S&W letter

[Hill536]

If my old eyes are not playing tricks on me, the picture you posted looks like the gun has the humpback hammer. Did the letter mention anything about the type of hammer?

No it didn't!

 

[Club Gun Fan]

I'm puzzled by the lack of response to several things-------------

It was noted nickel RMs are rare---with approximately 500 made. In Jink's well known and widely distributed RM treatise completed in 1989(??) he stated there were 144 known nickel-----and listed the registration numbers for them.

I've checked through those numbers for 3225 and 3235 (those mentioned here) and 32 anything else, and came up empty.

What am I missing? Is this perhaps simply a test to see if we're paying attention--------and if so why do we seem to be doing doing so poorly?

Ralph Tremaine

Ralph
We can only tell you what it says from the information we have at hand. If a RM has a humpback hammer and there is no mention on the paper work we have, we can not say it had one when it left our factory. If the invoice states "Finish N" we assume that means nickel. Just because someone has a book that lists nickel serial numbers that don't include the one I just lettered, maybe I should issue a new letter calling it blue. That would then coincide with your book. We discover new things everyday and we don't have time to notify everyone.

 

[Entropy]

We've got so used to pulling up something on an Excel spread sheet I think we forget that when most of these guns were built, a #2 pencil was considered cutting edge technology. Enjoy them for the mystery they can contain.

 

[Hill536]

We've got so used to pulling up something on an Excel spread sheet I think we forget that when most of these guns were built, a #2 pencil was considered cutting edge technology. Enjoy them for the mystery they can contain.

It's interesting the attention my RM is receiving. The letter from
Don Mundell indicated a nickel finish on the pistols shipping records.

The email I got from Bill Cross stated the Asst. Chief inquired in a 1945 letter to S&W about getting this gun re-nickeled!

I have been doing some investigation and I found out that in ca. 1935 the FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was given RM #1 by S&W. Hoover was known to spend portions of the winter in neighboring Winter Haven, Fl. with Lakeland having an FBI office. Interaction with the FBI Director might be the reason the City of Lakeland ordered 8 pistols or it might not. It's really interesting that a department of 20 officers ordered 8.