S&W model # question

[dave-o]

Hi folks, lame newbie question (and as I am not really a newbie, mostly just lame):

What do the numbers after the dash designate. For instance, I have a Mod. 13-3, and I assumed that meant it had a three inch barrel, which it does. But I also have a 29-5 with a six inch barrel and a 642-1 with like a 1 7/8 inch or whatever.

Can some smart person enlighten me?

Many thanks,

dave-o

 

[1KPerDay]

I'm not smart by any means, but I asked the same question a while ago on this thread...

http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=197653

FYI

 

[XavierBreath]

The "dash numbers" represent engineering changes in a given model over time.

 

[Iggy]

http://www.handloads.com/misc/Smith.Model.Changes.asp

 

[dave-o]

Thanks folks.

dave-o

 

[QuarterBoreGunner]

If you'd like to learn more than you ever thought possible regarding Smith & Wesson firearms (what exactly DOES "Marcas Registradas" mean?) you might want to pick up The Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson; then you'll be to impress friends at parties with your encyclopedic knowledge of such esoteric value as the difference between the "I" frame guns and the "J" frames; what each -# next to each model # means, when exactly did S&W stop making square butts and of course the ultimate; the complete history and origin of "pinned and recessed".

 

[1KPerDay]

(what exactly DOES "Marcas Registradas" mean?)

Isn't it a light chicken gravy that you kind of...

 

[dave-o]

QBG, I might just doo dat . . .