Welcome to the forum. The only sure way to get a shipping date on a S&W is to spring for a factory letter. There is no internet source for S&W serial numbers, but you can find some good serial number/calendar year approximations in the back pages of The Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson (Supica and Nahas). The problem is that Smith never recorded manufacturing dates -- just the dates on which guns left the building. Obviously the gun had to have been manufactured before it could be shipped, but Smith had no policy that mandated shipping in serial number order. Thus one can find guns with higher serial numbers that actually shipped months ahead of guns with lower numbers. I can tell you as a kind of statistical approximation that a lot of other M&Ps with S/Ns around 500000 were shipped in 1925, and that's the best guess for your gun as well.

Used Smith & Wesson Military and Police Model 1905.38 Special. This is an actual police gun, and comes with holster. Log number: 2916. Serial number. Welcome to the forum. The only sure way to get a shipping date on a S&W is to spring for a factory letter. There is no internet source for S&W serial numbers, but you can find some good serial number/calendar year approximations in the back pages of The Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson (Supica and.

If it got caught in one of those first in/last out situations, it might not have left the factory until 1926. Haven't I seen that windowsill somewhere before? I have that same handgun. Serial number is 21770. It belonged to my grandfather. He was one of the last clipper ship captains before steam came along.

I believe his gun was a sidearm during his days as an officer in the Merchant Marine during WWI. I say that because the gun has a small buckle on the bottom of the grip. I would appreciate any information you might find as well as what you know about the correct ammunition to use. I don't fire mine often, but do use 44 special hollow points. I worry that this may not be the proper ammo for such an old gun. Joel, welcome to the forum.

Actually your grandfather's gun is a little larger than the one in the post that started this thread, but their configuration should be almost identical. With that serial number, the gun you describe is classified as a.44 Hand Ejector, Second Model. That model was introduced in 1915 and your grandfather's gun was shipped about 1922-23. The 'buckle' you describe is called a lanyard loop.

Most (but not all) military contract revolvers have these loops, and some commercial versions of the military models had them as well. The.44 HE/Seconds came with different barrel lengths: 4', 5', 6' and 6.5'. Which is yours?

Measure from the front of the cylinder to the muzzle. As long as you stay away from the hottest modern loadings, you should be able to fire any modern ammunition in your gun. Grmculfrer Es Dvd Iso Ripper. What I usually do in my older guns is to shoot mostly cowboy action loads, as they are downloaded a little and won't stress old metal as much. (Not that the metal in your gun is weak; about 1921 S&W introduced a new heat treating process to strengthen their cylinders, and your gun would have received that treatment). Please post photos of the gun in question. Don't hesitate to start your own thread.

Hello to everyone. This is my first post and it seems there are several about the M&P 1905 4th, however I can't seem to find exactly what I'm looking for.

First some background and details about the revolver. About a year ago I got the letter from Mr.

Jinks giving me some details about my revolver. He told me that the serial # 258XXX shows it shipped from S&W in Oct 1916, with 5 inch barrel, nickel finish, and walnut/checkered/gold medallion grips.

I got it from my grandfather about 20 years ago and the finish was flaking and it was rusting in spots. The left side of the barrel has 'SMITH & WESSON' on it. The right side of the barrel has '38 S&W SPECIAL CTG' on it. At the time I got it I was ignorant and poor and I had it parkerized. Now I am looking to get it re nickeled. I have seen photos of the M&P 1905 4th and it seems maybe 2 things are missing from mine.

I do not see the S&W logo on the right or left side and I do not see 'MADE IN USA' on the right side as I have seen in some photos. Also, the only serial number on the gun is on the back side of the ejector star. The guy that will do the work for me has offered to do some engraving to make it look original. So I'm looking for some input as to what may be missing and where it should be. I believe that the logo, 'Made in USA', and butt serial number may have been covered up by the parkerizing. Sorry for the long post.

Any help is appreciated. Welcome to the Forum. There seems to be a few inconsistencies with your grandfather's S&W Model 1905, when it comes to serial numbers. Can you post some pictures of the places there should be a serial number stamped? (Bottom of the barrel, rear of the cylinder, each side of the grip frame under the grips and the butt.) What are the patent dates stamped on the barrel? No 'Made in USA' stamping is correct, as said above. Missing S&W logo stampings is not unusual for some guns, especially ones made in the hurry up of wartime production.

