10-5 Weird SN

[A.Brown]

Just picked up what I hope will prove to be a '67 10-5. The markings on the butt are something I haven't seen before.
Serial number is moved left and there is an extra alphanumeric. LTV-15
Any ideas as to what it means?

 

[Pine_Worker]

A letter may be in order.

 

[murphydog]

C977320 very likely puts this one in 1967 to '68.

The Internet can be your friend.

Ling-Temco-Vought - Wikipedia

 

[Piwo]

This may be a longshot, but LTV was a steel company in Cleveland, Ohio. They had their own police force and issued revolvers. They used to issue 38/44 Heavy Duties with 5 inch barrels. They sold those off back in the day for 145 bucks. I should have bought a dozen of them! A fellow officer's father retired from that force years ago. The revolver you have may be one of the replacement guns.
The LTV plant physically occupied an area the size of a suburban city. They were, as others, a vital wartime industry. I grew up not very far from there.

 

[Art Doc]

First thought with extra numbers is a PD gun stamped with an ID. If that's the normal location for the serial on that model it was simply added at the end. I had a Colt marked TVA for Tenn. Valley Authority (security at a nuclear plant or a dam I guess). TVL I don't know.

 

[Loyaljeeper]

First thought with extra numbers is a PD gun stamped with an ID. If that's the normal location for the serial on that model it was simply added at the end. I had a Colt marked TVA for Tenn. Valley Authority (security at a nuclear plant or a dam I guess). TVL I don't know.

TVA Police is a fully commissioned federal law enforcement agency. It was TVA Public Safety until the mid 90s and then has been divided into several different organizations. I spent a few years at TVA and never heard of a Colt in the inventory. Please share more info and pictures if you have them. They had S&W 15s before the move to different semi autos depending on the office you worked. I had a P226 but some had polymer pistols.

 

[RevolverP320]

Does the SN match the grips?

 

[Texas Star]

Ling Temco Vaught?

 

[Pine_Worker]

Makes sense!

 

[ken158]

The LTV15 is not part of the serial number

 

[Absalom]

C977320 very likely puts this one in 1967 to '68.

The Internet can be your friend.

Ling-Temco-Vought - Wikipedia

This seems the best candidate. The letters have an unusually professional appearance and seem to have been touched up with bluing; the gun does not look refinished (see the asymmetrical muzzle wear), but the letters are too deep not to show white if just struck into the original finish. All that supports a large organized outfit, which certainly describes Ling-Temco-Vought.

 

[A.Brown]

LTV - 15

A letter is definitely in it's future.
LTV Corp does seem to be the best guess. If so it traveled a bit to the Philly area where I got it from.
The professional stamping of the extra ID numbers was one of the reasons it interested me, but I was looking for a '67 birth year gun primarily, and I needed a model 10 for my little revolver collection, sooooo.

 

[Art Doc]

TVA Police is a fully commissioned federal law enforcement agency. It was TVA Public Safety until the mid 90s and then has been divided into several different organizations. I spent a few years at TVA and never heard of a Colt in the inventory. Please share more info and pictures if you have them. They had S&W 15s before the move to different semi autos depending on the office you worked. I had a P226 but some had polymer pistols.

It was a blued, 4" Colt Police Positive Special. Had TVA stamped on the frame. Don't recall if there was a number. I assumed it was a Tennessee Valley Authority sidearm but I had no confirmation. No idea what else TVA could have meant. I owned it in the late 1970s and early 80s and no longer have it. I never photographed it.

 

[lamarw]

I suspect the additional marking, to the right of the serial number, was also struck at the S&W Factory. I have a Model 10 no dash marked with P.D. Montgomery on the backstrap. It was marked at the factory. Although it was shipped to a big hardware store in Montgomery, Alabama. This information was relayed to me through a Jinks Letter.

 

[chiefdave]

This seems the best candidate. The letters have an unusually professional appearance and seem to have been touched up with bluing; the gun does not look refinished (see the asymmetrical muzzle wear), but the letters are too deep not to show white if just struck into the original finish. All that supports a large organized outfit, which certainly describes Ling-Temco-Vought.

The Vought plant shared runways with NAS Dallas in Grand Prairie, TX and it was a huge facility and as a defense contractor likely had a large armed security force . Cool revolver.

 

[kwill1911]

I worked at LTV for a couple of summers during college. My office was right above the A-7 assembly line. My dad started his career with Temco, then moved to Chance Vought and was still there when Jimmy Ling consolidated them all under his LTV brand. He was the Chief Project Engineer on a bunch of different missile programs. Neat gun.

 

[Hondo44]

The normal serial # location for any post war hand ejector was off set to the rear and reads right side up with muzzle pointed to the left.

Your # is offset to the front to make room for the LTV15, therefore the stamping was definitely done at the factory. And most likely a letter would verify that.

 

[A.Brown]

Does the SN match the grips?

Unfortunately no. I checked today and the grip is numbered 500510. If it is a '67 though, they are the correct grips. S&W didn't lose the diamond until '68. '68 is also the beginning of the D prefix sn's.

 

[GerSan69]

C977320 very likely puts this one in 1967 to '68.

The Internet can be your friend.

I think you've solved it.
I went to your link - I thought I recognized the name.
They made the A-7, flown by the Colorado ANG for a while back when I was in AFR.

 

[Retired W4]

Vought, adjacent to NAS Dallas was also producing a JPATS entry while I was at Dallas. I believe it was powered by a P&W PT-6. I saw some of them in the pattern at Valdosta (near Moody). The Vought plant had pretty tight security in the 1990's. Probably better than Dallas Naval Air Station. Your revolver is very interesting and if it were mine I'd spring for a letter.