Canadian Mounted Police reference book!

[River City John]

Heads up on Canadian Mounted Police book:

https://gen2.joesalter.com/category/products/Arms-and-Accoutrements-of-the-Mounted-Police-Softcover?utm_source=JoeSalter.com+New+Arrival+Updates&utm_campaign=add1a5a1a1-06%2F24%2F2020&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_147ebcfa39-add1a5a1a1-122746697&mc_cid=add1a5a1a1&mc_eid=2035532766

RCJ

[RattlesnakeJack]

As I posted in the other location, my copy of this "bible" on arms and accoutrements is well-used, indeed ...

And I'd love to have a copy of the other "bible", long out-of-print and accordingly very pricey -

https://www.biblio.com/booksearch/author/boulton-james-j/title/uniforms-of-the-canadian-mounted-police

[Books OToole]

I got my re-print copy today.  It definitely lives Rattlesnake Jack's recommendation.
I poured over the sections on the Smith & Wesson .38s.  I learned a lot; but like most research, I have more questions.

Sadly the NWMP S&Ws were not stamped/marked.  But some of the serial numbers are listed. (And I have a couple that fall within the SN range.)

One question is:  Are the serial numbers listed because they were inventoried/cataloged or are they still in the possession of the RCMP, museum or other institution or they out there for the informed S&W collector to snag?

Books

[RattlesnakeJack]

Books,

As indicated in the introduction to Appendix 1, on page 181, the lists of various firearms serial numbers are incomplete, and were "compiled from a mountain of source material: Force records, manuscripts, and factory records." 

Thus, they are not lists of known surviving firearms in some collection, but rather lists compiled from old source materials, so many firearms bearing documented numbers may still be out there to be "discovered" ... or may have failed to survive.

Care must be taken with thinking in terms of the serial number of a particular firearm being "in the range" of listed serial numbers ... especially with less common makes such as the S&W revolvers, which were acquired in very small batches.

My personal "pet peeve" in this regard is the tendency of some dealers (... Joe Salter springs to mind ...) to "hype" any offering of a Snider-Enfield cavalry carbine by stating that it is "in the range" of serial numbers listed in "Arms & Accoutrements" ... clearly attempting to "cash in" on a bare possibility, because Snider cavalry carbines were not marked by the NWMP.  Such an assertion is actually quite laughable, because the serial numbers for S-E cavalry carbines did not reach 10,000 .... while the "range" of documented NWMP serial numbers listed in the Appendix runs from a low of 75 to a high of 9295! 
(In other words, the serial number of pretty much any Snider-Enfield cavalry carbine one might find, which is not excluded from NWMP service by clear markings of issue elsewhere, will be "in the range" ...  )

One of the authors of "Arms & Accoutrements", Don Klancher, offers a service in documenting NWMP/RNWMP/RCMP artifacts (particularly firearms, by serial number) on the basis of his copies of the extensive records compiled for this book.  For example, I have such a letter regarding my Enfield Mark II revolver ... which I would likely have been shooting, or in any event carrying, in my NWMP personna had I been able to attend Muster this year.  Although I understand that for some guns several different records are available, detailing more than one location where a firearm saw service, and even individual Members to which it was issued, in the case of my revolver the sole available record shows it being "on charge" (i.e. in inventory) at Depot Division in Regina in 1897.

[Niederlander]

That is REALLY cool, Grant!

[Books OToole]

Thanks for the clarification Grant.

I have a small collection of Agency marked S&Ws (4) and was looking for Identification data on NWMP pistols so I know what to look for.

Books

[Baltimore Ed]

I got to handle one of those Enfield revolvers at the Md Military Show years ago. Definitely a unique beast of a revolver. Very nice revolver Grant.

[smoke]

Here is cool little video.....outside our time period but interesting none the less.

https://www.insider.com/how-canada-mountie-uniforms-are-made-2020-3