Help with Pre-Model 36

tex60

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I believe this to be an interesting pistol. I have a factory letter from Mr. Jinks who describes it as a Pre-model 36 Chief's Special, 2" barrel, flat latch, five screw, First Year Production. Has Three Digit Serial Number on Walnut Round Butt. Records show it was shipped in 1951. I think the closet serial number may be four digit. Do not have box. The other unique thing about this pistol appears unfired. It looks absolutley fresh out of 1950. I can not find any indication of it being fired. Would appreciate any thoughts on serial number. Have considered selling, but no idea the value.

Thanks for thoughts.
 
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From what you have described, this gun should have the first type of front sight, a half moon, or half penny round type. Not a smooth ramp or serrated ramp. It would also be on the improved I frame, not the latter J frame, and would have a slightly shorter grip frame and stocks than the later J frame Chiefs Specials and Mod 36s.

Please let us know what type of front sight it has.

I am not sure what you want us to tell you, though. You seem to have covered the most important criteria and have an idea of the features of the Baby Chief; you have the Jinks letter, etc.

As far as how low the serial number is, there has been a long runing thread in this sub forum concerning "Who has the earliest known Baby Chiefs Special serial number?"
Since you didn't provide us with yours, all I can say is, it is a very early one if it has a 3 digit SN. Several members have, or have owned two digit Baby Chiefs Specials.

Congratulations on your gun! We would love to see pictures of it.

Value is always subjective. I would think any seller that knew what he had with this gun would probably not accept less than $600 for it, and possibly, would want to price it a little higher than that. If the gun was listed for sale on Gunbroker (as opposed to this forum), it could possibly sell for a lot more than most of us would pay. Buyers have been paying ridiculous prices for some older model Colt swing out cylinder solid frame revolvers the past few years. I don't know if this trend has affected some of the S&W older revolvers or not.
The original matching box would increase value for most of us $100-$200.
 
Last edited:
Pre-Chief's Model

Malysh,

Appreciate the reply. Front sight is the early round type. Serial # is 925.
 
That's a wonderful old Baby Chiefs you have described, Tex.

BTW: Welcome to the S&W Forum :)
 
A couple nit-picky points: this sounds like a "baby Chief", not a "pre-model 36" aka "model of 1953 Chief". And it is built on the baby j frame, not the improved i-frame. The improved i-frame is an i-frame with a coil mainspring instead of a leaf mainspring. The i-frame has too short of a cylinder window for the 38 spl, which is why they developed the baby j frame instead of just dropping a 38 spl cylinder nto the i-frame 38 S&W-chambered Terrier.
 
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