Curious as to how you determined this? I have always been under the impression that all of the dates that we refer to, hear about, read about or get in letters are shipping dates. S&W did not keep records of manufacture dates other than perhaps the floor foreman's daily log books that were used to calculate a workman's pay based on piece work.
That issue is also in discussion as in another thread DOC stated that these daily log books do not contain serial numbers. I have somewhere copies of pages from one such logbook supplied to me by Ed Cornett however I have not been able to locate them in my expansive collection of S&W papers. My recollection was that serial numbers were listed but lately my memory is subject to interpretation.
All true---as far as we know. Then again, every now and again, we find out different. Here are a couple of examples----and they are the only two I know about.
#1. I had two 3rd Model Single Shots, #'s 4807 and 4826. I wondered if they'd been made on the same day----so I asked Jinks---fully expecting to get my head handed to me for wasting his time with dumb questions. Here's his reply----in part: 4807----was part "of the production run of 31 units completed on May 9, 1911 and entered into the shipping vault on that date." 4826----"this pistol was in the production run of this model completed on June 21, 1911 and entered into the shipping vault on that same day." I sat and stared at that for a bit, and then it occurred to me that the folks involved in selling these things had to know EXACTLY what they had available to sell. Then I decided there was a shipping vault log kept up day by day to tell them EXACTLY that----and that Jinks' response to me came from that log. The next thing that occurred to me was Jinks "has more than 100,000 S&W items" in his paper collection----and that such as a shipping vault log might very well be among them.
#2. I was hot after a .44 H.E. 3rd Target (#54911)----a SUPER RARE gun. I knew there were such out there that wouldn't letter as targets---but I didn't know why---and I damn well needed to know why before I turned loose of a big pile of money for this gun!! So I started asking around----and nobody knew. Well, almost nobody knew. I finally asked Jinks---called him on the phone. He told me 54911 was made in 1938---BOOM!!----just like that--- on the phone----no pawing through a pile of paper----BOOM!!, and he told me I was good to go-----end of conversation. I was a happy camper---aside from the fact I still didn't know the why of it----and I still wanted to know that. Then I called Ed Cornett----another walking encyclopedia---and he told me the why of it----chapter and verse----and I was an even happier camper!!
I'd done been edumacated!!
The End!!
Ralph Tremaine
By the way, under the heading of "Go figure!", 4826 (an 8") was a "special order for a single unit", and was shipped 3 days after it was completed. 4807 (a 6") sat in the shipping vault until November 11, 1915(!!)------FOUR AND A HALF YEARS later!! Oh---GO FIGURE!!
And I did get my head handed to me for wasting his time asking dumb questions, but he answered them first. Then he said, "This certainly establishes that they were not produced in the same production lot of Perfected Single Shot Pistols."
Yes, indeed---it (certainly) does!
In this case just the serial number and photos are sufficient for your question.
