Smith And Wesson 34-1 Serial — Numbers

She wanted to know its story.

The woman smiled. “He carried it fishing in the Adirondacks. Said it never missed.”

The gunsmith spun the cylinder. The hand-fitted lockup was still tight. “He wasn’t wrong. The 34-1s with serials in the M range are some of the finest rimfire revolvers Smith ever built. They were still hand-fitted back then, before the mass-production changes of the 1970s.” smith and wesson 34-1 serial numbers

The gunsmith laughed. “Lady, that revolver will be dropping squirrels and tin cans long after both of us are gone. It’s a Smith & Wesson 34-1. The serial number just proves it’s the real thing.”

“That’s the serial number,” the woman said. “What does it tell you?” She wanted to know its story

He opened his logbook. “The last 34-1 serial number I have recorded is M 99999. Yours is only a few thousand before that. She’s a late first-variation J-frame Kit Gun.”

“Everything,” he said, picking up a tattered copy of the Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson . Said it never missed

The gunsmith tilted the revolver into the cone of light from his magnifier lamp. He pressed the cylinder latch, swung out the cylinder, and read the number stamped on the frame’s underside: .

She walked out into the sunlight, and for the first time, the old revolver felt less like a relic — and more like a friend.

The woman slipped the little Kit Gun back into her purse, but before she left, she asked, “Will it still shoot?”