help please s&w ctgs. 38

G

gunluver22

Inactive
hey guys I have a smith and wesson revolver. the side of the barrel reads 38 special smith and wesson ctgs. made in Spain. the only numbers I can find r 2 digit number 34 on cylinder. the other number on the bottom of the barrel 1283. cylinder does not pop outside so I think it's older than 1904. how old and how much is it worth?
 
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the side of the barrel reads 38 special smith and wesson ctgs. made in Spain.
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First of all, it's most likely a Spanish copy of a Smith & Wesson .38 Military & Police Model of 1905. These guns were cranked out by the thousands by a wide variety of makers, some of them well-established factories, others small "cottage industry" shops. Some makers are well documented but many others are not. Quality ranges from decent to truly horrid. :( MANY of these guns are unsafe to fire. :eek:

To get more information than this, please post some good pictures showing all markings. It is not possible to determine the provenance of this gun from the info you posted. FWIW value of these guns is typically very low, $150-$175 absolute max, $40-$50 typical. Frankly, many of these guns should have the barrel and cylinder cut into pieces with a torch or hammered flat before someone hurts themselves. :eek: OTOH you could have the cylinder welded shut and turn it into a nice lamp. :D
 
:) As carguychris posted, if it is marked "made in Spain " it is definitely not a Smith & Wesson. These type of guns are marked with very prominent caliber markings to fool the novice and unwary into thinking it is indeed a gin-u-wine S&W. If you would post piictures showing all the markings we might be able to tell you the maker and an era of when made.
 
Just FWIW, in the period when those Spanish guns were being imported, dealers would often tell customers that they were genuine S&W products, made in a factory that S&W established in Spain during the war (WWI). That was so widely believed that S&W still gets requests to identify or repair guns made in their (non-existent) Spanish factory.

More recently, sellers of a certain brand of gun made in Brazil have claimed that S&W set up a factory there to make guns for the South American market and that it was later taken over by brand X. That one isn't true either.

Jim
 
The ".38 Special Smith & Wesson CTGS" is just the caliber.
CTGS is an abbreviation for "cartridges".
As mentioned above, your gun has no connection whatever to Smith & Wesson.
Denis
 
True, but many of those Spanish makers marked the barrel something like:

USESMITH & WESSONCTGS.

No intent to deceive there, folks.

Jim
 
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