Finding specific S&W serial number information

[Malysh]

I have a few good S&W books, a few from Mr. Jinks and also SCSW 3rd edition.
I find that when I want more specific serial number info such as what year my Mod 37 flat latch was made, I usually have to ask somebody here or request a letter. Most of the S&Ws I have are very nice but not collectable and don't warrant letters.
I have got letters for 3 S&Ws over the years and I know they will tell you the shipping date and location. Colt letters are the same but if you ask for the manufacturing date they provide that as well. I find Wilson's book and booklet for Colt serial numbers (even with a few misprints or Ed. mistakes) and Sutherland & Wilson's TBOCF extremely helpful for dertermining manufacture dates. I am usually more interested in what year the revolver was made than where or who it was shipped to.

Is there a publication I've missed for us S&W fans similar to Wilson's book on Colt serial number dates?

 

[deadin]

S&W didn't keep track of actual manufacture dates, only shipping dates, so that is what we have to be satisfied with. The shipping date is what the BATFE accepts for determining age.

If you want to get exact shipping dates, it's either paying for a letter of taking the price of one letter and joining the S&W Collectors Assoc. This will give you direct access to Roy Jinks for dates via the Association website.

 

[wheelgun28]

Things were also shipped out of order, sometimes by years. I think someone has close serial numbers that had been shipped nearly ten years apart.

 

[Malysh]

All the manufacturers shipped guns out of sequence. That's a given
It doesn't matter if it's S&W, Colt, Walther, etal.

I understand BATFE requirements, too. I thought maybe I had missed a printed resource since I first got interested in S&W revolvers. Apparently, I have not.
Thanks gents.

 

[opoefc]

Malysh, What you're missing is joining the S&WCA. You will then have access to the shipping dates and the data base of shipping & manufacturing info. available only to members. Ed.

 

[deadin]

Probably the best printed resource would be the Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson (SCSW3). On newer guns the serial lists can usually get you down to a year or so. For the older stuff it gives a range of production and then it's just a guessing game.

 

[312_Main]

Probably the best printed resource would be the Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson (SCSW3). On newer guns the serial lists can usually get you down to a year or so. For the older stuff it gives a range of production and then it's just a guessing game.

I have the Standard Smith catalogue and it isn't really very helpful for serial numbers. Does joining the S&WCA gaurentee i will be able to find serial # ship dates for older smiths. I don't care about anything newer than about 1980.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[kennyb]

I have the Standard Smith catalogue and it isn't really very helpful for serial numbers. Does joining the S&WCA gaurentee i will be able to find serial # ship dates for older smiths. I don't care about anything newer than about 1980.

Thanks,
Mike

some guns show as open on the books as far as serial numbers go...so no...there is no guarantee on every gun just as there is not by requesting a factory letter

 

[deadin]

As Kennyb said, there is no "guarantee", but there is an extremely high probability that the serial is in the books and the shipping date will be available. I have never had one "open on the books" and I have heard of only a few that are.

 

[DCWilson]

The best you can do for a manufacturing date is a reasonable approximation based on other info. Clearly no gun can can be shipped without having first been manufactured, and it is probably mostly true that guns were manufactured in serial number order. That last generalization is weak in the case of different models numbered in the same series, because it would make more sense for the factory to make up a bunch of one model, regardless of the frame numbers available to them, than to make a couple of hundred of one model, then a thousand or so of a more popular model, then a couple hundred more of the first one.

But I think if you look closely at serial numbers around the one that interests you, the earliest recorded ship date for a gun within a few hundred of the number of interest will mark the latest possible date of manufacture. On the low side, the earliest ship date found for a gun numbered a thousand or so lower will probably set the earliest possible manufacture date within a week or so.

A catch: remember that sometimes thousands of frames could be manufactured and numbered, but no guns assembled until much later, with the assembly crews taking prepared frames as needed from the parts inventory.

If you are trying to date a gun from early in a model's production history, you are in much better shape, because we often know the date that production began. And dating a gun from a huge military contract is pretty easy because those were almost certainly assembled and shipped in numerical order. Until late in the war, for example, most Victory revolvers seem to have been shipped almost as soon as they were built. The same seems to be true of the Army contract 1917s and the British .455 military revolvers (with the understanding that there is less clarity about manufacture dates for the rare guns chambered in other calibers and shipped to commercial distributors).

So assembly dates are not ultimately knowable with precision, but a reasonable date range is not beyond all conjecture.

 

[handejector]

If you want to get exact shipping dates, it's either paying for a letter of taking the price of one letter and joining the S&W Collectors Assoc. This will give you direct access to Roy Jinks for dates via the Association website.

To be clear-
Roy only gives out month and year, NOT an exact date.

 

[deadin]

To be clear-
Roy only gives out month and year, NOT an exact date.

I forgot about the "on-line" access for SWCA members. I've never used it as I don't want to fight the crowds wanting shipping dates for their 10 or 20 year old guns.
On the few that I actually want a real date for I spring for the letter.

 

[vegasfun]

serial #

is a smith&wesson bodyguard starting with serial # adf a newer model

 

[vegasfun]

is a smith&wesson bodyguard starting with a serial# adf a newer model

 

[824tsv]

is a smith&wesson bodyguard starting with a serial# adf a newer model

A serial# with a prefix of ADF dates to the early 80's (1983ish).