What is this thingy, please?

Rusty:
1. The barrel is not the straight sided heavyweight but is tapered.
2. Not sure if the barrel is pinned to the frame. I'll have to take a hard look this evening.
3. The butt is squared and does not curve forward at the bottom rear of the grip.
4. The barrel is 104 mm long.
Additionally: the cylinder takes 6 cartridges and the weight (unloaded) is 1 lb 14½ oz on a old-fashioned balance scale. That's 965 g.

As this revolver was bought by me in South Africa in November of '81, chances are it was manufactured in America as early as the late seventies. But on the other hand one cannot say how long it was in getting here or how long it lay on the shelf...
 
Then your 10-7 and my 10-5 are for all practical purposes twins.

Far as the pinning goes, look at where bsrrel and frame meet. If just above the barrel there is a hole in the frame filled by a pin that would go through the edge of the barrel thru part of the barrel's threads preventing the barrel from unscrewing, you've got a pinned version. Smith later droppped the pin and went to a "crush" fit where the frame threads were a hair undersized and the barrel threads a hair oversized.

The purists believe that the pinning was better as it it possible when doing a crush fit to constrict the bore in the area crushed by a couple thousandths more that the rest of the bore. I suspect S&W took that into account when they made the change. I have a Highway Patrolman N 357 magnum model 28 ( it is identical except for lesser attention to the finish to the higher priced model 27 and made on the larger N frame ) that was made with the crush fit.

Either way you have a revolver factory tweaked and tuned to near perfection as it came off the line just because that's the way they made them in those days - and don't make them anymore. Don't worry overly about running Plus P ( 10% over standard pressure ) thru it. Later model 10 2" barrels were converted to 357 for hideout guns. None blew up that I ever heard. But on the other hand why put the extra wear on it that the Plus P rounds cause when shooting just for fun. Run some Plus P round through it to verify point of aim/point of impact, then shoot the standard stuff for most of your practice. Have fun.
 
Rusty, thanks once again! Yes, now that you explained it, my revolver's barrel is pinned. Before we conclude on all this interesting KHUKURI stuff, let me ask you about the additional numbers also appearing on the crane, opposite the model number. In my revolver's case there is a B13, with the number 81707 just below, concealed when the cylinder is swung shut. If your 10-5 is about identical to mine, I assume it also has a slender barrel and fixed sights. Then also it should similarly have additional numbers inside the crane?
 
On the crane there is a 5 digit number not matching the serial number on the butt.

Above that appears to be a (#) 1 or (letter) l.

There also appears to be a square[].

The barrel is tapered and sights are fixed. Also referred to as a pencil barrel.

As Uncle Bill often says, "What does this have to do with khukuris? Everything!".

Regards,
 
Gee, wish we could get together on the range for some paper punching with our identical S&W's! You have greatly enhanced my appreciation of my particular S&W. Saturday I am sending off snailmail to Springfield requesting further information from S&W on this particular revolver. You bet I'll look you up on the forum to share my information with you.
 
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