AAAaahhh! You guys are 'PRE'ing me to death!!

[Allen-frame]

What's in a name?

38 MIlitary and Police.

K22 Outdoorsman. K 22 Masterpiece. K 22 Combat Masterpiece.

My 357 Magnum made in 1956).

Names gentlemen, names.

44 Magnum 5 screw or, 4 screw.

Combat Magnum. Say it again. This time let it roll off your tongue.
Combat Magnum. Named long before anything 'Combat' was cool.

Dave,, I love that 44 Hand Ejector 3rd. Beautiful.

Just a matter of respect for the marque.

I just FEEL that saying 'pre' anything is just plain laziness.
As in too lazy to type in a description.

I have many model numbered guns. Probably my favorite are
my model 25s' in 45 Colt. They are just model 25s any time
of the day.
I do wish they were called 'Smith and Wesson Combat 45s"or some
such thing. But the truth is they are just plain old model 25-5s,
or 25-7s or whatever.

I am only saying,, if it has a name, can we just call it by that name?..

Hmmm?

Thank you all.

Allen Frame-2

 

[Doc44]

S&W still used of the names of their revolvers and pistols after model numbers were assigned. The All Model Circular of 1959 lists 44 MAGNUM, Model 29, ".357" Magnum, Model 27, etc. Some of the names were registered with th U. S. Patent Office (44 MAGNUM, 41 MAGNUM, ".357" Magnum, ".357" Combat Magnum). The name was, and is, always important to the company. I have a poster from around 1963 that shows a photo of S&W's complete handgun line at the time and it lists the name and number for each gun.

Part of the difficulty is the hobby of collecting S&Ws has grown so fast in the last few years (mainly due to the internet) it is impossible to learn everything (like names, etc.) that many of us have learned over many years of collecting and studying S&Ws. The term "Pre-Model" has been around since at least the late 70s and is at least partially descriptive of what a revolver is. I think it is here to stay.

Bill

 

[JSR III]

Old S&W written documents use terms like stocks/grips, yoke/crane and checked/checkered. (/ meaning as opposed to.) Much of this may have been a purposeful effort to be different from competitors like COLT.

However, if you look at factory letters, even the S&W historian has succumbed to popular terms calling stocks grips. Most of the 2 digit model parts lists use the older terms above, however, the 3 digit parts lists use the later. So trends change.

Kind of reminds me of the old "potato" "potatoe" dialog. For those that don't like the term model 66 pre dash, perhaps we could call it a "government mandated model # 66 before the first variation" instead???

 

[Rugskipper]

you say tomato, i say tomahto
you eat potato and i eat potahto
tomato, tomahto, potato, potahto
let's call the whole thing off

but oh, if we call the whole thing off then we must part
and oh, if we ever part then that might break my heart

Fred Astaire, 1937


"Shall We Dance"

 

[smitty_bs]

Here's my "Pre-15" Combat Masterpiece.

 

[bmcgilvray]

I don't wish to use the pre- designation when referring to Smith & Wesson revolvers made prior to the assignment of the model number. If it takes a pre- to affix a mental picture of the revolver being discussed for the folks who may not have been exposed to all things Smith & Wesson for very long then so be it.

 

[aphelion]

S&W still used of the names of their revolvers and pistols after model numbers were assigned. (snip) The term "Pre-Model" has been around since at least the late 70s and is at least partially descriptive of what a revolver is. I think it is here to stay.

Bill

This is the core of the argument as the picture below illustrates. The "pre" and "no dash" terms have evolved as a handy shorthand to describe individual specimens. What's the problem with that?