S&W 38 need help

[rainamike9]

S&w 38

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s&w 38 # 5722 can anyone tell me how old
5 shot
exposed hammer
top break
double action
logo on grips

 

[Jim Watson]

Sounds like a .38 Double Action Second Model, 115,000 made 1880-1884.
They made about 4000 First Models in 1880 only and serial numbers ran consecutively, so yours is an early Second Model, maybe 1880-1881.

 

[Old Fuff]

It could also be a .38 Perfected Model made around 1918.

The Perfected Model was the last S&W top-break design, and can be easily identified by the fact that besides the usual latch on the back of the barrel, they're is also a thumbpiece on the left side of the frame that must be pushed forward before you can swing the barrel down.

Positive identification may require a picture.

 

[rainamike9]

here are pics

 

[Old Fuff]

Pictures are worth a thousand words... or so they say.

Jim Watson's identification is correct. It's chambered in .38 S&W, but I strongly suggest that given its age you don't shoot it.

Introduced in 1880 and made until 1909, it became one of Smith & Wesson's most popular models. If you had bought one from Sears Roebuck in 1909 it would have cost you $12.00 at a time when a Colt Single Action Army .45 ran $13.90.

 

[Jim Watson]

Perfected Models were pretty low production, any given .38 S&W topbreak is much liklier to be one of the earlier models, hammer or hammerless. So I took a guess.

This one looks quite nice, but old metalurgy.
David Chicoine, the old S&W gunsmith recommends not shooting guns earlier than the 1907-1909 models with smokeless.
A collector here once told me that the DA S&Ws were their answer to the Colt Lightning. Early efforts at DA with weak points. A friend has one out of action because of a broken part no longer available because all the spares were used up long ago.

I have shot my 1880s-1890s vintage topbreaks with smokeless loads A LITTLE. I probably won't any more, there is a collector interested in them and the next time I see him, I will turn them in on something usable.

 

[Old Fuff]

Perfected Models were pretty low production, any given .38 S&W topbreak is much liklier to be one of the earlier models, hammer or hammerless. So I took a guess.

True, but if the serial number of a suspect piece is under 59400 you should be careful - especially if a photograph is lacking. All other things being equal a Perfected Model is worth more then a .38 Double Action, and in the upper ranges of condition the difference can be substantial.