.

Oops, I have egg on my face. I guess I was excited to get the pistol, it does have the Smith and Wesson logo on the cylinder.

The gun was not minty. I would guess in your research you missed Greg Martin's auction result that has been on the web since 2003. I suspect that you used "Flayderman's Guide" which would give you a $300 price, but the guide never had accurate pricing and did not improve after his death in...

I recently picked up this Springfield Arms pistol. The pistol was made in 1863 in Sprigfield, MA and is in excellent condition. The mechanics are perfect, the silver plate on the frame is 33% still there, the bluing is dark but still there on the cylinder and the barrel is 90% bright blue...

Here are the markings. There is actually an "L" over the "L.R. 8" as well as the "L" over the "E.R.T. 1." The L.R. may not be Regiment de Levis, though it seems to fit. It is possible the L.R. stood for Long Range and the E.R.T. stood for Enemy Recconaissance Team. Possibly WWII. It could...

This is the Regiment de Levis insignia.

I have in my collection this interesting S&W .455 Hand Ejector in excellent condition. It is Canadian and has the issue date of 27 June 1917. It was initially issued to G troop 3 Company Canadian Machine Gun Battalion. This was subsequently marked through. It was then issued to the "LR 8."...

One could expect to see unit markings on an issued gun.

I ran across my 1953 Gun Digest and it shows a 2" nickel .38 M&P costing $68. I would assume the cost for the factory to convert a gun to 2" would be substantially cheaper.

I have a question. My recently acquired .38 M&P appears to have been altered at the factory in 1951 to a 2" barrel. I see as a scenario a deputy sheriff (or patrolman) is promoted to detective, it might be cheaper to have his gun altered to a 2" than buy a new gun. To this end, what was the...

At this point I am inclined to believe the factory installed the short barrel and extractor rod (or cut and re-knurled the original) in 1951. The barrel was likely a leftover WWII barrel.

Left grip.