Smith & Wesson Model 1 Smith & Wesson Model 1 The Smith & Wesson Model 1 was the first firearm manufactured by Smith & Wesson, with production spanning the years 1857 through 1882. It was the first commercially successful revolver to use rimfire cartridges instead of loose powder, musket ball, and percussion caps. It is a single-action, tip-up revolver holding seven .22 Short black powder cartridges. As Samuel Colt's patent on the night revolver was set to expire in 1856, Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson were researching a prototype for a metallic cartridge revolver. When they discovered that a former Colt employee named Rollin
Smith & Wesson .38/44 either blue or nickel finish. Production was interrupted by the second world war. Postwar production serial numbers are prefixed with the letter S. After the war these N-frame revolvers were popular with veterans experimentally handloading the .38 Special at pressures up to fifty percent higher than the recommended for conventional .38 Special revolvers. In 1957, the "Heavy Duty" fixed sight version was marketed as the Smith & Wesson Model 20 and the "Outdoorsman" with adjustable sights became the Smith & Wesson Model 23 Smith & Wesson .38/44 Smith & Wesson .38/44 identifies a series of 6 shot, double-action, Smith &