Question on Registered Magnum

[epidoc]

I was looking at a Registered Magnum made in 1938. The owner let me take the grips off, and it has the numbers 9 55 stamped on the left side of the frame. I'm assuming it was reworked by the factory in September 1955.

The cylinder has no serial number on it. If the factory replaced the cylinder would they have used an unnumbered cylinder?

I encouraged the owner to get a letter from Roy.

 

[epidoc]

I was looking at a Registered Magnum made in 1938. The owner let me take the grips off, and it has the numbers 9 55 stamped on the left side of the frame. I'm assuming it was reworked by the factory in September 1955.

The cylinder has no serial number on it. If the factory replaced the cylinder would they have used an unnumbered cylinder?

I encouraged the owner to get a letter from Roy.

 

[GeoffM24]

I have seen replaced parts renumbered but the practice was stopped sometime in the late 50's when they stopped stamping serial numbers on barrels and cylinders on new guns too.

You have to wonder what happened to the gun to require a new cylinder.

The problem with the letter from Roy is it won't mention the repair work.

 

[opoefc]

Goeff is correct that the letter from Roy won't mention the 1955 work UNLESS you tell him about it when you request the letter. If the present owner is the one who returned the gun to S&W in 1955, he may have the invoice & bill for the rework. If not, go the the Conn. Valley Historical Museum in Springfield and research the S&W archived invoice files for the date period stamped on the gun. It might take a few weeks to look thru several 1,000 invoices but no blue blood S&W collector would mind that. Next to being in Heaven what could be better than knee deep in the S&W archives! When you find that invoice for the work, copy it and send the info to Roy & it will show up in your factory letter. Ed.

 

[lonewolf]

Doc-IF you know WHO owned the RM in Sept. 1955, at least there last name, you can find out what was done.

The repair orders are filed alphabetically. Took me a while to wrangle the name of the owner of a 2nd Model .455 H.E.(from the dealer I bought it from) that was extensively reworked by factory in 1975(BTW-new cylinder and bbl. were numbered for the 1915-16 gun by the factory.).

It's a longshot, but sometimes it "works". Good Luck !

Bud

 

[epidoc]

Thanks for your responses. The owner found it in a pawn shop several years ago. The pawnshop did not recognize it as a Registered Magnum, and charged him a ridiculoulsy low price, but, unfortunately, the history of the gun stops at the pawn shop.

 

[GeoffM24]

Originally posted by opoefc:
Goeff is correct that the letter from Roy won't mention the 1955 work UNLESS you tell him about it when you request the letter. If the present owner is the one who returned the gun to S&W in 1955, he may have the invoice & bill for the rework. If not, go the the Conn. Valley Historical Museum in Springfield and research the S&W archived invoice files for the date period stamped on the gun. It might take a few weeks to look thru several 1,000 invoices but no blue blood S&W collector would mind that. Next to being in Heaven what could be better than knee deep in the S&W archives! When you find that invoice for the work, copy it and send the info to Roy & it will show up in your factory letter. Ed.

I think it is a disservice to make it sound like you can just walk into the museum and research guns. I can see the museum from my office at work and still have never been able to get at any records. Hell I can't even get a straight answer as to how you get in there.

I can help fund the museum with my SWCA dollars but can't even get in there.

I'm growing very tired of the stranglehold.

 

[Doc44]

Geoff....Assuming you are a member of the S&WCA eGroup, go to that site and type in CVHM in the search box. The messages that are displayed will give you a better idea of what is going on at CVHM and how to do research there.

I have also asked Roy about the process for accessing the records and will pass on any information I receive.

Bill