Please help with ID and Value!

[Ignatius]

This pistol has been in my family a long time and the original owner passed away in the 1970's. The serial # is 1213XX and it is a 4 screw model. The chambering on one side reads "32-20 CTG" and the barrel is 6" from the front of the cylinder. I pulled the grips and there is no serial number under them. It does not have target sites and does show heavy holster wear, it did belong to a career LEO in S. Florida. My dad saw a recent article about 2nd ed hand Ejectors in the American Rifleman and he thinks that this is one of them. I am not sure. Could someone help ID this and also give us a fair value, we may be interested in selling it as well.

I have browsed alot of this forum and I am impressed with the many helpful responses to these posts, thanks to the collectors here who dont get tired of these "what is this and what is it worth?" postings.


Ignatius.

 

[DCWilson]

That's actually considered a five-screw gun, because you count the four in the side plate and the one in the frame in front of the trigger guard.

This is a .32-20 Hand Ejector. It is like the 1905 Military & Police model, but in .32-20 instead of .38 special. The .32-20 guns had their own serial number sequence. About 150,000 were made between their introduction and the suspension of production of this model before WW2. Your serial number would have been shipped about 1924. Even without numbering to prove it, those stocks are likely to be original in my opinion. In the 1920s, S&W did not put medallions on their service stocks. So even if you could prove that these were NOT the original stocks, they are still age-appropriate.

Nice looking gun, even if the finish is a little rough here and there. I'm thinking you could probably sell it the same day for $250-300. Somebody might go $350 for it.

.32-20s (also known as .32 WCF) are fun to shoot. The ammo is a little expensive when you can find it, so reloading makes sense.

 

[Muley Gil]

On the early guns, the serial number was written in pencil and can be really hard to read. Often times, solvents and gun oil removed the number. It often takes holding the grips in different lighting and at an angle to read the number.