MAGOPUS Update 17JUL26
I managed to add 88 guns to my Magnum Opus project (MAGOPUS) since the last update. The vast majority of them were what I call ‘orphans; Magnums for which no data could be found in the archive.
I explained these, I think, fairly well in this post: MIA Magnums: The Magnums Missing In Action
I am not foolish enough to think that I will be able to enter -every- Registered Magnum into the database that I am building, but I do think I will be able to assemble the best database available on Smith & Wesson Registered Magnums.
Also, please don’t get the mistaken impression that I am just a Registered Magnum guy or that my website is just for Registered Magnums.
I’m more of a renaissance man when it comes to Smith & Wesson; I like almost all of them. I tend to favor the between-the-wars era and have rather little interest in the automatics of the era, but other than that, I’m rather broadminded.
Right now, I am on my Registered Magnum bender. When I get a little tired of looking at sight configurations and targeting specifications, I will take a break and go play in the Heavy Duty/Outdoorsman files or explore the DSC Victory models.
So as I wandered the dusty archive aisles, peering (electronically) into the record boxes, did I find anything interesting?
Always!!
Long Range Magnums – RM 3558 / 56332, RM 3559 / 56352, RM 3560 / 56320, RM 3561 / 56310, RM 3562 / 56635 – These five fellows, all identical, were ordered to be targeted at 500 yards! The factory order form states clearly that 200 meters is the absolute limit and the factory did contact the man placing the order and tell him so, then they went and did it anyway! It’s an interesting enough story that I did a separate post on it. Go read it – Magnum Musings: Long Distance.
Law Enforcement Guns – RM 5396 / 60123, RM 5397 / 60115 RM 5412 / 60344 – While many guns went to local law enforcement, three were observed going to either a US Deputy Marshal or an FBI agent.
One of the great things about the pre-war records in general and the Registered Magnum records in particular is the ability to see where a gun may have gun after it left the factory. I can understand why folks would collect FBI Magnums; the era is glorified, the records largely intact and the guys dressed swell!
No Registration Number – It’s worth noting that eight of the guns in this update had no Registration number listed in the Shipping Ledger. The Ordering Invoice and Order Form listed the Registration number but not the Shipping Ledger.
There is a burgeoning semantical argument over what constitutes a Registered Magnum: if the frame has a Registration number but it was never recorded, if the purchaser never sent the card in to be Registered, if the gun was made without a Registration number during the time when the practice was to issue one, etc.
I will let others pick which Registration hill they wish to die upon. I’ll just call it like I see it: eight guns had no Registration number in the Shipping Ledger but had one in the Invoices and Order form – draw from that what you will and leave me out of it.
While it is very easy to get caught up in the minutia of the Registered Magnums, it is shortsighted not to look at some of the other things that cropped up in the net that I cast upon the archival waters….
Exhibition Guns – Nickel, Blued, Gold & Tiffany – Whilst searching through the Tryon (Edw. K. Tryon, Philadelphia, PA) records I came across this piece of correspondence. It appears to be a list of higher end guns being shipped out for a Sportsmans Show in Philadelphia in 1940.
Two of these guns, .44 DA #36662 and .38 ND #68307, seem to get around a good bit as I had earlier noted them as going to a post-war exhibition in Minneapolis in 1946 ( Archival Observations – Exhibition Guns – Look at me! – on the blue S&W Forum).
One of the things that I find noteworthy about this list is that all the guns listed are “show’ guns; no samples of a Registered Magnum or an HD or 6-inch M&P.
If you go to the post-war document in the post linked above, you’ll note that some ‘ordinary’ guns were included.
I suspect, and this is just my theory, that in the pre-war display there was no need for ‘ordinary’ guns because they were already available through regular commercial channels (for the most part; it was 1940 after all). Whereas in the 1946 show, civilian gun production was still lagging, so perhaps there were no ‘ordinary’ guns available, and the factory had to pull some out of their hat in order to show people what was going to be available.
Despite my massive list of (self-inflicted) projects, there is a part of me that thinks I should set up a folder just to store documents I find on exhibition guns.
DBW’s Boy – I have oft stated that I really think I could do a decent biography of DBW’s career and life in the 1920’s through 1940’s just based on all the correspondence he did. Others have written biographies with less, so I know it could be done.
In this letter from Paul Linforth of McDonald & Linforth, San Francisco, CA, Mr. Linforth mentions how the young Ensign Wesson and his wife came to visit.
It is really quite interesting how much correspondence DBW had that we might consider to be of a business nature that also contained little paragraphs and blurbs of a personal nature: family, hunting trips, political leanings, etc.
Notice how in the immediately following paragraph he slickly inserts a quick question about an order mentioned in an attached newspaper clipping:
Hmm…South America, large foreign military contract, non-belligerent in 1937….. I’m thinking…BRAZIL!
Grips And Engraving – It’s relatively well known that in the pre-war days, particularly during the Depression, S&W did not have any in-house engravers. Mullin comments on this on p. 126-128 of his work on the Magnum (Mullin, Timothy J. Magnum: The S&W .357 Magnum Phenomenon. Collector Grade Publications, 2012, 0-88935-540-1).
Abercrombie & Fitch inquired about an engraved Registered Magnum to be fitted with either pear or ivory stocks.
I’ve seen a number of inquiries about engraving during this period and on one or two occasions other engravers are mentioned, but Kornbrath seems to have been the official-unofficial engraver for S&W. DBW always spoke quite highly of his work and oft stated that he thought Kornbrath was the best man going.
My understanding is that Kornbrath also did the inscriptions for various guns, usually charging around $0.22-$0.25 per letter.
The comments on the grips are also interesting. From what I’ve read in DBW’s notes, ivory stocks were farmed out to Parker Bros. The mother of pearl (MOP) grips tended to be for smaller framed guns because of the difficulty in acquiring raw material of a size suitable for large frame guns as well as a certain fragility that did not lend itself to heavy recoiling guns. From what I have seen, most of the MOP grips came from a couple small concerns in, of all places, Brooklyn, NY.
Gold Seal: Whats The Deal? – I’ve commented before that DBW’s writing style could switch between seriousness and business-like to folksy and familiar without missing a beat.
This slightly blasphemously-styled letter regarding the term Gold Seal when referring to S&W revolvers is an excellent example.
Paul Linforth (I spent a lot of time in the McDonald & Linforth files this week) asked a simple question: What is the story of the “Gold Seal model’?
And thus an urban legend is put to rest……
Also, observe the tone of DBW’s comments on the legendary and (to him) infamous .22LR Registered Magnum. Every time I see him speak of this gun it is with a tone like guys who did two tours in Viet Nam or who ran convoys through Fallujah; it left a mark on the man! Note that he also, invariably, mentions that even at the grand price charged, S&W -still- lost money on it.
So that’s what I have for this MAGOPUS update.
If you liked this update and some of the historical trivia contained therein, you can subscribe at my website and get these updates delivered to your electronic mailbox.
And if you -really- liked this content, go join the Smith & Wesson Historical Foundation; without them, this stuff would never see the light of day and I’d get more sleep and spend more time with my family!
Best,
RM Vivas
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