Rare Smith & Wesson S&W The .357 Registered Magnum 1939 6” Nickel Revolver
SOLD FOR: $14,325.00
LSB#: WY241024AM008
Make: Smith & Wesson
Model: The .357 Registered Magnum
Serial Number:58756, Registration #4893
Year of Manufacture: June 1939 (“Letter from Smith & Wesson”)
Caliber: .357 Magnum
Action Type: Single & Double Action Swing Out Cylinder Revolver
Markings: The left side of the barrel is marked “SMITH & WESSON”. The right side of the of the barrel is marked “S&W 357 Magnum”. The side plate has the S&W Monogram and the right frame is marked “Made in USA”. The butt, the ejector rod shroud, and the rear of the cylinder are marked with the serial number 58756. The crane cut on the frame is marked “REG4893”.
Barrel Length: 6” Pinned Barrel
Sights / Optics: The front sight is a Patridge, blade front sight on a raised, pinned boss, with a factory nickel adjustable rear sight, rounded and contoured to the top strap and frame.
Stock Configuration & Condition: The walnut grips do not show their age; with silver S&W medallions. The inside of the right grip panel shows evidence of a non-matching serial. There is some little compression. Checking is still very well-defined. There is light rub on the grip panels. There are no chips and no cracks. Overall, the grips are in about excellent condition for their age of C&R.
Type of Finish: Nickel
Finish Originality: Original
Bore Condition: The bore is bright and the rifling is sharp. There is no erosion in the bore. 9.5/10 Bore rating in this writer’s opinion.
Overall Condition: This handgun retains about 98% of its metal finish. The barrel has a few scattered light marks. The cylinder has a very thin turn line, with none of the line through the finish. The serrations on the trigger and grip straps, checkering on the top strap, rib, hammer, and thumbpiece are sharp. The knurling on the ejector rod is sharp. There are very light burn marks on the cylinder face. The screw heads are sharp. The markings are clear. Overall, this handgun rates in about excellent condition.
Mechanics: The action functions correctly. The double-action trigger is smooth and the single-action is crisp. The cylinder locks up with almost no play on each chamber. We did not fire this handgun. As with all used firearms, a thorough cleaning may be necessary to meet your maintenance requirements.
Box, Paperwork & Accessories: The revolver comes with a hard case, the original Smith and Wesson cardboard tube, and a factory letter with over 15 pages of correspondence between the original owner and Smith and Wesson, including an obituary.
Our Assessment: The S&W .357 Registered Magnum has a special place in the history of Smith & Wesson, revolvers and cartridge design. In the late 1920s, as Prohibition had created a thriving element of organized crime, law enforcement was pressing for the development of more potent cartridges than the .38 Special for duty revolvers. Police needed something that could punch through car doors while still retaining enough energy to take out gangsters firing back at them. Smith & Wesson’s initial response, the .38/44 Heavy Duty, was capable of firing hotter loaded .38 Special but still fell short of expectations. The grandson of Smith & Wesson co-founder Daniel Wesson, Col. Douglas Wesson, collaborated with Phil Sharpe and Elmer Keith, both renowned handloading experts, and set out to develop a cartridge that could propel a projectile at 1400 fps with muzzle energy of more than 700 ft. lbs. and the .357 Magnum, the first of the magnums, was born. Smith & Wesson developed a revolver around the cartridge on their N frame with initial production being entirely on a special order basis. The revolvers could be ordered with barrel lengths from 3 1/2? to 8 3/4? available in 1/4? increments, choice of sights, grips, finish, and even hammer profile. Early production guns were presented to luminaries such as J. Edgar Hoover, John Olin, Phil Sharpe, George S. Patton, and Ed McGivern. These early .357s would be built to the customer’s specifications and shipped out with a registration card which could be returned to request a registration certificate, giving the new firearm the name “Registered Magnum”.
“The most important handgun developed in the twentieth century”- Roy Jinks. This is a fine example of The Registered Magnum, from 1939 with 98% of its original nickel finish, a bore as near to pristine as can be. In many ways, the Registered Magnum is the holy grail of Smith & Wesson collectors, with the custom features offering endless variations. This is a beautiful example of one of the rarest and most sought-after revolvers ever made by the world’s premier revolver manufacturer, Smith & Wesson. The revolver was eventually, soon after this correspondence, discontinued as it was deemed too expensive to produce. Could the correspondence between this customer and Smith and Wesson hold some secrets to the reasoning behind the abrupt halt to production? Could this be the revolver that killed the Registered Magnum? While looking at the correspondence one would have trouble finding another theory. So bid high and bid firm. I highly encourage you to take a look at the condition in our high-quality photos. Good luck with your bid. -K.F.
