Kevin, mine was "made" in 1955 but did not get shipped until March 3, 1959. Interesting what Roy had to say about the gun. It's been here before, but here it is again.
When I first asked Roy for a ship date, he gave me the March 1959 date. Thinking it a bit odd that a 5-screw did not ship until 1959, I later asked Roy if he would verify that date. Here is what he wrote in reply:
"Charlie, collector put to much importance in serial numbers and forget that these are manufactured products and that serial numbers to Smith & Wesson are only important for the legal requirements of the laws. In the case of the serial numbers in the S130000 range some of these revolver frames were set aside to be build as .44 Magnums as the .45 1955 frame was the only one that could be used to match the new .44 Magnum barrels. However, they were not all used and set aside again and finished at a much later date. I the shipment that your revolver was in in March 1959 there were 5 revolvers and the serial ranges were in S130xxx,S144xxx and the rest in the S165xxx range. It is also interesting to note that serial number S130817 was shipped in March 1958, S130820 shipped in April 1959 and S130823 was shipped in March 1956. You can see that with those few serial numbers we have a five year spread. It is tough for a collector to make rhyme or reason out of this. I can say when the computer control of serial numbers came into effect it got much better. Hope that this helps. Roy"
At any rate, this is the nicest S&W revolver that I own. No box, docs or tools, just the gun. Wish I could find out more about this gun's history.
Oh, I paid $812 for it.
