Smith & Wesson Model 36 & 38 Special
Your serial number was assigned January 1, 1976. Some were sold without a serial number. This particular gun has had a few owners. The original owner has had a .
Sep 16, 2009
The serial number on this gun is J5. The first number indicates the year of manufacture, and the second the month and year. The letter prefix is for any post-1968 serial numbers. S&W started applying the prefix "J" to models in 1969. The early numbers had the first letter in a type style while later numbers were in a higher case letter. The type style goes from 1 through 9, and then starts over again. So, 4J1958 is from January 1, 1958 to August 31, 1958. The year is four digits because the fourth letter is used for two digits. The J in J5 comes after the first four digits, so we are looking at the years of 8 and 5. The model number was changed to Model 49 in 1966.
The first number, which is the year of the model's manufacture, is followed by four letters, starting with 1 for January and the number for each month starting with 01 for January and 12 for December. For example: 1J1958 indicates that the gun was manufactured in January 1958.
This article
The reason I am asking is because after looking at a lot of books on the Smith and Wesson Model 36 and 38 Special, I haven't been able to find anything that shows any source for the serial number 5. I don't want to have to buy the book to find out because there are a few hundred of them and the prices are exorbitant.
A:
The Smith & Wesson Model 38 Special was produced from 1951 to 1982, and the Model 36 from 1969 to 1980. It is possible that the missing digits represent one of the later years.
The receiver serial number format is 3 or 4 letters, followed by 3 or 4 digits.
The first three letters are letters and may represent the model and/or a variant of the model. The letters and their values are:
11 = Model 11
13 = Model 13
14 = Model 14
15 = Model 15
16 = Model 16
17 = Model 17
18 = Model 18
19 = Model 19
2 = Model 2
21 = Model 21
22 = Model 22
23 = Model 23
3 = Model be359ba680
Related links: