Hand Ejector, 1905 no change?

[bluesix]

Hello all, I have a revolver that I iherited from my stepdad. I went to Tulsa earlier this month and talked to a couple of gents at the east end of the upper level. One of them thought this might be a 1905 no change.
Serial is 677XX, barrel actual measurement is 4 7/8 so I'm assuming this would be called a 5 inch barrel. There are no pins under the ejector. The barrel, cylinder and frame serial's all match. I cannot see any penciled serial on the grips. One of the gentlemen I talked to thought if probably originally had hard rubber grips.
I have shot informally at a 2'x2 steel plate from 30 yards(lead) and had no problem hitting in my 8" painted bullseye.
So my question is year of production/ model and an estimated value, it's a shooter and nothing special i presume. I think I found a approximate year of 1906 somewhere on the interwebs.
Thanks for any help, Mark

 

[Oyeboteb]

Hi Bluesix,

I would say it is quite special, actually!

condition is honest, quite a bit of original Blue remaining, and, form a time in which the Mechanism was still evolving, it has everything going for it in lots of ways.

Stocks are from a later period ( latter 'teens to early 1920s roughly )...and are thus not original to this Revolver.


I like how it still has the Trigger Return/Rebound Spring pinned to the front Grip-Frame.


A very interesting transitional example!

 

[DCWilson]

I can't see if your revolver has the fifth screw in front of the trigger guard, but the design of the rotating trigger stop you can see with the sideplate off makes me think that it does. That fifth screw and the serial number make me think that the traditional classification system would call this a Model of 1905 as you suggested.

There is a school of thought that any round butt M&P of this era should be identified as some variety of a Model of 1902. The discussion goes back and forth because the marketing descriptions and classifications do not sync well with engineering changes that can be observed.

If by any chance the frame does not have the screw in front of the trigger guard, then you should probably call it a Model of 1902, first change with a serial number about 5000 higher than one would expect from the standard tables.

Setting aside the nomenclature issues, almost everyone would agree that's a nice specimen of a rarely seen variety.

 

[glowe]

If you look at the second picture, you can see the screw and if you look at the last picture, there is evidence of the cylinder stop and plunger, so it does have a 5th screw.

I would actually classify it as a Model 1902, since it has round butt design, but at any rate, is is a 38 Hand Ejector, Military & Police (no change), made in 1905 and 1906. Just over 10,000 were made.

 

[bluesix]

Thanks to all who replied and hope all are having a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thanks for the great information on this piece.
The revolver does have the screw infront of the trigger guard. Would the hard rubber grips be the correct type of grips for this time period? For insurance purposes what value can be assigned to it.
There is also a K38 target masterpiece that my stepdad had, it is in the 107XXX serial. My stepdad has had the K38 since the mid 50's. The K38 is going to my little brother, it is the one firearm of his dads that he wanted. These Guns disappeared for about 7 years. Turns out my stepdad gave these 2 to a good friend of his and he had been using them for prop guns in stage plays. Our friend used to have his own special F/X company, did fireworks, indoor pyro and even has some muzzle loading black powder cannons to use during performances of the William Tell Overture.
About 6 months ago I recieved a call from our friend and tells me he has a couple of old revolvers. So a happy ending.
Thanks for listening.

 

[DWalt]

Don't be too concerned about whether it's the Model of 1902 or the Model of 1905. They can be considered as being the same except for the grip shape. Just one of those things collectors love to argue over. The original grips probably would have been black hard rubber.

 

[mikepriwer]

It certainly is possible that the grips were checkered walnut. The grips you have now
are from 1920 to 1930. The correct ones are called concave non-medallion. Yours
looks to be convex non-medallion. Its the top 1/4 to 3/8" area that is different.
Concave means that area sinks in slightly. Convex means it has an ever-so-slight
bulge to it. Maybe yours are correct, but they look convex from the pictures.

This is a scarce gun. Its has the 5th frame screw, for driving the redesigned cylinder
stop, but it still has the old trigger rebound mechanism.

There is no doubt that it has a round butt, and there is no doubt that, in the catalogs,
round butt guns of this era are Models of 1902. Round butt vs square butt is not
an engineering change, but a naming convention for two different models.

Mike Priwer