Les Jones

Guns > It'll Be Awesome, Part 6: You're a Good Copyeditor, Charlie Brown

Part of the ongoing project to build an S&W buyer's guide.

Model names, model numbers, and "dash numbers"

You'll sometimes see the same gun referred to by a model name (such as the Military and Police) and a model number (the Model 10). In the past S&W used names, but starting in 1957 they switched to model numbers.

What constitutes a different model? It depends, and is best illustrated by example. Take the Model 10 as a starting point. It's a K frame .38 Special, blued steel with fixed sights. The 64 is the 10, but made from stainless steel. (All models that begin with 6 are stainless.) The 15 is the 10, but with adjustable sights. The 14 is the same as the 15, but with different sights and (generally) a longer barrel. The 17 is more or less the 15, but chambered for .22 instead of .38, and so on.

To see a modern gun's model number open the cylinder. The model number will be stamped in the area covered by the cylinder crane (hinge).

PICTURE OF EXPOSED CRANE GOES HERE

Even within a model, S&W makes changes over time. The gun above is marked "???". That indicates the ???th revision to that model, a "dash ???.". The first version of a model doesn't have a model number, and you'll sometimes see such a gun referred to as a "no dash."

What constitutes a different dash number?

A short list of past reasons for dash changes include a change of grips, the switch from square to round butt, the inclusion of a Master lock, inclusion of the frame lock, changes in barrel length and finish options, change in cylinder latch style, and enginering changes to fix problems previously fixed on a recall basis.

I'm not aware of an online source of dash number information. I look up that information in The Standard Catalog of Smith &Wesson (SCSW) by Jim Supica and Richard Nahas. It's a wonderful history of S&W guns and includes a listing of dash number changes for each model. All serious S&W enthusiasts and collectors should have a copy. Most stores have the second edition, but a third edition is complete and is slated to ship in January, 2007. I used the book for reference when writing this guide.

An overview of model numbers

There's an extensive treatment of this in the SCSW, 2nd ed., pp. 122-123. Here's the quickie version I keep in my head. There are exceptions here and there, as S&W ran out of numbers or had to shoehorn oddball models into cubbyholes.

1X - blued and nickel K frames
2X - blued and nickel N frames
3X - blued and nickel J frames
5X - blued and nickel, various frame sizes
6X - stainless steel, various frame sizes

2XX - L frame AirLites (aluminum frames, titanium cylinders)
3XX - various frame size AirLites (aluminum or scandium-aluminum frames and scandium-aluminum or titanium cylinders)
4XX - J frame aluminum frames, carbon steel cylinders
5XX - blued and nickel steel, various frame sizes
6XX - stainless steel, various frame sizes

Listing of major model numbers from Handloads.com.