Another 16-4

[LouisianaJoe]

I already have a 16-4 with a 6" barrel. This 8 3/8' became available from an estate sale. Now I have 2!
The 6" has a serial number prefix of BHS. This on has a prefix of BET. I do not find these prefixes in the 4th edition of the SCSW.

I hope to shoot it next Saturday, weather permitting.

 

[series guy]

Very nice. I have 2 Model 16-4s and two custom K frames in .327 Federal. I like shooting the 32s

 

[LouisianaJoe]

I was thinking about removing the scope and putting a red dot on it. I have them on semi-autos but I have yet to put one on a revolver.

 

[Sevens]

I will guess summer, 1990 for the BET prefix and spring of 1991 for the BHS prefix. An e-mail to S&W will get you closer dates.

 

[H Richard]

This is a Burris FastFire on a 617. Would mount the same on the 16-4. Get an Allchin (sp) mount.

 

[Bastogne71]

S&W did not produce or ship their products in serial number order so dating by number is an educated guess. That said, here are a few with shipping dates:

BHS9346 January 92
BHS9468 January 95 (122 digits apart but 3 years apart shipping)

BET8960 March 90
BET9323 March 90

My 16-4 works best with 11.0 grains of LilGun under a 100gr Hornady XTP with a CCI-500 primer. This is a max load per Hodgdon’s manual.

 

[Sevens]

S&W did not produce or ship their products in serial number order so dating by number is an educated guess. That said, here are a few with shipping dates:

BHS9346 January 92
BHS9468 January 95 (122 digits apart but 3 years apart shipping)

Interesting and if S&W quoted those dates then it makes sense but I suspect the box end labels for those two serial numbers (if they were both 16-4’s) are a lot closer than the ship dates.

The date the revolver is finished, boxed and labeled is often different than the ship date… so if any typical happy new gun buyer is trying to find a date his revolver was made, I would guess the box end label date is more conclusive than a shipped date.