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Make: Smith & Wesson
Model: The .357 Registered Magnum
Serial Number: 50099, Registration #1786
Year of Manufacture: 1937 (Factory Letter)
Caliber: .357 Magnum
Action Type: Single & Double Action Swing Out Cylinder Revolver
Barrel Length: 6.5” Pinned Barrel
Sights / Optics: The front sight is a McGivern, blade front sight on a raised, pinned boss, with adjustable rear sight, rounded and contoured to the top strap and frame.
Stock Configuration & Condition: The Magna grips do not show their age; with silver S&W medallions. The inside of the right grip panel shows evidence of the serial number in pencil. Checking is still very well defined. There are no chips and no cracks. Overall, the grips are in about excellent condition..
Type of Finish: Blue
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 99% 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 topstrap, rib, hammer, and thumbpiece are sharp. The knurling on the ejector rod is sharp.There are no notable burnmarks 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: This revolver comes in a two-piece blue exterior, red interior cardboard Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum wax coated box with metal-reinforced corners and a blurred label on the bottom of the tray which has the serial number barely legible. The box has scattered wear, light fraying at corners and discoloration and is in about very good condition.
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 which 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 1937 with 99% of its original finish, a bore as near to pristine as can be in an original box. 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.