Description

Interesting gun with pre-war SN but shipped post war  factory Nickel 2″ round butt Military & Police 38 special. Letter ordered to confirm which agency of the 3 listed this one was shipped to.

From S&W forum collectors.

The 625xxx series of revolvers are especially interesting. The ship dates range wildly—from January 1934 to September 1946. If yours shipped in 1947 it would have left the factory later than any other revolver in that range we know so far…yet it was presumably the first frame produced. Add the nickel finish (which was uncommon; I only know of three others in this range, and they all shipped post-War) and we have a strange bird indeed.

I have identified 16 of them (2″ round butt) in the 625000 and 694000 range that shipped in 1946 and 1947. I have also found a few that have the prewar frames but are numbered in the S833000 range and also shipped in the mid-1940s. Then there are some in the 625000, 68100 and 694000 ranges that shipped anywhere from the 1930s to 1940 (specifically 1936, 1937 and 1940 among those I’ve identified). Roy says there were 100 such units that had the prewar round butt frames and shipped in the immediate postwar period. Some of them got postwar serial numbers. Many were marked with the S on places other than the butt, but none of them got the sliding hammer block safety (at least none of those that I have seen did).
Most of them shipped with hard black rubber stocks, although I have located a few that shipped with round butt walnut service stocks.
The 2″ round butt units are, by far, the least common M&Ps that left the factory in the 1946-1948 period. As far as I can tell, all of them were built on prewar frames and most of them carried prewar serial numbers.I should have mentioned that the nickel finish is less common on these units.
I do show one shipment of 10 nickel examples that shipped to Sports, Inc., in Chicago, on September 23, 1946. These were in the serial range 625801-625820.