Help identifying hand ejector

[Panzer_227]

Hey Everyone!
Had this revolver for a little while now and noticing more and more oddities about it compared to my other ones and was curious if anyone might be able to help identify it. It is a 5 screw 6" barrel .38 S&W Special CTG with no model or reg numbers. The serial on the barrel is B516564 and the serial on the butt is 616564. It has the prewar model hand ejector adjustable sights. One of the things I find odd with it is that the S&W logo is under the cylinder release instead of the sideplate.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Wiregrassguy]

Welcome to the forums from the cotton and peanut covered plains of the Wiregrass! You have a .38 Military & Police Target likely shipped in the early 1930's. The grips appear to be from WWII. The "B" under the barrel indicates a factory blue finish. The different first digit is interesting but the butt serial is official. I'm sure an expert will be along shortly to tell you more.

 

[merl67]

Welcome to the forum. With the first barrel digit being clearly a 5 and the frame number clearly a 6 all others the same my guess is someone grabbed the wrong stamp. Check the serial number on the rear of the cylinder, and under the star.

 

[Panzer_227]

Welcome to the forum. With the first barrel digit being clearly a 5 and the frame number clearly a 6 all others the same my guess is someone grabbed the wrong stamp. Check the serial number on the rear of the cylinder, and under the star.

The cylinder serial number actually matches the barrel serial number.

 

[Retired W4]

Welcome from Hot 'Lanta. Looks to me like someone doing the stamping was having a bad day...and no one discovered the mistake.

 

[DWalt]

Look at #14-#16 here. SW Pre-Victory? ID help

 

[glowe]

Welcome! The stamped S&W logo moved to the left side of the frame in 1917. You technically have a 38 Hand Ejector Military & Police, 4th Change that ran from 1915 to 1942. That serial number would have shipped around 1930. Your top rear sight should be a front screw affixing the base to the frame and a single elevation adjustment screw in the rear. The stocks are not factory, since the originals were walnut checkered with silver medallion in the top of each stock like those in the photo below.

Let me add that the official serial number is located on the butt-frame since the BATF requires the serial number must be stamped on the frame of the firearm.

 

[DCWilson]

From company records we known that the 516xxx M&Ps were shipping in 1925 and the 616xxx M&Ps were shipping as early as 1928-1929.

The barrel-shaped knob of the ejector rod was introduced in 1927. Before that, the knob had a double diameter mushroom shape. This gun's barrel-shaped knob indicates that 616564 is the correct serial number and that the erroneous stamping is associated with the 516564 numbers. The frame number is thus fortunately the correct one, and the incorrect serials found in secondary locations on the revolver are irrelevant for purposes of identification.

The incorrect number may also be found on the underside of the ejector star and on the face of the yoke that is parallel and immediately adjacent to the front face of the cylinder. Sometimes you can read that number with a sidelight while you peer through an empty chamber from the rear. (But it's easier if you just take the yoke/cylinder assembly off the gun.)

EDITED TO ADD: The left side position for the small company logo was abandoned in a management decision of December 1936, and from January 1937 the large logo began to be found again on the sideplate.

 

[Gun Relics]

Here are the catalog pages for the military and Police Target 1937, pages 15, 16 and 17. This would be pretty close to your year.

 

[murphydog]

Good information above.

The B in front of the digits on the barrel flat indicates it was a factory blued revolver, and is not part of the serial number. The stocks are likely from a WW II era military Victory Model, and the right inside panel will probably be stamped with yet a third different number.

 

[rct269]

The last M&P Target in my collection was #659118, and it shipped December 23, 1936. Its only claim to fame is it carried (and lettered with) a Marble Ivory Bead front sight.

It was delivered to a railroad police officer who very clearly never used it. I wondered about that, and coupled with the front sight led me to believe he might have intended to use it in the Long Shooters competition where they shot out to 300 yards---only after going to a match he decided they were as crazy as loons as went home---never to return. He missed out on a very enlightening experience, as I tried it out at 300 yards, and you can actually hit the target. We won't talk about my score, because there wasn't any---never mind I was able to make holes in the paper---and figure with more time I could very likely move those holes to where they counted.

Ralph Tremaine