Handled an INTERESTING M39 variant today...

J

jrothWA

New member
was a local Cabelsaand in th Gun Library was a S&W 9mm.

It wasn't ID as "M39 or M39-2", it had the long spring extractor, [that ran back to the "hammer-block" safty] on the RH side of the slide,
A "single stack" magazine similiar to my M39-2 originals and recently bought Pro-mag" magazines but with a metal follower.

Did notice the the slide stop cut=out , at the rear appeared to be milled by hand.
as the rear surface extended above the horizontal surface by half the diameter of the cutter.

Where the stamping of the "M39" should be, the SN was located, 15XX,
not above and forward of the trigger guard.

Barrel bushing was of the full "Y" configuration, that complete enclosed the recoil spring rod. Not the current type the ride on the top surface of the recoil rod.

Beside grabbing marks on the recoil rod, is was in 95% condition.

Just thought you would like to know.
 
Sounds like a pre-39, thus no model number. the early magazines did have metal followers with a Y shape to the front. The early barrel bushings retained the recoil spring, flexed,reportedly sometimes broke, and did gouge the aluminum recoil spring guides. The later 39-2s, starting around serial #150,000, enclosed the front of the recoil spring tunnel so the bushing did not have to take the stress and could use those upper half type bushings. Didn't ever have a Pre-39, but did have a 39, more than one 39-2, 539s, 639s,etc. Neat guns IMHO.....
 
Rock is correct however the pistols were still marked 39 from the git-go. I had a 39 that came out of the S&W rep's ( Chuck Cheshire) trunk in 1963. It had a serial of 1800 or 18,xxx was provided with two steel follower mags ( he gave me two more) the safety/ decocker had a small tang and the slide serrations were all arouund it ( later moved forward). S.&W actually billed me about sixty or eighty bucks for the pistol many months later.
This was a time when we all carried Smith revolvers of various kinds (mine was a 4" 19) and our team that i shot with was on the "Governors top twenty " teams in California ( how times have changed).
I carried that pistol off duty for years and later regulated it to the back of the drawer...finally replaced the hump feed ramp barrel with a later smooth ramp and for the first time the pistol would feed Super Vel hollow points.
Not too many years ago i gave the pistol to another officer after i retired....he soon retired also and shortly thereafter died. That was about fifteen years ago and I am still shooting pistols and AR's most days. The old 39 went to his kid and probably ended up in a Utah pawn shop.
 
IB, well I learned something. I'd always thought the early S&W "9MM Automatics" were not model marked. Even thought I'd seen one not model marked. Must have been hallucinating again:)
 
Rock, You may not have been dreaming as, according to the First edition Jinks book model numbers were not applied until 1958) and approximately 2000 pistols had been manufactured by that time. My pistol was marked 39 and had the short safety lever that was replaced at about 2,200 , i guess mine lay around the shelf and was stamped before leaving the factory as it was a rep's display pistol and not intended for general sale. The 39 was priced at about $70 at that time, i made $356 per month gross so it was an expensive pistol to me. Chuck later told me the 39 i got was replaced with an updated model and he was told not to sell it as they were hard to replace....that was the word from the factory. He also had a model 52-A with him a little later in 38 AMU, again it was a demo pistol and definitely not for sale....a rare collector today. Chuck did not have ammo for it so i did not get to fire it. The regular 52 he had was single action only and retail was welll above my meger salary.
My 39 had the long sprtng bar extractor and even though i shot untold thousandsc of rounds worked as good as new. As there were rumors they would break after a few rounds i purchased two extras, whill attending the S&W pistol school one of the instructors was building a special pistol for his son utilizing a long extractor slide but then found out Smith did not have one in stock. I provided the needed part and was given in return a divider box filled with extra parts for both pistol and revolver...
Sorry for the nostalgia trip but the book got me reminiscing.
 
One of the rarest "Model 39s" was the Model 44, a single-action Model 39, and a precursor to the Model 52 ".38 Master", an all steel, single-action (though very early Model 52s were equipped with a set screw that locked out the Model 39's double-action configuration) target-oriented pistol.

As Ibmikey related, Smith & Wesson went from model names to model numbers (a pity imo) in 1958 (some say the change-over started in 1957). So my Model 52-2 is just a number-though it really is a .38 Master...:)
 
And the 44 was cataloged for three or four years, even though none were produced for commercial sale.
Sort of the opposite of the 539, which was in production for three or four years, but which was rarely listed in Gun Digest, etc.
 
dgludwig said:
One of the rarest "Model 39s" was the Model 44, a single-action Model 39...
Click to expand...
The M44 is one of the rarest of all S&W's period. IIRC you can count the entire production run without running out of fingers. :eek:

FWIW one interesting spotting feature of the M44 is that the top grip screw was higher than its location on the M39, and the S&W logo medallion was placed below this screw rather than above it.
 
I'd get over the the S&W forums and post some pics there,
they'll research the BLEEP out of it in no time ;)

Also, you can get an official S&W letter on it,
which will totally clear up if it is a frankengun (made from parts),
or a nifty rarity :)
 
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