Serial Number help

Joined
May 25, 2020
Messages
2
Reaction score
1
Morning all,



I'm looking for the manufacturing date of two .44 Russian S&Ws I've owned for a number of years.
The first is an 1881 double-action Frontier, serial no 17923
The second is a 1877 New Model no. 3, serial no 8789.


Any help much appreciated.


Many thanks.
 
Register to hide this ad
Welcome to the Forum. These are great guns to own, but values have barely held their own for quite a few years with some drop in demand by collectors.

Most all S&Ws are dated by the date they left the factory and not manufacture dates, but some manufacturing log books remain in a private collectors hands. The standard dates given are ship dates and if you get historical letters on those guns, they will show that date.

The S&W 44 Double Action chambered in 44 Russian were manufactured from 1881 to 1913 in serial number range 1 - 54,688. That revolver would have likely shipped in 1888-1889 time-frame. The 44 DA Frontier was chambered in 44-40, but your revolver is not a Frontier Model since the serial numbers only went to 15,340.

The S&W 44 New Model 3, chambered in some 10 to 15 calibers, was manufactured from 1878 to 1912 in serial number range 1 - 35,796. Your revolver would have shipped somewhere around 1880. You may get other guesses, but this model was serialized in very large lots and then sold off without regard to sn# order. In the database, a 67XX shipped in 1882, while a 91XX example shipped in 1879. There were no 1877 named New Model 3s, but there was a Colt Model 1877.

All this means that if you want some history about the guns and where they shipped to and when they shipped, you need a factory historical letter. The cost of the letter is $100 and applications can be found in the S&W Historical Foundation link.
 
44

Morning all,



I'm looking for the manufacturing date of two .44 Russian S&Ws I've owned for a number of years.
The first is an 1881 double-action Frontier, serial no 17923
The second is a 1877 New Model no. 3, serial no 8789.


Any help much appreciated.


Many thanks.

Got any pics?
 
Many thanks for your replies, especially Gary and the clarity regards the Frontier point. I haven't researched these in years - long before the glory days of the internet. Just those rough estimations are great for me - just gives me some idea of when they were around. I'll keep on enjoying them!
 
Back
Top