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• The serial number is on the butt of the grip. 357 Magnum Revolver. smith- wesson- model-28-2- highway. 66-2 (1982): Eliminated pinned and recessed, slightly. Finding your Smith and Wesson serial number depends on the type of firearm. Of database for finding manufacturing dates for their guns using serial numbers.
• Decoding the serial number on a Smith & Wesson firearm requires some research, as several codes were utilized for guns manufactured before and after World War Two. Reading the serial number is appealing for gun owners because the letters and numbers can reveal the year of manufacture and the rarity of the weapon.
• Apr 12, 2017 Locate either 'Smith & Wesson, Springfield, Massachusetts' or 'Smith & Wesson; Houlton, ME' stamped on the barrel. This identification proves that the handgun is an authentic Smith & Wesson pistol. Locate the serial number on the left side of the pistol's frame.
• Apr 12, 2017 Examine the barrel of the Smith & Wesson pistol. Locate either 'Smith & Wesson, Springfield, Massachusetts' or 'Smith & Wesson; Houlton, ME' stamped on the barrel. This identification proves that the handgun is an authentic Smith & Wesson pistol. Locate the serial number on the left side of the pistol's frame.

Partnership with Horace Smith & Daniel B. Wesson was from 1856–1874. Family owned by the Wesson Family from 1874–1965. Smith & Wesson became a subsidiary of Bangor-Punta from 1965–1983. Between 1983–1987, Smith & Wesson was owned by the Lear Siegler Co. On May 22, 1987, it was sold to R.L.Tomkins, a British holding company. I have a revolver that I do not know a whole lot about. It has been determined to be a smith and wesson hand ejector made some time in the 1950s. I have noticed that there are two possible serial numbers, there is one on the yoke and one on the butt of the gun. Locate the serial number on the left side of the pistol's frame. The standard location for the serial number is above the trigger guard. Some serial numbers are located underneath the frame in.

1. The Smith & Wesson Hand Ejector First Model, commonly referred to as the Triple Lock, is one of the most coveted large-frame revolvers of the 20th century. For many, this gracefully configured.
2. Smith & Wesson.44 Hand Ejector 'Triple Lock' with blued finish, courtesy of Adams Guns. The first large framed Smith & Wesson Hand Ejector model. Now referred to as an N frame revolver, but for many decades was known as the 44 frame.

The first .38 Special revolver

Swing out cylinder, solid frame, double action revolvers were well established by the last decade of the 19th century.Iver Johnson employed the concept as early as 1879 and Colt’s Models of 1889-90, chambered for the .38 Long Colt cartridge were the standard U.S. Military sidearm by the early 1890s. Smith and Wesson called their version a “ Hand Ejector” to differentiate if from the break –top, automatic ejection arms of the time. In 1899, the Army and Navy placed orders with Smith and Wesson for two to three thousand (sources vary as to the exact number) Hand Ejector revolvers chambered for the .38 U.S. Service Cartridge (Long Colt.). It became the Military and Police model of 1899. The need for these additional revolvers arose during the Spanish- American War.These revolvers, along with the very similar Colts were in service during the Philippine insurrection of 1899. Early sources universally report that the old Long Colt cartridge was considered inadequate against the Moro warriors encountered there.Smith and Wesson responded by lengthening the .38 case and increasing the powder charge and bullet weight.Nominal velocity of the new .38 S&W Special cartridge was 870 feet per second against the reported 780 fps of the earlier round.Bullet weight increased from 150 to 158 grains and the black powder charge upped from 18 to 21 grains.It is clear that the military contract revolvers chambered the .38 Long Colt round.Early references indicate that the .38 Specials might have gone to the civilian market.Serial number run from number 1 in the K Frame Military and Police series to 20,975 spanning the years 1899- 1902.

At a glance, the model of 1899 appears nearly identical to the quintessential M&P of the 20^th century.The primary visible difference is the absence of a front locking lug.The cylinder locks only at the rear and at the locking notches leaving the ejector free standing.Barrel lengths are four, five, six and six and a half inches with finish options of blue and nickel. There are also target-sighted versions. These and serial number blocks-associated with small military orders, are very desirable as collectors items.

First Model M&P revolvers often exhibit the extremes of neglect. Black powder, chlorate priming and owner indifference take their toll among many examples. They do not fare nearly as well as the hand ejectors of 1902 and later.

