Hello. Kind of new at this.. just came into a nice 1st model #3 Schofield. Sr # is 533 and matches on frame, grip cylinder and barrel... Gun is nickeled and has a 5 in. barrel. Have checked Jinks book and sent for letter so have that history.. If gun comes back as sold to Military contract as it should, is there a way to follow gun thru military records as to where deployed and who got it when surplussed out. I also know that the large outfits like schuyler cut alot of these to 5 inch and refinished them in nickel for civilian sales including wells fargo... This gun does not have the wells fargo markings but does have the serial number hand stamped over the factory marks on the right side of barrel. Also no 'US' on butt and no cartouche on grips. Thanks for any help
1st model #3 Schofield History search
- Thread starter marc4321
- Start date
Register to hide this ad
The only thing the history letter will tell you, is the date it shipped to the Springfield Armory, Springfield Massachusetts. All military Schofields shipped to the Armory.
Springfield Research Service http://usmartialarmscollector.com/ may have information on military records. You have to join first and then send an e-mail with the serial number and they (he) will let you know if there is anything in the files
opoefc
US Veteran
Welcome to the Forum. Re: 1st model Schofield, serial number 533. You have several possibilities - (1) A factory letter will tell you if the gun was shipped to the Springfield Armory as a US contract purchased gun. S&W did not keep shipping date records for military sold Schofields and Roy Jinks uses the invoice date as the "ship" date for the factory historical letters. The National Archives for the Springfield Armory sometimes records the crate numbers for the crates of Schofields as they were inventoried at the Armory and the crate contents broken down to serial numbers of the guns in each crate. As stated above, the Springfield Research Service has records of some military unit's inventories of Schofields and if your gun is listed they will furnish a letter, so stating, for a fee. (2) if your gun is one of the very few 1st model Schofields that were sold to distributors as civilian guns, w/o the US Stamp, a S&W factory historical letter would verify that. The fact, however, that the barrel has been cut, the serial number restamped on the barrel side and the gun possibly refinished in nickel point to it being a surplus military model, sold to civilian gun dealers, rather than the vary rare 1st model civilian gun. Good Luck, Ed.
The US could also have been lost during the refinish(s) along the years. It happens. We've all seen a few with very light US stamps to begin with.
58 Remington conversion to 45 Schofield
I know this is way off track from tracing early handguns. I'm.m. looking for blackpowder load data. 45 Schofield Starline brass,160 gr. FP bullet,and intend to use fffg powder. The best number I have found so far is 27gr. behind a 200gr. bullet. Currently, in cap&ball I'm using 30gr.fffg behind a 136gr. ball. This is my 1st. post,so if I'm out of line here let me know. Thank you.
I know this is way off track from tracing early handguns. I'm.m. looking for blackpowder load data. 45 Schofield Starline brass,160 gr. FP bullet,and intend to use fffg powder. The best number I have found so far is 27gr. behind a 200gr. bullet. Currently, in cap&ball I'm using 30gr.fffg behind a 136gr. ball. This is my 1st. post,so if I'm out of line here let me know. Thank you.
Similar threads
