Strange 36 serial # Need Help!!!

[seanbetsy]

Hello All
My father purchased a 36 at a gun show a couple months ago. I'm going to give you a few facts about it and see if you have ever heard of this before.
36 no dash
Regular thumb piece not flat
Non-adjustable groove in the frame rear sight
Nickeled
2" barrel
Packmeyer rubber grips. He thinks original. I do not!
Serial #604J14
I have never seen a serial # like this. Any information would be great!!!

 

[armorer951]

The serial number is often referred to as the "floating J". The numbering series ocurred only in 1971-1972.

 

[DocB]

What armorer951 said. That "N" means it was nickeled at the factory. Those nickel M36's are a whole lot rarer than the blue ones. The ratio of blue to nickel is said to be around 9 to 1. I have yet to find a nickel M36 to add my collection.

 

[seanbetsy]

So the nickel is rare but the floating J was common in 1971-72? I told him I could not find reference to that serial # in my books. How can you decipher a serial # like this?

 

[jcelect]

Mod 36

The mod 36 dash numbers do not follow the normal protocol for the engineering change dash numbers of the other frame sizes(36-1 denotes a 3" heavy barrel mod 36). As stated above your mod 36 is a factory nickel gun and it most definitely came from the factory with wood Magna grips. The sights are standard non adjustable sights. It the gun had adjustable sights it would be a Chief's Special Target which would be rare and expensive! The "floating J" serial numbering system is very confusing and hard to determine when it was shipped without a factory letter.
jcelect

 

[murphydog]

If you have the Standard Catalog of S & W, the SN appendix has a typo - the J prefix from 1971-'72 is "1"J1 to 999J99.

 

[seanbetsy]

That explains a lot. Thank you all very much!!

 

[Eugene Wiliams]

I acquired a 1971 model 36,, with the 3 inch barrel,, thought the serial number was wackey,, couldn't find a reference to it anywhere.. XXXJXXX Never did figure out whey the J was moved around so much..

 

[linde]

I acquired a 1971 model 36,, with the 3 inch barrel,, thought the serial number was wackey,, couldn't find a reference to it anywhere.. XXXJXXX Never did figure out whey the J was moved around so much..

The "floating J" serial numbers are hard to explain . . . even harder to understand . . . but here's what I believe happened:

In 1969 when the J prefix was introduced, s/n's began with J1, J2, J3 . . . etc. By the end of 1970 they reached J99999. Note, the letter J plus up to 5 numerical digits.

Rather than add a sixth digit the factory started the floating J scheme, starting 1971 with 1J1, 1J2, 1J3 . . . etc until they reached 1J9999. Then it shifted to 2J1, 2J2, 2J3 . . . etc until they reached 999J99 at the end of 1972. Note again, the letter J plus up to 5 numerical digits.

Since the floating J plus 5 digits ran out of combinations, in 1973 the factory broke down and went to the letter J plus 6 numerical digits . . . but you'll note that meant they had to start with J100000 or they would have had duplicate numbers with those in 1969 and 1970. Thus we now have letter J plus 6 numerical digits . . . but never less than six.

Sometime in 1982 they reached J999999 and had to either (1) go to J plus 7 numerical digits, (2) go ahead and adopt the three alpha, four numeric format that was already in use for other models, or (3) start floating the letter J again.

Had they decided on (1) they would have had to reduce the font even further to make it all fit on the butt of a J-frame. I don't have a clue why they didn't pick (2) so . . . you guessed it . . . they started floating the J again only this time with six numerical digits. So, starting sometime in 1982 they started with 1J10000 and ended the year with 1J18600. 1983 started with 1J18601 and at some point (we don't really know at what serial number) they finally gave into the three alpha-four numeric format.

That's my story and I'm stick'in to it . . . until someone comes up with a better one!

Russ