FWIW the SCSW says that the last .32 Safety Hammerless was serial number 242981.the end of the run serial number was in the 247,000 range.
The SCSW says the same thing. During the Great Depression, S&W produced revolvers using frames they stockpiled in the 20s, but they were assembled with little apparent regard to serial number order. There's no way to determine the build date without a factory letter.Maybe somebody with a SCSW will be along to pin it down closer.
According to the SCSW, the cutoff for antique status is .32 Safety Hammerless serial number 91400. OTOH all S&W top breaks except the Schofield Model of 2000 are C&R eligible....the question is in reference to pre or post 1899 for legal ownership.
This is correct.Incidentally, I don't think a factory letter will give the build date, only the shipping date.
Again, correct. IIRC S&W has certified that all Model Number Three (single action .44s and .45s including Schofields) and .44 Double Action (aka New Frontier) frames were made prior to 1/1/1899, so all of these guns are legal antiques even though many of these guns- particularly .44DAs- shipped in the 20th century. I'll double-check this when I have my literature handy.IIRC that was the question regarding the antique (not C&R) status of some Schofields that were not shipped until well into the 20th century; S&W certified that all the frames were made prior to 1899. I don't think that was true of other top breaks; many thousands were made after 1898.