A brace of Post War Transitional 357 Magnums

[lawman445]

So at the risk of getting scoffed of the thread. If this latest example has been poorly refinished in the past, why not have it properly restored? Seems to me it would not diminish the value any more that what's already been done?

I think this gun is a good candidate for a refinish. I`d originally planned to just get the hammer and trigger stripped and recolored and see if I could get lucky enough to find a prewar rear sight for it then put it in the "using gun" category of my collection but once I got it in my hands I saw the obvious mismatch in the finish between the factory nickel post war replacement barrel and the aftermarket chrome refinish on the rest of the gun...and that bugs me. Especially now that the factory letter confirms it was originally a nickel gun I would like to see it with a nice all over nickel finish again. Now I have to decide if I want to keep the 3 1/2" post war barrel that is serial numbered to the gun on it or use the extra prewar 5 1/2" barrel I have in my stash and put it back to the original length even though the numbers won`t match. decisions, decisions. I will try to get a new thread started for this gun tomorrow and see what suggestions I get on what to do with it.

 

[lawman445]

[QUOTE
That there gun has "character". Although it is disappointing that it was modified in the first place. I do like the modifications - 3.5" barrel with a Patridge FS, and what looks to be a bit of smoothing on the edges of the trigger - pretty cool! I'll bet that baby is a smooth shooting long-action .357 lead slinger and a total blast at the range. [/QUOTE]

I forgot to mention the trigger is marked up from one of those infernal trigger shoes that I have already tossed. I guess they couldn`t decided where the wanted it so they kept moving it around and made sure the trigger was good and marked up most of the way down. It is a reg mag though after all and therefore pretty dang cool and it is mechanically everything it should be. I haven`t shot this one yet, but I expect it will do just as well as my other refinished prewar using guns.

 

[lestert357]

Throwing this thread to the top…..lawman, did you letter these two Kansas HP .357 Magnum Transitionals? If so, can you please post pictures of the letters?

 

[lestert357]

Wow. Very nice. Did "bmg60" tell you how many known trans-
itional .357's exist now with the addition of your two?

Some current statistics:

There are now 25 Post War .357 Magnum Transitionals known to be extant within our S&W collecting community - including the 2 in this thread.

Of these 25 extant examples, 1 was shipped in 1946, 23 were shipped in 1948, and 1 was shipped in 1949.

Of these 25 extant examples, 15 were for the Kansas Highway Patrol, the other 10 were mostly special order 1 gun shipments to individuals (for example, S71893 was for President Truman)

Serial numbers for nearly all 25 extant examples are in the S71XXX range with one in the very low S72XXX range.

The S&WCA .357 Magnum Transitionals database lists a total of 72 serial numbers; the 25 extant plus 47 listed from factory invoices.

142 Post War .357 Magnum Transitionals were manufactured from 1946 to 1949 according to the SCS&W 4th Edition.

Of the 142 manufactured .357 Magnum Transitionals, 75 were for the Kansas Highway Patrol (25 - 3 1/2", 50 - 5"). Some of the remaining .357 Magnum Transitionals were manufactured for special orders and shipped to such notables as President Harry Truman, his Military Aide Major General Harry Vaughan, Major General Julian Hatcher, C. L. Davis, President of Remington Arms Co., C. R. Hellstrom, President or Smith & Wesson Inc., E. F. Warner, Publisher of Field & Stream Magazine, Sasha Siemel, and many other important and interesting individuals.

 

[lawman445]

Throwing this thread to the top…..lawman, did you letter these two Kansas HP .357 Magnum Transitionals? If so, can you please post pictures of the letters?

Sorry it took me a while to get to this- I`ve been pretty swamped with work lately trying to fight the current as our economy circles the drain...

I lettered the blued one quite a while back and unfortunately back then the SWCA didn`t have all the other records sorted yet because it would have saved me the cost of the letter for the chromed one if I`d already had this copy of the shipping invoice I got when I lettered the second one- showing that both guns were originally in the same 25 gun shipment of 3 1/2" guns to the Kansas Highway Patrol in December of 1948.

 

[gwpercle]

I Got One Word .... SWEET !!!

Thanks for posting,
Gary

 

[aclarke3]

Really interesting read and the blue is beautiful.

 

[lestert357]

lawman, thanks for posting pictures of the factory letters and invoice. Your Transitionals, as well as all of the other serial numbers on the factory invoice, are now listed in the Post War .357 Magnum Transitionals database on the S&WCA Website at Smith & Wesson Collectors Association – The Collectors Resource for Historic Smith & Wesson Firearms.

Below, from the .357 Magnum Transitionals section, is my favorite picture and comment in the entire SCS&W…….

 

[DARE]

Wow

These are really rare and here is a pair from the same shipment with law enforcement provenance.
Think this should be a notable thread. Amazing to me that it has not already been done.
Congrats to the OP to have a pair.