5" Non-Reg Mag at Cabelas--Pics added!

CajunBass said:
What's the difference between a "non-registered magnum" and a "Pre-27?"
Click to expand...

For the most part pre-M27s will be short action (1950) guns while the non-registered are long actions (pre-War). I'm not sure if there are "transition" guns that have mixtures of long and short actions, small and large rear sights, etc. Others here can no doubt advise on this.

Dave
 
I'd still be proud to own it even though it has been fussed with.
 
"I'm not sure if there are "transition" guns that have mixtures of long and short actions, small and large rear sights, etc."

There are transitional Magnum's, they have the long action with the grooved sided hammer, and the post-war large adjustable rear sight. There was a member on here years ago that had one, it had belonged to a So. California law enforcement officer. That is the only one that I have ever seen.

Jared
 
Non-Registered Magnum

I have just joined the S&W Forum, but I have many nice S&W revolvers. My latest acquisition is a 357 magnum that falls in the very late Non-registered Magnum serial number range, 62459.
It is 5" bbl. with a King front sight and the rear sight is more modern looking than the ones on a Registered Magnum (I have one of those, also, in 5"). In the S&W book, I notice that the last of these Non-registered Mags may have been made near the beginning of WW-2 (1942) and some may have been made just after the war prior to the S-frame guns.
Looking for comments!!
 
Non-Registered Mag

Members,
I am the 'Early Bird' who purchased the gun in question. I have it in my hands and I am very pleased with it. I have posted the serial number on another thread and I hope some of the S&W experts will be able to answer some questions I have. I will be sending a request to Roy Jinks in the near future to obtain official information.
In particular, notice the later model rear sight. That sight makes me think the gun may be of post-war production.
 
Your revolver 62459 is mentioned in this thread (in post #8 by lonewolf):
http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-ha...47-penultimate-pre-postwar-magnum-mexico.html

Phil's 62485 was shipped from the Factory on May 12, 1942. I would say you would probably need to get a Factory Letter on your revolver to know for sure when it was shipped, but you probably have one of the last ones made before the war. I could not afford a letter over the last couple of years due to the hit the Mexican economy has taken, but 29aholic (in financial horrors of his own at the time) stepped up to the plate and did what I should have gotten off my butt and done and got one for me -- for which I am forever in his debt.

I'm not much of an expert on these things but there ARE some real experts here and they'll be able to tell you a lot more than I can about it.
 
The serial is late prewar, but the description is post war transition with the micro rear sight. A transition transition? Rarest of the rare. Congratulations!
 
Non-Registered Magnum

I have a very good camera that will afford great detail of the sights. the front one is a normal appearing King sight with 'King' stamped on the base. The larger-than-expected rear sight does not appear to be an 'add-on.'
A S&W forum member, Lonewolf, evidently used to own this weapon. He posted on it a while back (Mexican War Thread).
Other than the rear sight anomaly, I was surprised to find that the grips did not have a serial number stamped in them, but they appear to have been on the gun for a long time from the outlines on the inner surfaces. I hope Lonewolf will comment on them.
Also, I noticed that the barrel which is exactly 5" in length does not protrude past the front sight base quite as much as the 5" barrel on my Register Magnum does.
 
I am going to merge the two threads on this gun. That makes the discussion much easier.
 
wonchester said:
I have a very good camera that will afford great detail of the sights. the front one is a normal appearing King sight with 'King' stamped on the base.
Click to expand...

More pics will help some.
Be sure and take them from every angle.

Actually, that King front base is not normal looking- it is higher than normally seen. I initially thought it might be a base they made for converting M&P's by filing most of the front sight away and pinning that base to the remaining barrel boss. I don't see any pins in the rib, so I'm simply not sure what it is.
Attached are pics of normal height front bases by King.

My early call-
The gun has simply had a post-war rear sight added somewhere post factory. They added a higher front base to align with the now higher rear.
 

