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S&W 10-5
pday
Member Posts: 116 ✭✭
Two questions....were all S&W 10-5's made in 1962? Also, can a S&W 10-5, if they were made in 1962 be transfered with a C&R license verses an FFL? Thanks in advance for your help
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If you give us the serial number off the butt of the pistol, we can tell you when it was made.
Good luck.
1) S&W 10-5, 38 special, 5" barrel, nichol, serial # D563934
2) S&W 10-5, 38 special, 2" barrel, nichol, serial # C836031
Also would like to know if it is ok to shoot +P ammo in these guns. Both are in about mint condition
I have two that I would like to know the year of Manufacturer...
1) S&W 10-5, 38 special, 5" barrel, nichol, serial # D563934
2) S&W 10-5, 38 special, 2" barrel, nichol, serial # C836031
Also would like to know if it is ok to shoot +P ammo in these guns. Both are in about mint condition
D563934 ..... 1973
C836031 ..... 1966
Yes, it's OK to shoot +P ammo in the model 10 revolvers since they are made with the steel "K" frames but as with any gun, shooting hotter ammo will accelerate wear.
I ran 500 +Ps and 600 +P+s through a 1942 S&W Military & Police without effect as a test and another guy told me he put 1,000 +Ps through an alloy Model 12 for fun with no effect.
Factory +P is actually quite mild. "Standard" loads from the 1950s and 1960s were stouter. The whole "+P" thing is marketing to make buyers THINK they are getting a high performance load. They are not.
Too old to live...too young to die...
Well, if you talk to SAAMI (/ANSI) max permissible pressure on .38 special is 17000CUP and .38+P 20000 CUP. Since they're the ones effectively determining and maintaining the consensus industry standard, theirs is really the only "opinion" that matters.
Note that +P ammo doesn't have to be loaded all the way up to 20,000CUP. . .it just can't be loaded hotter than that or its out of spec.
Historically speaking, the 38 special load was a original a blackpowder round dating back to 1898. Needless to say, gun design and metallurgy have improved a "little bit" in the last 115 years, and guns are a little tougher today than they were during the McKinley administration.
20,000 CUP is a "cupcake" round by today's standards, with the more recent rounds typically nearly twice that in peak pressure.
Given that pretty much any medium frame modern construction all steel gun can handle 357 magnum like pressures of >35,000 CUP, any of these guns should be able to handle JUST 38+P ammo in unlimited quantity.
By DESIGN any .38 special gun in good working condition should be able to handle +P ammo (including 1960s or later vintage Smith models 10 K frame guns). If it isn't safe with 20kCUP +P ammo, its probably not safe with 17K "ordinary" .38 special ammo either. For this reason, personally I have no problem firing +P ammo though any of my "pre +P" labelled J and K frame smith revolvers.
quote:Originally posted by Doc
Factory +P is actually quite mild. "Standard" loads from the 1950s and 1960s were stouter. The whole "+P" thing is marketing to make buyers THINK they are getting a high performance load. They are not.
+1.
You raise a good issue, though a bit of a different one.
We know that *ALL* current manufacture revolvers from every manufacturer of note (eg Smith, Ruger, Taurus, Charter arms) come from the factory rated for unlimited use of +P ammo. (As above. . .they BETTER, because if they're not strong enough for .38+P ammo, they're not strong enough for ANY .38 ammo).
Again, after quite a bit of looking into this, I'm of the opinion that any of the steel "Pre +P" Smith revolvers of the last 50 years are perfectly safe with all the +P ammo you care to fire.
The question is, how hot is the "+P" factory ammo actually loaded?
I've actually seen published data on chronographed "+P" loads that run no hotter than "ordinary" .38 special from the same gun.
Personally I've tried the "Pepsi challenge" (blinded side by side comparison) and I can't tell any difference in recoil from "ordinary" and .38+P ammo out of my airweight Smith snubnose.
So while I haven't personally chronographed different types of +P ammo, from what I've seen and experienced, its not much (if any) hotter than the regular stuff.
The official line is that +P ammo will wear out your revolver "faster" than regular ammo, but I have yet to see anyone actually wear out any quality built American revolver this way. I don't doubt that true overpressure ammo will knock a gun out of time faster, or cause end-shake (front/back cylinder play) faster than "regular" ammo, but I think its still going to take thousands if not tens of thousands of rounds to do it.
As far as I can tell, the REAL difference between the +P ammo and the regular isn't that the +P is loaded hotter, its that the +P is loaded with better BULLETS. If you look on the shelf, the hollowpoint and softpoint "personal defense" ammo is almost always labelled +P.
Neal