Model 60 serial number stamps

[billwill]

Question....when did Smith stop stamping the gun serial number on the inside of the
extractor? I thought it was in the early '60's but I picked up a Model 60 no dash the other day
and the SN, R101xxx is marked on the extractor. (and of course on the butt)

I think this SN puts it about '73.

 

[JP@AK]

R101xxx is probably from 1974. The serial number on the underside of the extractor star hung around longer than you might imagine. I'll have to go through a few from the early seventies in my safe, but I think I can find one or two that still have the number in that location. I don't actually know when it stopped for good. Someone else here might.

 

[Doc44]

The practice of stamping the serial number on the bottom of the extractor became quite variable by the late 1960s and possibly depended on who was assembling and fitting the revolver. I have several Model 29-2s and a couple of 19-3s made in the late 60s and early 70s without a number, but I also have a Model 29-2 made in early 1973 that has the number stamped there.

Bill