Sorry it took me a couple days to get back to the forum. Here are a few pics. All markings on the gun are shown. Here is the text from my LOA from S&W: The revolver you inquired about is the.38 Military & Police Model. This model was introduced in 1899 and designed to fire the.38 S&W Special cartridge. It has been in continued production since it was originally introduced. However, during the past years, many design changes have been made to this model to improve the revolver's function.

The collector has classified all of the improvements which occurred before 1945. Your revolver is classified as the.38 Military & Police Model of 1905 Fourth Change. This modification occurred in 1915 and was produced until 1942 with a total production of 758,297 revolvers. These revolvers were produced between serial numbers 241704 and 1000000 of the.38 Hand Ejector series. The current production model of this series is known as the Model 10. We have researched your Smith & Wesson.38 Military & Police Model of 1905 Fourth Change, caliber.38 S&W Special, revolver in company records which indicate that your handgun, with serial number 258341 was shipped from our factory on October 15, 1916, and delivered to A. Anderson Co., Fort Worth, TX.

The records indicate that this revolver was shipped with a 5 inch barrel, nickel finish, and checkered walnut gold medallion grips. Smith & Wesson cannot refinish this revolver. It would be our recommendation to leave it as it is, because and further work will harm it more than help it. I can take more pics if you need me to.

Thanks again. Overall, this appears to be a good shooter revolver. However, it has some issues. The serial number seems to have been polished off in at least two locations - the butt and the rear face of the cylinder. This may make this gun illegal to own, even though the serial number still appears on the underside of the extractor star. It may still be on the barrel flat, which you did not exhibit in your photographs.

The fact that the serial number no longer appears on the frame is the cause of the concern. I'm not sure what kind of finish this is. It may be some type of hard chrome with a dull finish on it.

Others may have a better idea. Whoever did it committed the common mistake of plating the trigger and hammer, which was never done by the factory. The pitting that shows up on the grip frame probably is the cause of the deep polishing that was done on the bottom of the grip frame, eliminating the serial number.

There is some evidence that the cylinder face was pitted also, explaining the deep polishing at that location as well. I'm not sure what to recommend, but I think you may have a serious legality issue on your hands. Regards, Jack. It's obvious the serial numbers on the cylinder and butt have been ground off at some time in the past. The barrel appears to be a 6 in.

Barrel, so it's a spare parts replacement, with no serial number, as the LOA says it was shipped as a 5 in. Apparently who ever removed the numbers didn't know about the number stamped on the back of the extractor. If it were my gun, I would restamp the serial number on the grip frame, or the butt.

As the current condition could result in embarassing explanations to law enforcement. Thanks for all the info guys. I did notice the barrel was not 5 inch as the LOA stated. So back to my original question. I see the 'Made in USA' was addressed and was not on my gun. What about the S&W logo?

I see that some guns just didn't get the logo. And seeing that all the other engraving other than serial numbers are still on the gun I will assume that there just wasn't a logo on it and that nothing was covered up by the parkerizing. Its a keeper for me and I don't plan to sell it as it was given to me by my grandpa. Free Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Games there. I still would like to get it re nickeled and will probably have the serial number on the ejector star stamped on the butt. I think it would look nice in a shadow box.

It shoots fine too. To Jack, there is no number on the barrel flat either.

I have looked at this thing a thousand times it seems in different lighting and with a magnifying glass and no luck. The finish is a 1996 parkerize job in matte. I rubbed it down with fine grit pad and now as you can see it looks almost like a stainless finish. Thanks again guys for the help.

A final question about this gun. Since we now know the gun has a 6 inch barrel and according to S&W it shipped with a 5 inch, is it possible that the cylinder and ejector star were replaced on the gun and the serial number on the ejector star actually belongs to another gun and not mine??? The LOA from Smith & Wesson shows the gun being delivered to Ft. All my family is from New Orleans.

Of course I know guns move around, the barrel swap just got me to thinking. Thanks again for all the input.