Register
Log In
Home
January 12, 2012
Offline
Recently, while removing the grips to properly clean & oil my High Standard Sentinel MK III, I discovered a date etched into the grip-post. Now, I had seen this before and did not pay too much attention to it as this gun came to me through a pawnshop. The lettering is small I had to get my super-delux reading glasses out to get a good look-see at the numbers etched into the post. I do not know the significance of the numbers etched, other than it appears to be a date! If it is a date, and that is what it appears to be it would seem to conflict with the starting production date of the High Standard MK II and MK III sixguns. I'm sorry I do not have the hardware to post a picture of it but I will take a pic of it to send to the leadership here for their observation and in-put.
The date on the left side of the four-corner post: 08-18-72
The etching was done with a marking-pen ala-police style. I again reiterate that I do not know the signifance of this date. This gun was bought (by me) from a friend, who horse-traded for it from a pawnshop here in the Columbus, Ga. area. I thought this very interesting as the original HS Grips were still in place and this gun had been a nightstand king or a safe queen because of the absence of blue wear (like-new cond.). The grips, I don't believe, had ever been off until I took them off for cleaning. This date could have been a previous owners birthdate or the date of "original" purchase. Which, if that is true, contradicts the known Sentinel MK II & III production start date of 74. Many thanks for any comments on this!
David
Supporter
Moderators
January 24, 2009
Offline
That is interesting. If the production dates on the HS guns wasn't so well documented by John Stimson, I might buy into an early production idea. As it is though, I think you may be right about the birth date idea, like maybe it was purchased for a son or grandson? If that's the case, whoever it was didn't seem to keep it very long.
May 5, 2012
Offline
Hey David, There is a book written by James Spacek. Hi Standard Pistols and Revolvers. ava. through Amazon.com. I had this book and since passed it on, but it gives dates,production numbers and pic. of lots of pistols including the Dan Wesson / High Standard pork-chop Sentinel MK II and III model u are referring to. very informative. P.S. that date would be very close if not totally accurate. please pass it on to the archives via. download for all to see in the forum. i would have but 
LIFE = WHAT A LONG ... STRANGE TRIP ITs BEEN N WITH A TOUCH OF GRAY ...WOW
May 12, 2009
Offline
If you will provide the serial number I can probably provide the ship date. Note that the date on the post is 8/18/1972 which is about 10 months before the earliest shipment of the High Standard MK II and or MK III revolvers by Dan Wesson. Note Sentinel MK II and MK III shipments began in 1973 not 1974 with up to perhaps 5,000 shipping in 1973.
The following link shows some data on the serial number range and ship date ranges for the High Standard MK II and MK III revolvers.
http://www.histandard.info/Histd/Revolvers%20Sentinels.pdf
I would note that the Jim Spacek book will differ from my data but I don't know why since we both used copies of the same factory records. The same can be said for the late Tom Dance book but he has even more data that conflicts with the factory records.
I will say that it is difficult to make a simple declarative statement that is not found to conflict with numerous exceptions based on the factory records which is one reason that I suspect that books that provide only summary data are found to conflict with the what we sometimes find in the field.
In my opinion, the date on the post was done by an owner later in the guns life. I have found nothing to suggest that assembly dates were put on these guns. High Standard on the other hand did on some guns during some periods of time apply a two letter assembly date code on their guns. Certainly this would not apply to the MK II or MK III revolvers since High Standard did not assemble them.
1 Guest(s)
