4” 66 No Dash - Deep Dive Questions

[Cirrus]

This gun belonged to my father in law who passed away. I have a somewhat limited experience with S&W revolvers, but some things on this gun caught my eye as being odd and I wanted to get some expert opinions.

1. The gun is an early 4" 66 no dash with all stainless rear sight. But the frame is a round butt. I thought the early 4" models were all square butt. It is possible this was a 2.5" gun that was rebarreled? I guess I could always pay the $100 for a letter, but not sure I want to spend $100 to find out.

2. The gun has a ball detect on the top of the crane (I think that's what it's called). You can see from the photo. There's also a dimple inside the frame for the detent to set in. I have never seen this before, especially on guns from this era. What the heck is up with that?

3. The front and back of the frame strap looks like the serrations have been ground down smooth. I'm assuming that's not factory? All the guns I've had in the past have the serrations that go all the way to the butt. Why would a person remove the serrations and make the frame smooth?

4. There are several stamps or cartouches or whatever they're called on the sides of the frame. No idea what these mean or if they're even relevant.

 

[SixgunFife]

This is interesting. Staying-tuned for what the Forum folks have to say on this one. 66 looks to have had some attention paid to it by a skilled gunsmith, possibly.

 

[bobsguns]

The stampings are proof marks and/or inspectors marks.

The no-dash had the round butt introduced in 1974 with the 2-1/2" bbl. The -1 came long in 1977. The 66 came out in 1970.

The back strap looks like it was done with a wire wheel on a bench grinder for whatever reason. Shameful, IMO.

Hope this helps!

 

[Riposte1]

My guess is someone "round butted" a square butt - I've done the same to a 629.

The factory round butt does have metal removed from both the front and back - looks like someone did that well so factory RB stocks would fit.

Riposte

 

[Cirrus]

My guess is someone "round butted" a square butt - I've done the same to a 629.

The factory round butt does have metal removed from both the front and back - looks like someone did that well so factory RB stocks would fit.

Riposte

I have another factory K frame round butt from the same area and it has the serrations all the way to the bottom of the butt on the front and back. I've searched the interwebs and can't seem to find any factory K frame images that doesn't have the serrations that transition to smooth at the bottom of the frame like this one.

 

[Cirrus]

The stampings are proof marks and/or inspectors marks.

The no-dash had the round butt introduced in 1974 with the 2-1/2" bbl. The -1 came long in 1977. The 66 came out in 1970.

The back strap looks like it was done with a wire wheel on a bench grinder for whatever reason. Shameful, IMO.

Hope this helps!

Is there any way to determine if my gun's serial number was produced around 1974? What if based on the serial number, the gun was produced before 1974? Would it have originally been a square butt that was converted to round?

 

[glenwolde]

Round butting (is that a word?) and adding the detent were popular "custom" modifications in the late 70's early 80's. I'm sure a letter would come back as a square butt. The marks on the frame are factory and were used for production purposes.

 

[Cirrus]

Round butting (is that a word?) and adding the detent were popular "custom" modifications in the late 70's early 80's. I'm sure a letter would come back as a square butt. The marks on the frame are factory and were used for production purposes.

This is good information. What purpose does the detent have? I've never seen or heard of this before.

 

[glenwolde]

This is good information. What purpose does the detent have? I've never seen or heard of this before.

In theory it gives a more positive cylinder lockup being that it is now locked at three points rather than two. It was actually more popular on Colt's that only lockup at the rear. It's still done. If you're familiar with the "Triple Lock" revolvers S&W made it's trying to do the same sort of thing.

 

[Cirrus]

In theory it gives a more positive cylinder lockup being that it is now locked at three points rather than two. It was actually more popular on Colt's that only lockup at the rear. It's still done. If you're familiar with the "Triple Lock" revolvers S&W made it's trying to do the same sort of thing.

Very interesting! Thank you for the education, I really appreciate it. Just seems odd that someone in the past spent all the money on these modifications yet the inside of the top strap shows no noticeable flame cutting from seeing a lot of rounds. It appears the trigger on this gun has also been rounded as smooth also.

 

[Birdhunter6]

Your revolver probably left the factory in '74 as a square butt.

 

[JeffD607]

I have a Model 66-1 that somebody has round butted.

 

[stansdds]

That's a 4 inch barreled square butt Model 66 that someone converted to round butt configuration.

 

[Doug M.]

^^ That would likely explain the smoothing of the serrations. IIRC, people more informed than I can tell if there was a barrel swap as the junction of the frame barrel is different on the 2.5" and 4" guns. That recollection is worth what you pay for it.
I had my later M66 round butted by BMCM and it is exponentially more useful for my uses. It also had some work (action job/gold bead sight) done by the old PC in ... 2003? It's a treat to carry shoot when I want a revolver.

 

[Cirrus]

I have a Model 66-1 that somebody has round butted.View attachment 794897View attachment 794898View attachment 794900

Thank you for sharing that! It seems we have very similar guns.

 

[Riposte1]

I have another factory K frame round butt from the same area and it has the serrations all the way to the bottom of the butt on the front and back. I've searched the interwebs and can't seem to find any factory K frame images that doesn't have the serrations that transition to smooth at the bottom of the frame like this one.

I actually have one - it was done by the Memphis PD armor and is checkered on the back all the way but he did it. The front "birds head" part is smooth.



Riposte

 

[Sevens]

Shameful, IMO.

I see that this is noted as an opinion — I think it's a lousy opinion. IMO of course.

S&W made countless 66's and millions upon millions of K-frames. Folks wanted what they wanted. Some previous owner got his revolver exactly as he wanted it and the work looks beautiful.

I have three excellent K-frames that were all turned in to custom PPC rigs, zero shame in any of them. I have a beautiful 1969 heavy barrel Model 10 that the Toledo Police Department marked on the back strap and issued to an officer and no shame there and no shame in the OP's slick revolver either.

 

[ispcapt]

When the 66 came out there was a waiting line for a new one and expect to pay premium price. The 4" below I paid $125 plus tax new and the 2.5" paid $157.50 out the door. LE price at the time.
The early 4" were all square butt. Yours has been converted from square butt to round butt as evidenced by the grooves on the rear of the butt. Both SB and RB have grooves on the entire rear of the butt.
glenwolde is exactly correct on the detent. I've seen a few. Don't recall who was doing them. I can't say if it was necessary or a gunsmith with good marketing. It may have been sales pitch based on the Triple Lock. On a Colt makes sense.
Yours is not a 2.5" round butt with a 4" barrel. The RB 66 came out a few years after the initial SB and did not have the all stainless sights which were just on the early SB 66. Also the rear sight on your gun is for a 4". The end stops about 1/2 way between the front of the frame and the pin for the barrel. A 2.5" rear sight is a bit longer and goes to the end of the frame.
The red insert front sight may or may not be factory. The first 66 had all stainless front sights. Later had red insert.
Your trigger has had the grooves removed and polished. Both of the early 66, 4" and 2.5" had grooved triggers. Can kind of see that in the picture below.
Both of these are early production 66s. The 2.5" is one of the first 2.5" to leave the factory.
The second picture is a close up of the rear sights. The 4" on the left, 2.5" on the right. It shows the difference in length.
Third picture shows the full length grooves.

 

[VASCAR2]

I was issued an early S&W model 66 and it had the plain stainless steel front sight and silver rear sight. The front sight colored insert did not start until 66-1 IIRC. I purchased a Bangor Punta S&W 66-1 in about 1978 and it was a poor specimen which I quickly sold.