Mine, number 8200, has only minor finish blemishes and is in near-new mechanical condition. The cylinder and crane lock tightly into the frame and timing is perfect. The bore and chambers are pristine and the internal lockwork - once relieved of decades of congealed lubricant - might well have been forged last week instead of 103 years ago. According to the factory letter, the revolver went to Bekeart & Company of San Francisco CA on December 20, 1900. Additional provenance shows the M&P registered to an E6 at Wheeler AFB, Hawaii in 1975 and has remained in his possession until this year.

Shooting the first .38 Special revolver

While the early Smith and Wessons resemble the Colt double actions in function and broad outline, I have always found the handling characteristics and the action of the Smiths to be much more desirable.This is purely a personal opinion and the gun magazines used to rage over the question “ Which is Better? Colt or Smith and Wesson.”M&P # 8200 with its frame fitting round butt and six- inch barrel points very well. The sight picture, comprised of a knife-sharp front blade and a tiny rear notch proved to be the limiting factor in shooting precise groups. On the other hand, the four pound single action trigger and the typically smooth Smith and Wesson Double Action, were great aides to practical accuracy.Many service revolvers and autos of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries feature raunchy six- pound single action triggers making it very hard to achieve any degree of precision.

M&P cylinders were not heat treated until 1920 so standard; factory level pressures are the order of the day.

My standard .38 Special load is 3.5 grains of Alliant Bullseye and the available 158- grain Lead bullet.This is a few tenths grain under the listed factory duplicate and the tightly gapped Model 1899 averaged 859 fps with the swaged Hornady SWC and 862 with a five round string of machine cast 158 SWC. This and subsequent shooting was done in five shot strings.The First M&P has no provision for a hammer block safety and while earlier owners no doubt loaded all six chambers with impunity, hindsight demands that we leave an empty under the hammer.

In keeping with shooting practices at the end of the 19^th Century, I did most of my shooting one-handed.This is how Walter Mitty’s dad would have done it and it captures the flavor of the era.My 25 yard bench groups and fifty foot off hand efforts ran four inches.I was unable to fully exploit the accuracy of the revolver because of the sight picture. Point of impact was dead on for elevation and slightly to left of point of aim.

The light recoil of the standard .38 Special and the superior handling qualities of the Smith Hand Ejector came into their own in the more “practical” shooting exercises. Firing double action single-handed with the shots spaced about one second apart, I was able to keep fifteen consecutive rounds in the center ring of the Texas Police Target at twenty-five yards. The sights did not seem much of a handicap in this application. The revolver came very naturally up to point. A clear flash sight picture came about naturally and hung steady through the smooth double action pull. I also managed ten consecutive hits on the upper torso from a vertical braced position single action at fifty yards.

The Military and Police first model emerged as a dynamic reactive tool for the gunfighter of a century ago.It continues to satisfy the essential criteria for a personal sidearm in the present day.

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TheSmith And Wesson

Militaryand Police Hand Ejector

Smith And Wesson Hand Ejector Serial Numbers Lookup

Model of 1905, .38 Special

writtenand photographed by Mike Cumpston

editedby John Dunn

Clickany thumbnail for a larger photo.

TheM&P is frequently cited as the most prolifically manufactured handgun inhistory and it certainly did define the double action revolver during the 20^thCentury. A pocket history is in order and I will dwell on certain high points ofits development rather than attempting to cover the many evolutionary changes inthe design. The history is obligatory--although off-repeated and undoubtedlyboring to those familiar with the subject.

It appears that themodern, service caliber swing-cylinder, hand-ejector revolver dates from theColt Army and Navy Models of 1889-1892 then chambered for the .38 Long ColtCartridge. The Smith and Wesson First Model Hand Ejector Military and Policecame out in 1899 and closely resembled the Colt in size and function. Like theColts, this First Smith and Wesson had a free standing ejector rod and thecylinder locked into the frame at the breach only. The .38 Long Colt Cartridgewas a step up from the very early .38 Colt which became known as the .38 ShortColt. The switch was made from a case diameter healed bullet much like that ofthe current .22 Long Rifle to a hollow based round nosed projectile of 150grains. The hope was that the bullet would slug up to fit the bore and affordsome degree of accuracy. Loaded over 18 grains of black powder, the nominalvelocity is reported in the mid to high 700 fps range. It was a cartridge thatcould be expected to lob a bullet well into and frequently, all the way througha human torso and was reported to be less intimidating than the large borerevolvers previously issued to minimally trained military and police personnel.

