figure out a date and any other info!
- Thread starter S&WJake
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Welcome to the forums from the Wiregrass! It's a .38 Military & Police Model 1905, 4th Change. Guns with serials near yours were shipping in 1927. The grips are not factory. Original grips are round top, diamond centered service grips with no medallion.
Looks like it might have been reblued sometime in the past which might make it look a bit newer than it is.
Interesting question!
This won't answer it, but it'll give you an idea. One reason it won't answer it is these are targets, and they tended to hang around a spell before they shipped; and the fixed sight guns shipped pretty much as soon as the paint was dry.
So, here are serial numbers and ship dates for a few of mine.
116420------June 20, 1910
238778------March 5, 1915
264678------March 1, 1917
404219------September 9, 1922
594161------August 23, 1928
594451------March 8, 1929
640816------February 8, 1932
659118------December 23,1936 (This one was a special order for a single gun
so you can figure it shipped the day after it was completed.)
The next thing that's going to mess with your guesstimates is THE depression started in 1929, and was officially declared over in 1939------and buying guns was not high on many shopping lists!
Ralph Tremaine
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Yep...............what he said.
Attached is an example of what the original stocks would look like
Attachments
Welcome! The front ejector rod knob was replaced with a barrel shaped knob in 1927, so your gun is definitely no later than 1927, especially since this model was in high demand right up until the Great Depression. S&W did not change such a beautiful design for almost 60 years from its introduction in 1899. Lots of minor changes, but the same gun was made well through WWII.
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When you look, it's a K frame, square butt. S&W made similar grips for the larger N frames so don't get them confused.
I thought so. Thank you for confirming this for me.
Welcome to the Forum! As you can see, there are quite a few fans of M&P revolvers to be found here, as well as a wealth of information. I took the liberty of rotating your pictures. There were literally millions of M&P revolvers (.32 and .38) manufactured by S&W over many decades, so your revolver is not rare or particularly valuable...unless of course it's a family heirloom that has been passed down. That makes it priceless!
