Dating pre-Model 10 M&P .38

[CW3RDL]

I'm looking at an online purchase of an M&P, serial number C3985xx. It has a ramped front sight. Any educated guess on when it was made or left the plant?

 

[mclovinuga]

I'd say 1956-57. I had a .38 M&P with serial number C3573xx and called S&W with them saying mine was from 1956.

 

[DWalt]

C3985xx

C4023xx shipped in 9/57

 

[JP@AK]

Here are few more known ship dates in your range:

C391660 - August, 1957
C392038 - July, 1957
C394011 - June, 1957

and a bit farther off:

C418744 - February, 1958

 

[KEN L]

I'm looking at an online purchase of an M&P, serial number C3985xx. It has a ramped front sight. Any educated guess on when it was made or left the plant?

Most likely Aug/Sep time frame 1957.

 

[Sistema1927]

I have C4261XX (round butt). Am I correct in guessing that this is right before they became the Mod-10?

 

[Absalom]

I have C4261XX (round butt). Am I correct in guessing that this is right before they became the Mod-10?

Yes, very close. Conventional wisdom places the beginning of the MOD 10 stamp sometime just after C 430xxx in mid-to-later 1958.

 

[amd6547]

Mine is C42208X...just about my age.

 

[DWalt]

I have C4298xx which is model stamped and C4365xx which is not. Draw your own conclusions. Like most production changes, model number stamping did not happen overnight and some time period elapsed between none stamped and all stamped. Early on, maybe the guy who did frame model stamping had a cavalier attitude and let some get by him. Probably safe to say the change happened around C430xxx. I have a note that says that Model 10 numbering started at C438xxx, but probably it was before that.

 

[Absalom]

And the guns "becoming the Model 10" as far as S&W records are concerned appears not to be directly connected to the stamping.

I have a late-shipped M&P C 412004 from Jan. 1959 which is unstamped, but which Roy lettered as a Model 10.