model 39 -- seeking age

[Eastern-Virginia]

Greetings from eastern Virginia. I am working on a relative's Model 39 (see attached pix) which is in depreciated condition. My question to you today is determining its age as I am seeing different answers online. I believe it to be from the middle 1960s with a serial number of 687XX -- five digits, no letters.

I am pretty sure this is first generation. It really does look and feel like a derivative of a High Power and takes down like another High Power clone that I own (a CZ 75).

But these comments are off topic: I am most interested in determining its age (I have recommended that our relatives get a factory letter too). For now, ballpark is good. If anyone can assist me I would much appreciate it.

FYI this is not for sale. Nope! Doubt these are the original grips, we have what might be the originals in ivory (not resin).

 

[erikpolcrack]

All I can find to help is that no-letter-prefix Model 39 serial numbers started with 1001 in 1954 and ended with 115000 in 1970. Immediately after that came the A-prefix guns. Yours seems to fall near the middle of that range. 62 or 63 maybe for shipping year? There are guys on the forum that compile databases of various S&Ws. People that have lettered their guns or have original receipts give them the info on their guns. If one of these guys chimes in, he can probably get you much closer to the shipping date by quoting you the dates on guns serial-numbered close to yours.

 

[Sevens]

I will guess this one is late 1966, possibly very early 1967.

 

[cougar015]

Your model 39 is a 1st gen gun and in pretty worn condition so it's possible it saw heavy use with P.D or military or was just carried and shot a lot. It's probably still a good shooter. The grips are after market as most 39's shipped with checkered wood walnut or plain rosewood stocks. We would need the entire s/n to get an accurate shipping date as S&W did not ship guns out in s/n order. 68750, which I'm guessing is close to yours, shipped in May 1966.

 

[gmborkovic]

Hello and welcome to the Forum. You are at the right place for info.
See if you can post some better pics.

 

[DoubleNickel]

I have one that has a serial number 400 below yours. I’ll let you know once I get my letter. Won’t be exact but close

 

[Eastern-Virginia]

THANK YOU everyone for your super quick replies. I will post some disassembly pix soon when my relatives ok me to work on this handgun to keep it from further depreciation. The grips are really interesting in real ivory. I have my grandfather's m1911 from 1917 (!!!) coated in Break Free Collector oil and that is where this one will end up (after we shoot it a bunch)!

 

[kwill1911]

If you can share the rest of the SN we may be able to tell you more about it. Also, please post pictures of the ivory grips.

 

[H Richard]

I had a 39 with a no letter # 6072x which had shipped 9/64. I don't know the production rate of 39's back then, but would guestimate possibly a year, making your gun in the 1965 range possibly. But as we all know, S&W didn't ship in S/N order .

 

[Eastern-Virginia]

Thanks

Thanks to all, I will be back on the forum once I get some good pix.

 

[Eastern-Virginia]

follow-up

Sorry for the delay but work got in the way.

I was not hopeful but, after half a day removing corrosion, I took this firearm to the range and ran 50 rounds through it. It functioned flawlessly, and I will CONFIRM that the trigger in single-action mode is very nice even in current shape.

My relatives asked me to reinstall the ivory grips that their dad had on it while he was busy bombing North Vietnam. That photo is attached. The serial number is 68774. In my opinion these grips make it too wide; I bet the original wooden grips would have been ideal. Probably why in retirement the original owner swapped out the grips to that shown in the initial pix.

The "bluing" on this Model 39 is showing losses as seen in the pix (I took the pix to maximize the view of the losses). This black finish seems to me almost like paint (I was afraid to be too aggressive with some of the corrosion as I was was scraping off finish). Whether or not this one gets restored will be up to the relatives -- NO this is not for sale, the next generation is lining up for it!

Thanks and best wishes.

 

[gmborkovic]

Hello VA, hold off on aggressive cleaning. Only the slide is blued steel. The frame is anodized aluminum. Really good pics are necessary here. Just go easy on cleaning. And, please no steel wool or wire brush!

 

[cougar015]

Eastern-VA your gun shipped August 1966. Might suggest to your relatives to get a letter for this one.

 

[Eastern-Virginia]

Thanks

My sincere thank you to all. Best wishes from Virginia.

 

[VASCAR2]

I bought a used S&W 439 which had a lot of holster wear but hadn’t been shot much. I bought this 439 to be a shooter but wanted to improve it’s appearance.

I cleaned the slide which really didn’t have any rust but the blueing was gone from the wear areas. I cleaned the areas I was going to blue with rubbing Alcohol. I followed the instructions on the Birch Wood Casey blueing bottle. I warmed the surface of the slide with a hair dryer and applied the blue with a cotton swab. It actually turned out pretty decent. I cleaned the frame with rubbing alcohol where the anodized finish was gone. I used a cotton swab to cover these areas with the liquid black anodizing. I used Birch Wood Casey Aluminum black Anodizing which blackened the frame. The touch up finish doesn’t have as shiny a finish as original but makes the wear much less noticeable. If you have some rust I found that if you use oil and a real copper penny you can rub the rust off the steel. The copper penny with oil is soft enough it doesn’t hurt the under lying steel. Once te rust is removed you can try covering the area with blue as described above.

Here are a couple pictures of my Smith & Wesson 439. This might give you an indication how you could try to help the looks of your model 39.