Smith And Wesson K 38 Serial Number

Smith and Wesson serial number search Handguns: The Revolver Forum.

Dear BigDaddyJim Thanks for posting the pictures. You have a very nice example of the early post-war K-38 Target Masterpiece revolver. This gun, in 1957, became the.

Smith and Wesson K-22s by Mike Cumpston. Photography by Mike Cumpston. January 8th, 2003 From 1910 onward Smith and Wesson Hand.

Aug 11, 2011 Thanks to the enormous surge in concealed carry weapon licenses, the Smith Wesson BODYGUARD series is a major league hit. Springfield s diminutive. 38.

• Could someone please tell me the manufacturing date for S W Model 14-4 K-38 Serial 94K03XX. Thank you.
• Smith Wesson Pistols Revolvers for sale on ShootersXchange.com. Shotguns, Rifles, Handguns.

SMITH WESSON CENTENNIAL PRE-40 38 Special; 99 blue, excellent bore, excellent grips, 2 barrel, Manufactured 1952-1957. Double action only hammerless.

After the Second World War, S&W began using one-letter prefixes on several models of revolvers. This practice was kick-started in April, 1942, when they ran out of numbers for the prewar .38 Military & Police revolvers and production had shifted to the wartime effort of providing military revolvers to the U.S. and UK armed forces. This was the beginning of the ‘V’ (for Victory) prefix. Almost a million of these .38 caliber revolvers were made during the 1942-1945 period. Near the end of that run, an internal change was made in the lockworks, which was designated by an ‘S’. So late war Victory models had an ‘SV’ prefix. When the war ended and civilian production picked up again, the postwar Military & Police revolvers got a simple ‘S’ prefix until the Victory number series ran out. (By “ran out,” I mean they reached 999,999. S&W had a policy of never going to more than 6 numeric digits in a serial number sequence.) So, in March, 1948, the company needed a new letter prefix for the .38 Military & Police line. The ‘C’ was chosen for this purpose. No one seems to know why it was a ‘C’ and not some other letter, but ‘K’ had already been chosen for the target K frame series and ‘C’ apparently seemed a logical choice for the fixed sight K frame guns. The ‘C’ prefix remained in use for those revolvers until C999999 was reached at the end of 1967. It was replaced with a ‘D’ prefix in 1968. Meanwhile, N frame revolvers were given an ‘S’ prefix for the serial sequence. There was no conflict with the ‘S’ prefix assigned to fixed sight K frame guns because the N frame numbers were much lower, continuing a number sequence for prewar N frame guns that did not have a prefix. The ‘S’ numbers on N frame guns lasted until late 1969, when they were discontinued at S333454 and were replaced with ‘N’ prefixes, beginning with N1. Small frame revolvers - I frame and J frame - did not have a letter prefix in the serial number until 1969. By then, the I frame had been completely phased out and all small frame revolvers were built on the J frame. At that time, they were assigned a ‘J’ prefix, which, with variations, remained in use until 1983. In 1983, the discreet serial prefixes were discarded in favor of a scheme that was common to all S&W revolvers, regardless of frame size or caliber. This new number scheme used three letters and four numeric digits. This practice is still in use. The key point to remember for Gun Values Board queries is that if your S&W revolver has a letter in front of the serial number, that letter is part of the number. When posting a S&W serial number in a quest for a shipping date, do not fail to include the letter. If you leave it out, we will most likely misidentify your revolver and will not be able to accurately estimate the year it left the factory.

27 Comments: Vale: If the current serial numbers don t distinguish between revolvers, is there another way to tell which revolver someone has if they don t post a.