The .38 doubleactions saw some use in the Philippine Campaign of 1899 and afterward and therewere reports of inadequate performance on the highly motivated and reportedlydrug enhanced Moro adversary.

This is the reportedmotivating factor for the development of the .38 Special Cartridge and theimproved Hand-Ejector 2^nd Model of 1902. The Special had a slightlyelongated case and a 158-grain round nosed bullet over 21 grains of blackpowder. Velocity is reported at 870 fps but it is notable that current smokelesspowder cartridges frequently show velocities in the high 700 fps range. Somesources report that examples of the First Model M&P of 1899 were chamberedfor the Special cartridge making it possible that the round actually predatesits official introduction in 1902. The hand ejector model of 1902 and itssuccessors had a front locking lug under the barrel and a number of importantaction changes took place over the next several years. The Model 1905incorporated a passive hammer block in the '4^th Change'variation of 1915. Heat treating of cylinders began in 1919 and, in 1922 thefront sight and rear sight groove were widened for better visibility. From 1915through 1940 (or 1942 in some references) changes were relatively minor. Serialnumbers began with the First Model of 1899 and reached about 700,000 beforeWorld War II. Barrel length options on the basic service revolver included 2(1933), 4, 5 and six inches with the five inch length being particularlypopular.

The design underwentfurther lock-work changes directly after WWII with linear descendents of theM&P remaining in production into the 21^st Century.

AK Church (http://milesfortis.com/church/akc07.htm)aptly characterized this model as being so common as to slip into the woodwork.Everybody from Bogart to Jungle Jim to Rocket Man had one and the M&P becamethe archetype handgun in the public eye for most of the last century. Itsassociation with snap-brimmed hats, flap holsters and pith helmets, not tomention police uniforms sent many a potential handgun buyer to the hardwarestore in search of 'one of those .38 Police Specials.'

My present exampleof the M&P is a Model of 1905 4^th change produced in 1938 or 39equipped with a 4' barrel and the original numbered service type stocks. Itretains most of its high polished commercial finish and appears to have spentmuch of its life span holstered in a drawer. It has been fired, cycled andhandled very little and the impression is that the action is mechanically new.The single action trigger breaks at between 3.5 and 4 pounds and the cylinderreaches full lock-up well before double action release. Overall handling andshooting characteristics are very much like those of my old 1947 5' barrelM&P and a 6' Model 10 from 1958 or 59. If anything, the current exampleis less-used than the others and is a bit less smooth at the end of the doubleaction cycle. There is no evidence that anyone has removed the side-plate andtampered with the action. Upon first inspection, I primed several cases with CCImagnum pistol primers and tried the double action. One primer of six detonatedgiving rise to the possibility that (1) somebody had shortened the mainspringstrain screw or, more likely (2) like many old and modern double actionrevolvers, it was never designed to function against the unreasonably tough CCIprimer cups. I wondered if possibly the leaf mainspring might have lost some ofits strength during the past 64 years. This idea was shot down by premierpistolsmith, Alex Hamilton who said 'your mainspring will last forever…'

I found a spentlarge pistol primer with the anvil gone and capped the strain screw. Theadditional purchase proved a positive fix.

Smith And Wesson 32 Hand Ejector Serial Numbers

Shooting It

Smith And Wesson Serial Number Lookup Model 29

There is now abewildering array of .38 Special load variations. The standard loading in thefirst half of the 20^th The belko experiment online, free. Century was a smokeless powder loading of the158 grain lead round nose. There was a 'Super Police' loading of around nosed 200-grain bullet, a metal capped RN and the 148-grain wadcuttertarget load. The 'High Speed' or 38-44 loads as well as the sharppointed jacketed 150grain metal piercing load were recommended for the largerframe heavy duty revolvers. It is widely held that the M&P revolvers thatpredate the Model 10 of the late 1950s are happier off with the standardpressure load not exceeding 15,000 pounds per square inch. Notably, by 1959Speer was testing 18,000 PSI loads in K-frame revolvers and I used a bunch ofthese loads in my old early post-war model. This was an accepted practice at thetime but not one I care to repeat or recommend with my vintage 1905 4^thChange. Accordingly, I concocted several loads matching nominal factoryperformance.