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Non-Registered Magnum

From an earlier part of this thread, I found out that S&W member Lonewolf once owned this gun. I assume he is the one who sold it to Cabelas. When the manager at Cabelas told me they had sold it too cheaply, I told him that I am sure the person who really lost on the deal was the person from whom they purchased the gun. I assume that was Lonewolf. I have written to Lonewolf and have asked him to 'shed light' on the gun since he owned it for a long time according to Cabelas.
I really appreciate the comments about the sights from all of you. This was the area that concerned me the most, but my close examination of the rear sight does not show where any milling was done, post-finishing, to accomplish the installation of the larger rear sight. If the gun is 'transitional', I would assume that at some point in the evolution from Non-Registered to S-frame, a hybrid was developed. At least that is my thought and hope.
It seems like most responders on this website feel that all Non-Registered's were built along the same lines. I suspect that is not what happened. In those days, guns seemed to evolve which means transitional guns existed.
 
wonchester said:
This was the area that concerned me the most, but my close examination of the rear sight does not show where any milling was done, post-finishing, to accomplish the installation of the larger rear sight. If the gun is 'transitional', I would assume that at some point in the evolution from Non-Registered to S-frame, a hybrid was developed. At least that is my thought and hope.
It seems like most responders on this website feel that all Non-Registered's were built along the same lines. I suspect that is not what happened. In those days, guns seemed to evolve which means transitional guns existed.
Click to expand...

Have you had the rear sight off?
Have you looked for frame dates?

You need a letter badly. MAKE KNOWN to Roy the current sights, and good pics sent to him would help.

We do know of a pre-war mag that had a click sight attached post war as a demo gun for a PD, but I recall the front sight looking different.
 
Non-Registered Magnum

Excellent advise!! I am getting a package prepared to send to Roy. I will have good detailed pictures for him, but the procedure for getting pictures posted on the S&W website sounds like I would need a person with more expertise than I have to do that.

I will look for frame dates, but it would help if you could explain where they might be and if they are in some code. I am familiar with Remington codes for dates, but not S&W.
 
Lee,
As you can see, the front sight is a kind of 'steep' Baugman.
The rear sight was a real early N-frame installation in 1946 , and there are a few very minor differences between the rear sight on the gun and later (production) examples.
The gun, by the way, was produced in 1938, used as a 'test-and-evaluation' model, and went to the Westfield, MA, PD for their tests the first time around 1940.
It mostly sat in their safe.
Years later, it went back to S&W for the sights, it was returned to that same PD for more evaluation.
More years of safe time, then back to S&W.
It's still 'open' on S&W's books.
Your memory is holding up quite well, I'd say! (:>)
Don
DSCN0881.jpg
 
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Non_Registered Magnum

Lee,
I did take off the rear sight and everything looks 'factory fine' underneath. I see no evidence of any retrofitting. I also looked for any date markings and saw nothing. There was small 's' under the grips on one side and a small '6' under the grip on the other side.
The front sight base has a small round mirror embedded in it at the rear tilted at a 60 degree angle towards the front so that it can illuminate the rear of the front sight. The sight blade is held on with a pin and that blade could very easily be a replacement. The pin is quite loose in that hole.
By the way, many people who called Cabelas about the gun after I had purchased it told the manager what it was and what its value might be . That was like 'pouring salt in a wound.' He told me that he could guarantee that another collectable Smith will never slip by him. In other words, the callers killed off another place to find a bargain. That was not a wise thing to do.
 
"If the gun is 'transitional'"

I doubt that it is a transitional Magnum. The only one I have seen had a S prefix serial number, this one has a pre-war serial number. I have not seen the member that owned the transitional Magnum on here in a while, but maybe he will chime in.

Jared
 
Non-Reg Mag

I have submitted a form to Roy Jinks for a historical search on the gun. I sent him many pictures and I tried to post those pictures on this forum, but I could not. I have an IMAC computer and the pictures are in JPG form, not IMG. Also, I use iPHOTO, not Photobucket.
I am sure there is a way to inter-convert, but I cannot find a way.
 
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Non-Reg Mag

Thanks for posting the pictures for me. If anyone is interested in seeing other parts of the gun in greater detail, maybe I can get you to post other pictures.
 
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