Identifying year of manufacture by serial number

[James C. Kelly]

I have a 1917 S&W revolver my father bought from the NRA back
in the mid 50’s. It was chambered in .455 but was rechambered
in .45 Long Colt. I believe it was part of the “lend lease” due to
the original caliber. I am trying to determine the year of
manufacture.

 

[murphydog]

Welcome! The serial number from the bottom of the grip frame is needed for an age estimate, but this is a WW I vintage gun.

In .45 ACP for US forces it was called the 1917 Army, and in .455 the Hand Ejector Mk II 1st or 2nd Model, depending on whether it has a third cylinder locking point near the cylinder yoke.

 

[James C. Kelly]

It does not have the third lock. It does have a lanyard loop in the butt
that resembles a sling swivel. How can I find the year of mfg?

 

[Absalom]

How can I find the year of mfg?

As Alan said, state the serial from the butt, and someone here will tell you.

 

[murphydog]

Sorry, I just edited my post above to state "the serial number from the bottom of the grip frame is needed 'for an age estimate'". It is read with the butt facing toward you and the barrel to the right.

 

[Muley Gil]

Welcome to the Forum.

If it is a .455 that has been re-chambered to .45 Colt, it is not a 1917 nor is it a Lend-Lease revolver. Lend-Lease was a WW II program and applied to .38 S&W chambered revolvers.

The .455 revolvers were built in the 1914-1917 era and were bought by the Brits for the Commonwealth troops.

Pictures would be very helpful.

 

[Absalom]

We’re just all way too fast

James:
If you can, post some photos especially of any stampings that don’t look like they were factory-applied. On British-shipped guns, there’s sometimes additional insights to be had.

 

[Hondo44]

It does not have the third lock. It does have a lanyard loop in the butt
that resembles a sling swivel. How can I find the year of mfg?

James,

The serial # or a partial # is the only way to know. WE also need to know if the same serial # is on the rear face of the cylinder.

 

[James C. Kelly]

The serial number on the butt is 68995 but on the rear of the cylinder the number is 71004.

 

[Hondo44]

Well the gun w/#68995 was shipped Dec 1917, and likely manuf. within the month preceding.

Cyl replaced of course since it has a different #.

What's the barrel #? And is it marked 455 or 45 DA?

 

[James C. Kelly]

Barrel serial number

The serial number on the bottom of the barrel is the same as on the butt. Thank you for the information.

 

[Hondo44]

What's the barrel marked; 455 or 45 DA?

 

[James C. Kelly]

The original caliber is marked 455 but just above it there is a lighter stamping CAL 45 SW .

 

[Wiregrassguy]

Welcome to the forums from the Wiregrass! Hmmm. It is odd that it was converted to .45 Schofield. Since you can read the SN on the cylinder, it hasn't been milled down for the .45 Colt cartridge. Are the chambers countersunk? Were the chambers reamed or is there a shoulder still there?

 

[Muley Gil]

The original caliber is marked 455 but just above it there is a lighter stamping CAL 45 SW .

In your first post, you stated that this revolver was bought by your dad and that it had been re-chambered to .45 Long Colt. I presume he had fired this gun with .45 Long Colt ammo.

I'm going to make another assumption that whoever did the re-chambering wasn't familiar with old cartridges like the .45 Schofield and just stamped it "45 SW" instead of ".45 Colt" since it was a Smith & Wesson handgun.

 

[DCWilson]

Gil, there are actually several known .455/2nd models from late in the production run that were re-imported to the US (from Canada mostly, I think) and secondarily stamped as .45 SW.

I have one of these that was also fitted with Micro adjustable sights, probably sometime back in the late '50s/early '60s. This gun was also converted at some time after re-import to .45 Colt, which involved planing the surface of the recoil shield by a few thousandths of an inch.

Just as date points, most of the .455/Firsts (the TL variety) were shipped from late 1914 through part of 1915. The .455/Seconds began shipping in 1915 and were mostly out by mid-1916. Stragglers of both varieties are known.

Here's the thread where I posted my converted .455, minus all the pics owing to a Photobucket catastrophe a few years ago. http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-ha...ed-target-shooting.html?153660=#post135612874

 

[James C. Kelly]

After I read the post about milling the frame I checked and it has definitely been shaved. I own several other S&W revolvers and the 1917 has definitely been shaved. Thanks for the information.

 

[Hondo44]

In your first post, you stated that this revolver was bought by your dad and that it had been re-chambered to .45 Long Colt. I presume he had fired this gun with .45 Long Colt ammo.

I'm going to make another assumption that whoever did the re-chambering wasn't familiar with old cartridges like the .45 Schofield and just stamped it "45 SW" instead of ".45 Colt" since it was a Smith & Wesson handgun.

I've also seen the 45 SW stamping. And the actual re-chambering is always for 45 Colt. So I've wondered for some time now why?

Yes there was the 45 S&W Schofield and after that the 45 S&W Special (“45 Frankford 4 1906”) . But by the time in 1950's when these 455 revolvers hit the market as surplus imports and were converted, both cartridges were looong gone. in fact the 45 SW Special wasn't ever even commercially loaded (only loaded about 20,000 rds in April 1906 at Frankford Arsenal for the military trials of 1906).

What are we missing??? Was there just one guy that converted and marked the barrels 45 SW in deference to the gun being a S&W???