Siblings reunited ??. An "L" frame's journey

[CHARLIE699]

Many years ago, circa late 1980, I saw & had to purchase my first "L" frame. It was a Model 581 in nickel. It was quickly joined by the first M585 6" that came into the shop. Then a M686. I quickly replaced the Pythons (who knew then,,,). Not too many years later, a change in job & location saw the early "L"s find new homes.
In recent years of self-unemployment (retirement), I've been busy replacing some of my early revolvers. I obtained a M581 (no-dash) with AAA-prefix some time ago. Now I can cross the M586 off my list too.
This M586 is a 4" that looks like it was fired 6x & put in box (dirty). It too is a AAA-prefix w/o the "M" revision. They are 4767 numbers apart. We know that S&W did not assemble or ship them in numerical order BUT, I'd like to believe they shared some time together. Maybe in the storage vault?
Anyway, together again,,,,, Brothers from the same Mother

 

[OutAtTheEdge]

Very nice. I was working in a shop in October of '81 when our very first L-frame came in, and I immediately bought it. Blued 4" 586 #AAA1632 went home with me and I loved it, but unfortunately only for a brief time. Child #1 came along in '82, financial reality set in, and a lot of guns were replaced by a lot of baby necessities. I hope whoever has AAA1632 these days is enjoying it.

 

[Sevens]

I get the drift that many folks are unaware… but 99% of the L-frames do NOT have the big, classic S&W emblem on the side plate on display on the right side of the revolver. Let me explain!

First of all, I absolutely made up that statistic of 99% Truth is, I do not know the number but I can say that whatever it is, it is climbing with each new 686 they made.

There were many things happening in the early 80’s. They were moving away from pinned barrels and countersunk chambers and no L-frames have them even though some other model revolvers still trickled out with them as late as 1982.

When S&W debuted the L-frames, only the absolute earliest of them had the big emblem on the sideplate and I believe the original boxes for these were the last of the old style two-piece blue with the metal reinforced corners. I don’t have proof of this, I can only tell you what I have seen.

As for the classic emblem on the sideplate, S&W shortly after moved the emblem to the left side under the cylinder release and made it much smaller. They did this to free up the large canvas on the right side and make it available for custom emblems and badges and logos that organizations could pay to have with group orders.

I wrote this post for two reasons… first is that your revolvers are fantastic and I love ‘em. But secondly because it seems like someone just needs to point out every time someone shows an early L-frame with the emblem on the side, I believe we need at least one poster to say, “Hey, that’s excellent!”

 

[Rakkasan13F]

Nice. I have a pair of satin nickel 442's with serial numbers just 68 digits apart. I found one at a gun show in Lebanon, TN last year and the other at a gun shop 115 miles away in Huntsville, AL within a few months of finding the first.