S&W 38/200 with Canadian marks

R

rconway

New member
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Location
Ogden, Utah
Good morning,
my first post to CGN. I have two Canadian ownership marked S&W pistols. The first has "P.L.F. M.G. 83." stamped high on the backstrap. The PLF MG I found to probably mean the Princess Louise Fusiliers Machine Gun (Company). Not sure about the 83. I was hoping to find a PLF historian on this forum or someone knowledgeable about mil markings.

The other pistol has "PO 636" stamped on the right side of the frame. I have no idea what this means. Any help would be appreciated.

Also, how do I load an image from my laptop without first loading it to something like photobucket?

My thanks,

Ryan Conway
Ogden, Utah
 
Hi Ryan, welcome. First of all, you don't load directly from your laptop. You can only post photos via a photo hosting site like photobucket. Photos help a great deal with identifying markings as experts compare those markings to other examples they have seen.

There are also plenty of WWII revolver aficionados on this forum that are sure to have some idea what the markings mean. The markings on the revolvers are likely not "official." It's rare that handguns are marked to regiments and units. However, many officers in the field would scrimshaw their unit numbers onto their weapons. This makes it difficult to be sure what the unit is, as the only standard markings are Dominion of Canada proof marks and the C broad arrow mark to denote Canadian Armed Forces ownership. P.L.F could very well be Princess Louise Fusiliers from Nova Scotia. They did field specific machine gun companies in Italy in 1943. This would make sense as revolvers tended to be issued only to officers, machine gunners, or tank crews (basically anyone for whom a full-sized rifle would be an encumbrance). Anyone else care to sound in?
 
Nothing much to add, except that I also would like to welcome friend RCONWAY into our "secret" little cabal.

I have one of these and they are a super nice little revolver. Mine has standard C-Broad-Arrow Canadian marking, but nothing fancy, although it has seen action: banged about a fair bit. It is still a great shooter, even though several years older than me. Come to think of it, it's better-looking, too!

If our new friend can get some photos up, I am sure we all would like to see them.
 
I like mine .... early commercial-finish revolver in pretty darn nice shape -

sampwmampp06_zpsd5242e2b.jpg


sampw_mampp_backstrapmarks_zpsc46599ce.jpg
 
The commercial blued pre-victory models are a nice piece. I have the one that my uncle carried from Normandy through to the end in Germany as well as another that he picked up somewhere along the line. I also have a photo of him wearing it slung low. His way of carrying it, as well as his slow way of talking, got him the nickname "Sheriff" in his unit. He dis-assembled them and mailed them home before coming home on the troopship himself. I think I first shot these and the P38 that he brought home when I was 8 or 9 yrs old.
 
Very nice revolver Ryan. Those markings were definitely made in the field or in the unit's armoury. The fact that they're not official Canadian gov'nt markings makes it very difficult to pin down. There's simply no consistency. Perhaps Smellie or Grant have a bit more info than I.

The condition looks very good. That revolver has definitely seen some use. That's very good for milsurp. We like arms that actually fought just as much as pristine examples. That front sight is very interesting. Do you have any close-up pics of it?
 
Once my internet comes back up I'll post a close-up of the front site. My guess is that the pistol shot low for the person it was issued to and was cut down. Or it didn't fit the holster very well.
 
rconway said:
Once my internet comes back up I'll post a close-up of the front site. My guess is that the pistol shot low for the person it was issued to and was cut down. Or it didn't fit the holster very well.
Click to expand...

I looked a little closer and it does look like the factory sight. I wouldn't doubt it was filed down, but it looks quite rough. There's probably a story there. I collect the stories just as much as the revolvers, lol.
 
rconway said:
Finally got the time to set up photobucket and figure that out. Hope these come out. Three shots of the PLF pistol:
Click to expand...

By the way, your new photobucket account is not set to "private". As you only have 3 pics in it, this may not matter right now, but currently, anyone who clicks on one of your links, can see anything else in your album. By changing your settings to private, viewers may only see the pics to which you provide links.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom