Smith & Wesson introduced the .38 Hand Ejector Model in 1899, which later became the M&P or Victory Model, then the Model 10. The S&W Model 10 has been labeled the most popular handgun of the 20th Century owing to its 6 million units produced. The Model 10 is a six-shot, double-action revolver, chambered for the .38 Special. It has fixed sights and is built on the K Frame.
My fascination with guns from the Post-WWII Baby Boom Period (1946-1964) guided my search for an early Model 10. In 1957, Smith & Wesson adopted the convention of using numeric designations to distinguish their various models of handguns, and the M&P was renamed the Model 10.
The M&P/Model 10 has been available in both blued steel finish and nickel finish for most of its production run. The model has also been offered throughout the years with both the round butt and square butt grip patterns. Beginning with the Model 10–5 series in the late 1960s, the tapered barrel and its trademark 'half moon' front sight were replaced by a straight bull barrel and a sloped milled ramp front sight.
With more than 6 million produced, there's no denying that this gun has been the flagship model for Smith & Wesson. My 1960 example has the firing pin on the hammer, a feature I love. Smith & Wesson replaced this setup with a flat face hammer that strikes a floating firing pin inside the rear of the frame with the Model 10-11 version that came out in 1997.
The nickel finish is mirror-like. It was Saturday afternoon when I snapped the photos for this article. Alabama was playing Tennessee in college football, so I had my crimson shirt on and I was constantly repositioning to avoid the red reflection on the gun. Have you ever been searching for a particular gun, and an opportunity comes along, one that is not exactly what you wanted, but you couldn't pass it up? Well, that is what happened to me with this particular gun. The gun I was looking for, was a 1957 to 1964 period gun in the bright glass-like blue finish. Then up pops this nickel gun.
| S&W Year Of DOM | Begin | End |
|---|---|---|
| 1957 | C402924 | C405018 |
| 1958 — 1959 | C405019 | C429740 |
| 1960 | C429741 | C474148 |
| 1961 — 1962 | C474149 | C622699 |
| 1963 — 1965 | C622700 | C810532 |
According to this table, my gun would fall in 1961. However, a member of the S&W Forum shared his serial number with me, which was only 6,300 lower than mine, and his gun had a ship date of December 29, 1959. Update: My S&W Letter arrived, and it says my gun shipped to Tampa, Florida on January 13, 1960.
How I managed to go this many years without a Model 10 in my collection, I can't explain. The "Old School" appearance of this gun is classic Smith & Wesson in every way. The speed hammer as it is called on all of my post-war K-22 Masterpiece boxes, was implemented on the M&P in 1947 or 1948, and later all Smith & Wesson handguns incorporated the short-throw action.