Arrived Today!!C series M&P. Nickled with Pearls!!

The "B" was used pre-war for blue guns and dropped post-war. The "N" was used post war for nickel guns but blue guns were umarked. I have had and studied a number of factory nickel guns (Post War) including a factory nickel Pre-15 from about 1955 that had the "N"

Classic Smith Charles - congrats, stunning example!

Pre-war, the primary location for the finish letter was indeed the barrel flat, although it could appear in other locations. The B was always stamped, the N seems to have been treated as optional, so guns with no letter should be considered as shipped in nickel.

As Charles mentioned, this stopped around 1941, mostly because the factory was not nickeling any guns for the duration of the war and the additional B marking became superfluous, since all guns were blued.

At some point after the war, the N stamp resumed, but only on the left side of the grip frame. Factory-nickeled M&P’s appear right from the resumption of commercial M&P shipments in February 1946; there are documented SV-prefix nickeled guns. However, it is not clear, and the SCSW is vague on this too, whether the frame stamp of the N also resumed immediately, and whether the post-war N was indeed stamped any more consistently than the pre-war N.

OK. I checked on the grip frame and there is no “N” on the left side......it is on the right.

Just to be more confusing, here is a picture of a slightly later nickeled M&P with the N on the barrel flat.

Best,
Charles

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cda926

Just to be more confusing, here is a picture of a slightly later nickeled M&P with the N on the barrel flat.

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That snubby is a weird on. The letter was never stamped inside the serial; it’s also not the factory font. Is the gun yours or do you know more about it? I’d suspect a nickel refinish or barrel replacement and N stamp post-factory by parties unknown, absent evidence to the contrary.

Abs

My aforementoned Pre-15 had the "N" on the barrel flat and I have seen a lot of other 50's vintage guns marked the same way. The "N" almost looked like part of the SN. Just like the snubby posted above

Gorgeous gun!

Let's put another kink in the rope......

Here's a 1920's M&P with the N on the right side. Now, I'm calling the "right" side as if you were looking down the sights.......