S&w Mp

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Guinnes43

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I just inherited a S&W .38 special and I'm looking for information on this revolver. This revolver originally belonged to my grandfather and was passed down to my father and now to me. Looking at it, I would suspect that it is a post war M&P model. The serial number is S 946767. It has a 4" barrel and is blued. It has what appears to be ivory stag style grips. I'm not sure they are actually ivory. The tag on the grips is Franzite. The grips are old and in need of replacement.

Any information anyone can provide will ge greatly apprecaited
 
The s/n puts that gun in late 1947 or early 1948. The "S" production run ended in April of 1948. This is what is called a "Transitional" model as it incorporates pre-war and post-war features.

Pre-war features: one line address on r. frame, long action hammer and lockwork, 1/2 moon front sight, five-screw style (four sideplate screws and one in front of trigger guard), "high shouldered" walnut diamond Magna grips.

Post-war features: hammer safety, one-piece, non-capped ejector rod.

Here's a picture of a good condition 5" gun with original stocks if you want to try finding a pair to get it back to what it should be. This gun has a period Fray-Mershon grip adapter in it, so that might look odd - it's an accessory, not part of the grip or gun. This gun is S/N S 934,xxx, prorbably wihin six weeks or a little more of yours in production date. To find the right grips for it, note the large diamond around the grip screw, and the the way the top of the grip (horn) has a sharp ridge where the wood turns in to meet the frame, instead of being broadly rounded (this was changed around 52 or 53 I think). The grip adapter is to make the grip more hand-filling (like a Tyler adapter) with the regular stocks instead of using an oversize target stock.

Franzite stocks were common in the 50s and 60s as cheap replacements - they are synthetic and not very desirable, really. I'd recommend hunting up some more correct replacements, especially if the gun has that much family history and you are keeping it.

IMGP2665.jpg
 
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