Help dating S&W .38 Special M&P

[suburbanplankton]

My wife inherited a number of guns from her father. Among them a S&W .38 Special that had belonged to her great uncle who had been a Sheriff's deputy; it 's our understanding that it was his service revolver. We had thought it dated from the 30's or 40's, but the serial number (from the bottom of the stock, and on the back of the cylinder) is 263077. From my extensive research (at least an hour on this and a few other forums), it looks like that s/n dates the piece somewhere between 1915 and 1917. Is that correct?

 

[RKG]

According to my copy of the Catalog, a pre-10 M&P with s/n from 241704 through 700000 (4th Change) would date from 1915 through 1942.

 

[James K]

1917 or close to that; number 291xxx dates to 1919.

Jim

 

[Sevens]

Mine is 357xxx and Roy Jinks dated it to 1921, if that helps any.