Date of Manufacture - S&W #3?

H Wally

H Wally

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Looking for the date of manufacture for a Smith and Wesson New Model #3, serial 21###

Any ideas? Is there more info I should be looking for? I'm not sure how S&W ran their manufacturing at the time, so I'm not sure if there were different serials for different contracts, etc.
 
If you go on the S&W forum, the boys there will be able to help you out... Or they can also refer you to where you can obtain a letter from S&W, which will indicate not only the year of production, but also who the gun was shipped to.

The cost for the letter is approx 50$ and some people apparently got very pleasant surprises that way... as in their gun being shipped to someone or somewhere famous when it was manufactured.

;)
 
H Wally said:
I'm just considering buying one, so $50 would be a bit of a waste :p
Click to expand...

Waste? Well, maybe... unless of course you'd find out the gun was shipped to one of the Earp brothers, lol!

You never know what could come out of it... but I do agree that usually it's best to have the piece already in your possession.

:D
 
S&W did not ship their NM #3's in consecutive order like Winchester did. I have a small database of NM#3 serial numbers and ship dates and they are all over the map. I can only give a very rough approximation, looking at the small database I have ..... somewhere between the late 1880's and the early 1890's.
 
That's a good tidbit to know :p

Yet another reason why I love cgn. Now I just need a copy of the CFC's antique's list and FRT # CD and I'll be able to answer all my own questions!
 
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