The cast semi-wadcutterover 3.5 Bullseye and the swaged Hornady SWC over 4.3 Unique closely duplicateactual velocities I have gotten with modern factory round nose loading. The 700Xload approaches the published velocity of the same factory loads. The 2.7Bullseye /cast wadcutter load is a traditional bulls eye shooter's standard withmany target shooters upping the charge a bit for the 50 yard segment of the NRAbulls eye matches. These loads will do everything I expect of the vintageK-frame revolver. The present example preferred the wadcutter and swaged Hornadybullet loads over the cast SWCs, turning in two-inch 25-yard groups from mybench set-up.

This appears to beabout the best accuracy I can produce with the 4' revolver--which is tosay, not quite up to the full potential of the gun-loads. During bench shooting,I saw that the gun was printing several inches low at

25 yards. The same wastrue of my earlier five and six inch models. It becomes necessary to cover thedesired point of impact with the sight picture during practical shooting andmakes the revolver suitable for small game hunting at close range only. It alsothrows an important crimp into enjoyable precision bulls eye shooting at theusual distances.

Said limitationsbeing what they are, I set out to explore what of a practical and enjoyablenature might be gleaned from the M&P. When my Model 1905 4^thChange came out of the factory at the tail end of the Great Depression, whatformal handgun training that existed leaned heavily toward the techniques ofbulls eye shooting. The gun was extended from a single hand and fired singleaction to take advantage of the light and short trigger pull. In contrast tocurrent practical training the targets were placed at great distance – 20 to25 yards at the shortest and consisted of a primary aiming point somewhatsmaller than the common tea saucer. The cursory nature of most handgun trainingprograms combined with the approximate nature of fixed sight regulation and suchmatters as the expense of ammunition gave rise to such cultural truisms as, 'Can’tnobody hit nothin’ with no pistol! Pistols is inaccrit!'

While few peopleapproached anything like proficiency with the short gun, an enthusiast with amodicum of practice could give the lie to the generally held perspective. Thiswould be particularly true if the bygone shooter was equipped with an M&P.The single action break of under 4 pounds coupled with a double action pull inthe 11 to 12 pound range compares favorably with most service actions of historywhich, more often than not, exhibited single action trigger pulls of six poundsand more and double actions-where present- in the 15-17 pound range.

After using up oneof the TXTP silhouette targets in general familiarization, I set one at 25 yardsand began to shoot 'for the record.' That the historic lack of respectfor the double-action firing mode persisted into the late 1930s was evident inthat the hump-backed hammer at rest obscured much of the rear sight notch. Thishold-over from the double actions of the 19^th Century made itnecessary to refine the sight picture after initiation of the DA stroke. Thisproved no real impediment to effective one-handed double action shooting at 25yards. The rounds, launched with a straight--through pull impacted, with oneexception, in the high scoring five ring of the target. I made an earlycorrection to move the group upward and to the right, but even so, the majorityof the shots would have A-Zoned one of the IPSC targets. The overall geometry ofthe revolver and notably a favorable trigger reach contributed to shot breaks abit over the one-second mark. Recoil with the frame-fitting service stocks madeitself known on my thumb joint but did not approach the painful over the courseof several extended shooting sessions. Two-handed twenty-five yard double actionshooting narrowed group size but perhaps not to the degree that might beexpected. In the course of any practice session, I like to do a bit of off-handsingle action shooting trying for precise placement at 25 yards or thereabout. Icombine this with some work on the head segment of the targets when shootingsilhouettes. One- or two-handed single action shooting lands almost all shotssome where in the head or neck region.

In the earlyshooting session, I moved the Silhouette back to fifty yards and fired twelverounds one-handed single action using the head as an aiming point. Eleven of thetwelve rounds impacted the 5 zone while one round landed about 4' outsidethe silhouette and over the left shoulder. The Hand Ejector Military and PoliceModel of 1905 4^th Change accomplished the above described process ina confidence building and satisfactory manner. Group sizes are somewhat largerthan I have come to expect firing the same drill with an accurate 1911 .45 or aheavier Smith or Ruger revolver. On the plus side, the overall ergonomics of therevolver provide a speed advantage over the larger cylinder guns and just aboutequals that of the self-loader. This is not a shabby testament to a compactsidearm that, at 30oz or a bit less, is eleven or twelve ounces lighter than therevolvers I wear about on a daily basis.

