S&W wartime revolver?

[old tanker]

Just found this four inch M&P covered in post war Birmingham proofs, but free of any US import marks. Chambered in .38 S&W and the cylinder has not been reamed to accept .38 Special like so many were in the Fifties. Not stamped " Not British Made " which I believe they quit doing about 1954.

Serial number is 685087 which I am pretty sure predates Lend-Lease. I have a Lend-Lease BSR that bears a serial number in 880000 range. There are no apparent military acceptance marks, but it has a lanyard ring. Trademark on the right side and the "38 S&W CTG" is flanked by Maltese cross dingbats.

All the numbers match, including the grips

British Purchasing Commission gun? Pre-war commercial sale? Officer's private purchase? As it is chambered for the British service cartridge, what are the odds it saw wartime service?

No clue how it came to orphaned on the bottom shelf of an LGS in Kentucky.

[browningautorifle]

Interesting that it's a four inch barrel. All the commonwealth guns I've seen are five inch. That would be a nice piece...good catch.

[old tanker]

Interesting that it's a four inch barrel. All the commonwealth guns I've seen are five inch. That would be a nice piece...good catch.

That's what has me curious as well. I've got a lend lease British Service Revolver, stamped US Property and all the rest sporting the "normal" five inch barrel. It shipped in late 1941 and looks like it was overhauled in Australia in 1954. Its serial number is significantly higher, 881544.

I have read the BPC was buying up anything they could lay their hands on, but this gun has no Broad Arrow or any of the other stamps I normally associate with WD ownership. So how many times has it crossed the ocean?

[browningautorifle]

I wonder if it was grabbed up as a pilot's revolver? Aircrew? It doesn't have the "US Property" marking on the top strap?

[Daan Kemp]

38S&W started is an American cartridge and was relatively short in British service in a specific load.

[old tanker]

I wonder if it was grabbed up as a pilot's revolver? Aircrew? It doesn't have the "US Property" marking on the top strap?

No it doesn't have the 'US Property" mark on the top strap or GHD inspection stamp you would expect to see on a Lend Lease gun. The "Made in USA" stamped on the right side of the frame is post-1922. It has the large S&W logo on the right places between 1936 and the beginning of the war. .38 S&W was a standard chambering but surpassed in popularity in the .38 Special in the US by then. Leads me to suspect it was a private purchase.

[browningautorifle]

a private purchase.

Maybe, after all Goering had one. Vids show clearly when he surrenders a four inch bbl M&P. They were out there for sure.

[green]

Britain purchased, NB not Lend Lease, 4879 cal 38 S&W 4" revolver contract of 6/17/40.
Union of South Africa purchased 13847 as above in 1940.
British contract was made in 4, 5 and 6"barrel.

[old tanker]

Maybe, after all Goering had one. Vids show clearly when he surrenders a four inch bbl M&P. They were out there for sure.

It has no military acceptance marks I can see, which I presume is evidence it was not purchased by the BCP at the beginning of the war. Had it entered commercial channels before the war or was sold through The Army & Navy Co-operative Society should it not bear pre-war British proofs? The Birmingham proofs look to be post 1954 and the lack of US import marks suggest its arrival in the US pre-1968.

It does not look like it spent the last eighty years in a sock drawer.

[Brian Dick]

I have its twin, serial number 688554. It has a British style lanyard ring instead of the S&W/Colt type on yours. I thought the small proof in front of the trigger guard on the left side of yours and behind the trigger guard on mine are British military but could be wrong. My guess is they were all prewar purchase prior to Lend lease and used in WW2. There were 110,379 purchased by the British starting around sn. 680000 according to the 39th edition, Blue Book of Gun Values

I also have two of the 5" LL revolvers, one with a Canadian ownership mark and the other an Australian owned revolver that's Parkerized with post WW2 Aussie FTR markings.