The Firearms Forum banner

S & W D.A. 45 Revolver - Looking for some Info & Value

7K views 14 replies 5 participants last post by  Alpo 
#1 · (Edited)
On the left side of the barrel it is stamped "S.&W. D.A. 45"
On the top of the barrel it is stamped "Smith & Wesson Springfield Mass. U.S.A Patented Dec. 17. 1901 Feb. 6 1906. Sep. 14 1909"
It has a D ring on the butt of the handle and the butt is also stamped "178089", This number is also stamped on bottom of the barrel under the ejector rod.
It has the number "79265" stamped on the frame inside where the cylinder closes. There are two smaller characters stamped after the "5" that I believe are "S2".
It is stamped "Made in U.S.A" on the right side of the frame.
It is blued steel with wood grips that are checkered and has the S & W Medallion imbedded on each side.

Firearm Gun Revolver Trigger Gun accessory
Firearm Gun Revolver Trigger Gun accessory
Firearm Gun Revolver Trigger Starting pistol
Auto part Leather Shotgun
 

Attachments

See less See more
7
#3 ·
About a quarter of a million of this general type of revolver were made for the US Army in the First World War. Afterwards, they were sold commercially (although sales were slow because of the large number of army surplus guns) and several thousand were made for Brazil. The commercial and Brazilian guns had grips like the ones your gun seems to have, but the US Army ones had smaller, smooth grips with no medallion.

With any gun where collectors value is a factor, whether the finish is original or not and what condition the gun is in are key factors in estimating value. Like valbehaved says, better pictures are needed for you to get that kind of information.

A US Army pistol should be marked "US ARMY" and have a small "flaming bomb" Ordnance mark, IIRC. The purely commercial guns are the rarest. The Brazilian guns are worth the least, but all have decent value as shooters.

Incidentally, the ammunition this pistol fires is called 45 ACP ("Automatic Colt Pistol") or simply 45 Auto. It was designed for the Colt Model 1911 automatic pistol, and requires the use of special clips to be used in this revolver. They are called "half moon clips" for the 3-round version the Army used in 1917-18, or "full moon clips" for the 6-round version that is more popular now. This ammunition is very popular and readily available today.

There was also a special round called 45 Auto Rim that could be used in these pistols without clips, but that is hard to find nowadays.
 
#6 ·
The last military gun was 175100. So your 178089 would be a post-war civilian gun.
 
#11 ·
valbehaved, as best I can tell, the commercial guns, while they had checkered stocks, had the same SHAPE as the military stocks.



That gun has magnas. I don't believe they are the original grips.
 
#13 ·
Well, that would certainly explain why there is no acorn on the rod. :)
 
#14 ·
Maybe I am confused. The ejector rod on the pistol in Alpo's picture has no acorn. The ejector rod on the pistol in VTPatriot's (the OP) looks like it has one to me.

The grips on VTPatriot's gun are strange to me, and I do not know if they are old or a reproduction of an old style. The hammer on his gun seems to be old-style, not like the hammer on the gun in Alpo's picture.
 
#15 ·
As Mikebiker said, the picture I posted, although it was claimed in the caption that it was a "1917 Commercial DA45", is one of the new releases. No acorn. Case-hardened frame (although I thought that was fingerprints or oil-glare), and probably a round butt under those square-butt grips.

And I don't see HOW I missed this. It's got the damned Infernal Lock showing above the thumb latch.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top