The M&P is noless well suited to the more modern shooting modes. Drawing from strong sideconcealment, I fired a series of doubles from three and seven yards. Initialshots were in the 1.5 to less than 2 second range while I guess my shotintervals to be in the .20 to .30 second range. Precisely aimed double actionshots into the head from seven yards produced a nasty twelve round ulcer thatstood testament to the surgical capabilities of the old handgun.

A sixty (or eveneighty) year old hand-ejector revolver gives up very little in comparison withthe revolvers of the present time. My example retailed for $33 in the 1940Stoeger Catalog, which translates to $426.86 in Y2K fiat dollars. This iscomparable to current prices of the M&P progeny representing a pretty goodweeks’ salary then and now. Mine proves a particular bargain at $250. This isright in line with the current Blue Book estimate--no ad valorum tacked on forsuch intangibles as the commercial carbona blue finish, the forged lockwork, thehand polishing and the finely checkered figured walnut grips. A modernnostalgia-piece knock-off of the M&P recently went out of the SmithPerformance Center to one of the major distributors. It attempted to recreatethe flavor of the old M&P using modern technology with the added flourish ofa color case-hardened frame in the same style as the more recent HeritageSeries. The retail bite of $700 to $1,000 is motivation enough for the modernshopper to direct a bit more attention to the old Hand-Ejectors than hashere-to-fore been the case.

Further Notes onthe .38 Special Cartridge:

With some regularityit is demonstrated that a person shot with a given firearm will not react in theexpected manner. The standard operating procedure is to fall down and quitwhatever you were doing immediately prior to being shot. When this does nothappen, there is much consternation and all the wrappings and trappings of'cognitive dissonance' come into play. The ubiquitous nature of the.38 Special has allowed it to fail (and succeed) in its assigned role perhapsmore than any other round in history. Never mind that everything from the .22Short through the .44 Magnum demonstrate failures to stop on reasonably frequentoccasions, the .38, by virtue of its universal distribution quickly developed areputation as a poor stopper. That it also developed a reputation as a goodstopper is beside the point.

Recently, I read astory about an early 20^th century lawman who entered a bar and shotdown five or six gentleman killing them outright and immediately with his model1902 M&P Second Model loaded with black powder round nosed CTGs. ColonelCharles Askins described killing two men with the .38 RN load and was quitedelighted with the results. More recently, Bernard Goetz plugged four gang-bangerson a New York train and every one of them lived to admit that they had beenplanning to jack him with their sharpened screwdrivers and did not do so onlybecause they were shot. The civil rights of the disadvantaged youths werevindicated when a New York jury convicted Goetz of feloniously shooting themwith an illegally carried firearm. Many things have been written on the subjectof stopping power as it applies to the traditional .38 Special load and many ofthem are not true. Likewise many of them are true and it becomes a thankless,life-long task figuring out which is which. Meanwhile, the reader is requestedto develop his own personal theory of stopping power and his own take on theutility of the .38 Special.

Smith And Wesson

The 1905 M&P 4^thChange was produced in huge and bewildering numbers. Assistance in dating thisexample was provided by:

bruce hmx
wheelgunner 610

rburg
smithnut

Of http://www.smith-wessonforum.com

S&w Firearms Date Made By Serial Number

Who pulled out theirreference books, personal revolvers and factory provenance letters to narrow theproduction period of number 667,XXX to 1938-39.

Thanks is also dueto AK Church (not his real name) who wrote the reference piece located at:

http://www.milesfortis.com/church/akc07.htm

His shootingimpressions of the M&P and Model 10 were much appreciated.

As usual the smartwork and editorial oversight is provided by Mr. John Dunn, the Lone Gunman whooccupies the Chair of the Creative Cybercide Foundation also located at thisaddress.

Mr. Miles Fortishimself provides the bandwidth and willingness to host and publish this andother ramblings of your humble correspondent and his indulgence is appreciated.

Smith & Wesson Serial Number Chart

Historicalreferences are drawn, in part from W.H.B. Smith’s Book of Pistols andRevolvers and; Sixguns by Elmer Keith. Other sources, as well, contribute to thehistorical data and it may be important to note that none of them are in perfectagreement.

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Smith And Wesson 32 Hand Ejector Serial Numbers

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