RM
First off glad to hear of this work your doing and thank you !
A few questions …
Are you checking NRMs as well as RMs?
Im curious how fruitful has your searching been ?
Are you updating the same records that Mike and Don access ?
Are you keeping tabs on the pre war guns where additional info is found ?
Wondering if there’s a way that those who have full records can know to request an update (assuming you found more info) and what the process might be ?
Would we just Just revisit with Mike or Don or should we ask you ?
Ok just wondering
Thanks again
RM
First off glad to hear of this work your doing and thank you !
A few questions …
Are you checking NRMs as well as RMs?
RMV: At the moment I’m searching for Registered Magnums (RM)(identified as Magnums with a Registration number), Non-Registered Magnums (NRM)(identified as pre-war magnums to which no number was assigned in the records) and a developing group of what I refer to as Non-Registered Registered Magnums (identified as Magnums manufactured during the Registration era but were not given Registration numbers; mainly gifts and presentations and some experimental/testing guns).
I’m curious how fruitful has your searching been ?
RMV: It’s a hit or miss sort of thing, and bears some explanation.
RMV: The pre-war and wartime archive (lets say up until 1945/6) contains 8,590 records that are listed under CALIBER: 357. Some of these records are one page long and some are thirty pages long.
RMV: Of those 8,590 records, 1,930 do not have a serial number or RM number listed in their description. However, a number of them do have such identifying information that, for whatever reason, was not entered into the finding data for the document.
RMV: Also, the people who did the indexing were not gun people and were not really familiar with the intricacies of gun names, models and calibers. I have found guns where the serial number is listed as 1926 or 1917 because, I guess, the folks were getting tired and just would skim the documents and anytime they saw a clump of numbers assumed it was a serial number.
RMV: For example, when searching for RM’s, the Registration number is often listed as the serial number. RM 123 – serial number 45678 becomes SERIAL NUMBER: 123 in the records index. Now if you do a search for just S/N 123 you’ll get a hundred returns: 123, 765123, 123456, 712345, 9123, etc.
RMV:A greater issue is when dealers would order multiple guns. Again, depending who was doing the work, they might list a multi-gun order under just one serial number. All the other numbers thus being omitted from the description. You might have the Joe Blow gunshop order 3 RM’s; RM123, RM124 and RM 125. The guys indexing the documents clumped the invoices and order forms together as a single document and labelled it 123. So now you look up RM125 and nothing will come up because that gun’s order and invoice are filed under 123 instead of 125.
RMV: When I find these instances, and there are quite a few, I append the index notes so that now that single document that covers multiple guns will come up under 123, 124,125, and I’ll also add the s/n’s if I have them handy.
RMV: Another example (and the potential basis for an excellent article) would be the Mexican Magnums. An absolutely astonishing number of Registered Magnums went to Mexico. I mean really, an astonishing number. At least a couple hundred so far and I would not be surprised if 10% of the total RM production landed there. The records for those are difficult to find because they are usually listed under the RM number of just one gun in the shipment. –Maybe--. I’ve found in the CORRESPONDENCE files letters from jobbers in Mexico asking for 40 RM’s at a time and the order forms and invoices are lumped in with that correspondence file and don’t appear anywhere else in the archive and the RM numbers and serial numbers within that CORRESPONDENCE file don’t appear in the indexing. The work around for this was to pull up all documents that went to Mexican dealers and then go through each one and change the index entry where appropriate. A large number of RM’s were indexed this way that otherwise did not appear as searchable in the database.
Are you updating the same records that Mike and Don access ?
RMV: Yes, we are all looking at the same records and I'm sure they make additions/corrections as they find them as well.
Are you keeping tabs on the pre war guns where additional info is found ?
RMV: As I find info on pre-war guns I make my notes and then periodically grab a case of Cherry Coke and a couple bags of Ranch Doritos and have an all nighter at the computer upgrading records.
RMV: The easiest way to upgrade a single record is to open it (in .pdf Acrobat) and read the document. If it needs a correction to the index there is a little box on the screen next to the document and I make the change there, hit save and it’s done. Problem is that I have to manually open each document and it takes a little time for it to open. Multiply that by a few hundred documents and it’s a lot of time. What I did instead is I downloaded all the files into a single folder, with each document saved by its DVD name. For example: D:\Customers\Smith_Wesson\Records\DVD1_11-19-2009\0\8\8394.tif
RMV: I will then review the document and if it contains an RM number or serial number I will save it ON MY COMPUTER as RMxxx-xxxxxx-D:\Customers\Smith_Wesson\Records\DVD1_11-19-2009\0\8\8394.tif
When I have accumulated a bunch of these, out comes the Coke and Doritos and I go into the archive and add those RM numbers and serial numbers to the list.
RMV: In the course of reviewing these documents there are a great many that contain no serial data or RM numbers data but are still, I think, noteworthy. There is no provision for indexing these noteworthy files, so I maintain my own database of noteworthy stuff. Those are some of the letters that I post now and again with an eye towards a) showing the behind the gun history and human drama that goes on and b) demonstrate why everyone who likes S&W guns should be supporting the mission of the Smith & Wesson Historical Foundation.
Wondering if there’s a way that those who have full records can know to request an update (assuming you found more info) and what the process might be ?
Would we just Just revisit with Mike or Don or should we ask you ?
RMV: That’s a great question and one that I have been wondering about. It’s something that needs to be worked out at the SWHF by people above my pay grade. ---My--- feeling is that if you ordered a Deep Dive, you should be able to periodically inquire if anything else has come up and if so, pay a simple per page fee for the additional info. That however is exclusively ---MY--- opinion and not that of the fine folks at SWHF.
Best,
RM Vivas
...Ben
