pre model 10 s/n Q

[fourb20]

I recently bough a .38 special, 5 screw that came with a 6" barrel and King adjustable rear sites and King front sites. The s/n on the butt is 158689 followed by a five sided star. It came with a spare 5" barrel as well. The s/n on the bottom side of the 5" barrel is marked with the same s/n as the gun with a letter B in front of it The s/n on the 6"barrel has the same s/n with a letter B surrounded by a diamond. Can anyone shed some light on this ? It came with a brown leather flap holster with the markings G&K 1918 A. G.
Along with the deal was a S&W model 1917 and a 17-3 s/n 3K4631. What is the shipping date of the model 17.
I know the .38 is fairly old as it lacks the, "made in the US"

 

[Muley Gil]

The "B" means the factory finish was blue. The 5" barrel was the original barrel. The 6" was a replacement installed at the factory. The star after the SN on the butt indicates the gun went back to the factory for work; in this case probably the barrel switch.

The "Made in USA" stamp appeared in mid 1922. If you remove the grips, there should be a date stamp indicating when the factory work was performed; for example, "8.54" would indicate August 1954.

 

[JP@AK]

17-3 s/n 3K4631. What is the shipping date of the model 17.

1971
3K numbers for that year ran from 3K1 to 3K31279. The rest of them were issued in 1972.

 

[fourb20]

Can anyone provide the shipping date of the .38?

 

[JP@AK]

Can anyone provide the shipping date of the .38?

No. But it is going to be somewhere in the 1912ish arena. Serial spread for this change runs from 146900 to 241703 in the 1909-1915 period. If you want to know for sure, you will have to buy a Jinks letter.

 

[DWalt]

158689, without any letter prefix, would indicate shipment around 1910.

 

[fourb20]

I pulled the grips and found the date when it was sent back to the factory, Nov of 1946. Thanks