38 Military & Police
- Thread starter Trapper70
- Start date
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Nice looking M&P with the original box! Do the grips number to the gun? It may be the angle of the picture but the shoulders look more rounded than I expect to see on that age gun.
Targets Guy
US Veteran
Prob shipped in 1947 but just a guess. Very nice looking package.
Well, my SWAG is 1962 and either a target revolver or another M&P. The K serials and C serials with that number both fall in that time frame. Anyway, someone who is really an expert will be along shortly to be more precise.
It would be after S&W started stamping the number in a straight line. I believe there is a note in the SCSW (section about grips) saying what year that was, but I think I remember it was 1960's sometime. The grips still have the diamond centers, so that would give you the latest date. So if the choices are C-prefix or K-prefix, you might actually be able to get the year! 
S885xxx would most likely have a ship date around April, 1947.
As a side note, NO S prefix M&Ps shipped in 1945. The earliest postwar M&Ps that shipped to civilian destinations left Springfield in February, 1946, and shipments didn't begin in earnest until March first. Many SV guns did ship in 1945, all of them to the military (Navy). The last shipment went to Norfolk on August 13, 1945.
Your gold box is probably original. Is the gun's serial number written on the bottom?
The stocks are definitely from after 1952-53.
That would be my estimate also. But since they have the sharp edges at the butt, they almost certainly shipped on a target sight gun. By the early 1960s the vast majority of M&Ps were shipped with the PC style stocks.
Targets Guy
US Veteran
S&W began stamping s/n on the inside of the right stock in the mid 1960's. In the mid 1970's they stopped stamping s/n on the stock. Your serial number would place the time frame in the latter half of 1965. The diamond center would indicate pre 1968 or no later than 1968. (IIRC).
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What? This must be a typo. How about the 1930s? Written with a pencil before that - at least on the walnut stocks.
I have an I frame from 1916. The hard rubber stocks have the serial number stamped on the right panel. So, on those the practice goes back even farther.
Targets Guy
US Veteran
Senior moment. What I meant to say was the straight line application at the bottom of the grip of the s/n was begun in the mid 60's. Thanks for catching that. Maybe they corrected that in Edition 4 of the SCS&W but that is what it says in Edition 3. My 1914 M&P has penciled s/n vice stamped
Hi Mike
I now know what you were getting at. Makes sense.
I now know what you were getting at. Makes sense.
I have several revolvers with the penciled serial numbers on the right stock panel. The earliest one (that is legible) shipped on April 6, 1908. It is a target M&P that once belonged to my grandfather. He was a veteran of WWI, and died shortly before I left for 'Nam. Dad (a vet of WWII and Korea) gave me the gun after I returned to the World. That is the gun that changed me from being a S&W shooter into a S&W collector.
Box
The box does not have any numbers on the bottom of the box, what does that mean?
Thanks to everyone on the original stocks tutorials as I have learned more than I ever thought I needed to know.
Maybe you can teach an old dog.
The box does not have any numbers on the bottom of the box, what does that mean?
Thanks to everyone on the original stocks tutorials as I have learned more than I ever thought I needed to know.
Maybe you can teach an old dog.
Absalom
SWCA Member, Absent Comrade
We all know there are dated change orders, and then there is what actually happened at the factory.
But just to mention the "official word" on this topic, acc. to the SCSW chronology the penciling on wood happened from 1900 until 1929. Stamping before and after. On hard rubber it could be scratched, penciled, or stamped.
It means you can't be certain that box came from the factory with your gun. It could have, but the normal practice during that period was to write the serial number of the gun on the bottom of the box, usually with a grease pencil.
