lund329 said:
Hey all...
. My question is that according to where the serial number is, it's a 27-2 model. How can this be so when I thought the above poster stated they were manufactured much earlier? Sign me.....kornfuzed.... Ken :?:
Hello Ken
The First .357 Magnum Revolver's ever made were made by S&W. It was a desire that
Colonel Douglas B. Wesson Then the Vice President of S&W, make available
a Custom made handgun to shooters that would be the most Powerful Handgun caliber in the world.
Philip Sharp who was a renowned hand loader was experimenting Heavy with a S&W 38-44 revolver chambered in .38 Special back in the Mid 1930's. He expanded on the .38 Special Cartridge back then to what we know to be the .357 Magnum Level of Velocity and Power today. Sharp found that due to the Massive Frame size of the 38-44 Outdorsman-N-Frame revolver, they could take the Higher pressures he had been loading and saw velocities of over
1405 FPS of the Original .38 Special Cartridge Loaded super Hot. He went to Elmer Keith who was working with the same round for the 38-44 Outdoorsman revolver and Keith was experimenting with some of his advanced Bullet designs to develop the .38 Special High Velocity rounds which were averaging 1100 FPS by using his Bullets. He asked Keith to design a bullet to take the Pressures of the Then experimental .357 magnum. Keith designed a Three shoulder lead base Bullet with Three sealing rings that worked well. Mean while Sharp and Keith kept close Contact with Doug Wesson on their experimenting and development of these Two Wild Cat Cartridges. Wesson quickly saw that Sharp's design would Indeed work with Keith's design of Bullet, so he Called Remington Arms and asked them to Build the .357 Magnum Cartridge. he told Remington that Sharp had experimented with the .38 Special round to achieve velocities of over 1400 FPS and that he desired them to Build an Improved version of the .38 Special that would be to extend the .38 Special Case an extra 1/8" and he wanted to call the new round a .357 Magnum.
Remington told Wesson that this would not work, as the velocity was mush too high to be accurate and that the world did not need any Cartridges in a handgun that were this Powerful. Wesson was not one to take No for an answer, so he Next called
Winchester Western and shared his thoughts with them. Winchester agreed to Build the round if he would supply them with a Gun to fire it. Wesson sent Winchester an experimental 38-44 Outdoorsman Revolver that had a special heat treated frame and cylinder to accept the Higher Pressures of the Experimental .357 Magnum round, and the rest is History as Winchester Built it and made the .357 Magnum round available to the general Public. In 1934 While Winchester was working developing the New .357 Magnum round Doug Wesson decided to make this available in a custom Hand Made revolver. He chose a work force of Fine Older Factory workers that had been at S&W for a Long time as he knew their Old World Artisan ways would be reflected in the Handguns they produced for him. Wesson decided to offer this Custom Hand made revolver available as a Customer order Gun that one could order any Barrel length from
3-1/2" to 8-3/4" in 1/4" Increments. It also was available in
Nickel or Blue, with
11 different sight combinations and it could have been ordered with the following grips.
Service style checkered high figure Walnut, Stag, Pearl, Ivory or The Famous Roper Custom made large style shooting grips that were being made for and used by The Camp Perry shooting Teams back then by Walter Roper. Wesson also decided to call this new Custom made handgun
"The Registered Magnum". By Offering this to perspective Buyers one had to fill out an order form Indicating what barrel length, finish, sights and stocks that they wanted on one, also what Trigger Pull they desired and what distance they wanted it to be sighted in at before it left the factory along with what ammo they wanted it to be sighted in with being .38 Special or the new .357 Magnum. Once the order got to the factory a Gun was selected and hand built to the owners custom specifications and when it was finished they stamped
REG in The Cylinder frame crane area and below it was
a Registration number. It then was shipped to the Owner along with a Registration Card to be sent back to the factory by the new owner. Once the factory received these Registration Cards, they made out a Registration Certificate suitable for Framing with the Owners name, address and what he desired the gun to be sighted in at as far as hold on the target and what ammo was to be used. They then sent it back to the owner in a Round cardboard Mailing tube and this was their way of Offering
a Full Lifetime warranty on the new custom handgun. Wesson was taking a chance offering such a Gun as they were the most expensive revolver S&W made back then at
$61.00, and he was not sure how well they would be received by the general public who at that time was just coming out of a major depression. Soon The Orders started Pouring in at an alarming rate and it was hard for the company to keep up with the Buyer demand. There were
615 of them built the first Year being 1935 and by 1938 almost 4500 Guns had been Built. In
1939 Wesson decided to drop The Registration process of these revolvers, as it was so Time consuming so they No Longer stamped the Guns with
REG or a REG Number under it. These revolver's were called
The NON-Registered Magnums and were made up till around
1940 time span when all Gun production was Halted for The World War II effort. In that time span S&W Produced a Little over
1100 NON-Registered Magnums, and they are more Rare then the Original Registered Magnums produced. After World War II around 1948 They resumed production again on the very same handgun but now they made it available as
a Standard catalog order item and these were made on the Production Line from 1948 up until 1957 There were very few changes to the .357 magnum handgun in this time span but they dropped the Upper side Plate screw along with the trigger Guard screw. The Federal Government Mandated that all Gun Manufacturers stamp their Guns with
a Specific model Number, so S&W decided to Place the
Number 27 in the crane area of their Famous .357 Magnum hand gun. As time wore on, They made slight design changes in the gun and we saw the dash-series be born. These guns were stamped 27-1, 27-2, 27-3 and so on as the design changes came in time up until 1994 when S&W stopped making the Model 27 available any more. They were the Flagship revolver for S&W right from the start back in 1935, and the Only hand gun ever to be offered to the general public
on a Custom Built level. They were the Highest level of finish and the Only handgun to receive
a Cross hatch checkering to the Upper sight Plane and Barrel rib to reduce glare for shooters. I recently Picked up
The First Year Registered Magnum shown below. It shipped out of the factory on
December 3, 1935 to Bowen Brothers Hardware company of Augusta, Georgia with a Full Box of .357 Magnum ammunition, Blued Finish, Walnut High figure Grips, 3-1/2" Barrel, & a Patridge front sight sighted in at 25 Yard's 6 O-Clock Target hold with .357 Magnum ammunition. This Gun was sold to an FBI agent in The Augusta, Georgia Field Office. I hope this answers your questions of how the Pre-27's and Later Model 27's along with the Dash series came to be...Hammerdown
First Year {1935} Registered Magnum with Custom Built Walter Roper shooting Grips
The Same Gun with Period Correct, High Figure Walnut Grips
Hammerdown
