Your Personal Firearms

The serial number points to 1905 or 1906 manufacture, and using the common classification system collectors would call this a Model of 1905 first change. But the argument can be made (and has been made in receent threads that you can look up) that any round butt .38 M&P should be called a Model of 1902 up to about 1913.

But your barrel is of a later date, and the markings mean it was intended for installation on a a gun that collectors would call a Model of 1905/fourth change; it just happens to be backward compatible with earlier 1905s and some 1902s. The patent dates show that this barrel cannot have been made before 1915. Look at the flat underside of the barrel. You should see a serial number stamped there. If it is different from the number on the butt, it drifted onto the gun as a replacement part from a gun that was cannibalized for its pieces. If the barrel has the same number, the repair was probably done at the factory, which often stamped the frame number on replacement parts to show that they are an intentional repair.

The cylinder has some subtle details may be characteristic of either the 1905/06 or the post 1915 dates that I mentioned. The cylinder should also have the frame number stamped on the rear surface, but I don't see it in the photo of that area. It may have been polished off in an earlier refinish, or the cylinder may be a replacement part that was not renumbered on installation. Look at the underside of the ejector star and see if you can make out a number stamped there. You will probably need a strong sidelight.

For collectors, I will note the rounded ends to the ejector star arms and the presence of at least one alignment dowel in the face of the ejector star/ratchet. Rounded arms mean early, but the locator pin(s) point to a later design phase for the cylinder assembly.

Whatever its actual date, the barrel can't be later than 1928 because it is cut for the double-diameter ejector rod knob. That design feature changed about that year.