Scrap, do not sell.

Neat find and a great restoration.

I wonder if the WRF and .22LR pressure differences will be an issue (19,000 psi vs 24,000 psi). The gun looks pretty stout for rimfire pressures but you never know.
Let us know how it shoots once you’ve made the changes.
Stay safe.

Beautiful work!

It's your gun and you're free to do what you want with it, doubly so after you gave it a new lease on life, but I'd keep it as a 22 Mag revolver. There's plenty of 22 LR revolvers running around, but a purpose-built 22 Mag? Now that's something cooler.

Mosin Bubba said:

Beautiful work!

It's your gun and you're free to do what you want with it, doubly so after you gave it a new lease on life, but I'd keep it as a 22 Mag revolver. There's plenty of 22 LR revolvers running around, but a purpose-built 22 Mag? Now that's something cooler.

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Is the Colt a .22 WMR or a .22 WRF? As far as ammo selection goes, there’s a big difference.

Stay safe.

I thought that’s what you put...

Stay safe.

I guess 22 WRF is in production. I read somewhere it has some popularity as a reduced load in 22 Magnum guns.

https://www.targetsportsusa.com/22-wrf-ammo-c-204.aspx

That's pricey for rimfire ammo, but not bad for centerfire. I didn't check on what they want for shipping, but if this outfit has it, some gunstores may have it on the shelf.

Seems you could cut your first six WRFs into adapters.

I did not remember Ace adapters were so expensive.

NIGHTLORD40K said:

Ya Im going to order 500 or so of the Winchester stuff and get a set of the ACE chamber adapters (Ill have to cut down his Magnum adapters, but thats no problem) for LR. That should pretty much be a lifetime supply for as often as I will likely shoot this gun.

I stopped by the range today to try and find some empty magnum cases to make temporary sleeves, but no luck.

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I don’t have any fired cases laying around or I’d mail you some.

If I get a chance to go to the range this week I’ll bring some back just in case.

Stay safe.

Ok I have and shoot one of those in .22 WRF and it is one of my favorite vintage Colts. It is a FUN LITTLE .22. .22 WRF is quite a bit harder hitter than other than Stinger type .22LR. It gets between 900 and 1000 FPS in my 6" barrel PP Target model. The CCI stuff IS hotter and yes I read the warning , called them and they mumbled possible stuck jackets. .22 WRF has the same .224 bore as .22 magnum, So I use the CCI .22 WRF I stocked up on 10 years ago in my 1890 Winchester Pump and my #4 Remington Rolling Block. That load hitss hard and reaches 1400 in the long 1890 and 1300 in the shorter Remington RB. I have killed a lot of predators with it in the 40 years I have been shootin that caliberand like it alot. It works in .22 Magnum guns fine and is a target grade game getter. I would spend the $65 and get 5 boxes and enjoy and keep my eyes out on Gunbroker where I recently bought the older boxed Winchesters for $50 for 500 , thats how thet were packaged and it says 1400 FPS on those boxes, which of course is in a full rifle barrel. Those early Colt PP .22 are not that robust, I think 500 a year would be the most I would enjoy.
BTW those are Bekaert pattern grips, very popularduring that hey day and S&Ws .22/32 targets of the era were able to be ordered with them .

NIGHTLORD40K said:

WRF

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Ah, my bad. Yeah, if it's a choice between 22 LR and "oddball" 22 LR, I'd sleeve it too.

Have the same revolver from my father. His father bought it in 1937 and my Dad, and then his younger brother, put a crap ton of.22LR through it. Don’t know if that has anything to do with the considerable flame cutting on the top strap, but the gun still shoots like a champ.

The bottom one, obviously , is my .22 WRF ! This one is in good original finish and it is worth at least $700 or more !

dunno, It's buried in my safe. The frame on mine is short, they made a change in frame size starting in 1926 I believe on the PP Target .22 model . They enlarged it slightly for robustness. Ours are called "G" models I believe. You can buy repro hard rubber grips, mine are original but repros look the same.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Colt-Revol...092019?hash=item4db1993e73:g:yPgAAOSwQN1bHqLJ

NIGHTLORD40K said:

I think I will order some adapters from ACE and some WRF ammo, rather than make any permanent mods to the gun, now that I have had time to consider it.

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That sounds like the best plan of all. I have shot the 22 WRF in my single six 22 mag cylinder and it makes a good sub load that hits harder than 22rf. I tried to use them in my Marlin 22 mag bolt actions but they were too short to feed. Single loaded works OK but I just decided they were better in the handgun. Here is a pretty good story about a man who carried a rifle and handgun in 22WRF.

http://leverguns.com/articles/paco/survival.htm

Gordon said:

The bottom one, obviously , is my .22 WRF ! This one is in good original finish and it is worth at least $700 or more !
View attachment 942618

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Those are nice Colts, Gordon. I especially like the 4 inch Pocket model. Is it a New Pocket in 32 Long Colt, or a Pocket Positive in 32 Colt New Police (aka 32 S&W Long), or something I have never heard of? I find out about a lot of those last things in threads here. For example, that "Survival" article that ThomasT posted a link to taught me that Smith & Wesson made revolvers in 22 WRF. I had no idea!

Monac said:

Those are nice Colts, Gordon. I especially like the 4 inch Pocket model. Is it a New Pocket in 32 Long Colt, or a Pocket Positive in 32 Colt New Police (aka 32 S&W Long), or something I have never heard of? I find out about a lot of those last things in threads here. For example, that "Survival" article that ThomasT posted a link to taught me that Smith & Wesson made revolvers in 22 WRF. I had no idea!

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The Pocket Model is a Pocket Positive and horror of horrors is marked on the barrel ".32 S&W Long ctg" , it was only in production a few years, later ones are mark ".32 Colt New Police" which was a flat point .32 S&W Long
The top is a .38 Spl Police Positive Special (early) , .32 S&W Long Pocket Positve then an early Army Special .32-20 on an Official Police sized frame. Bottom the Police Positive Target .22 WRF "G" model (which meant the first series, the later guns with walnut grips were slightly beefier in the frame but without the .38 special cylinder opening unless they were .38 Special, quite confusing )

Thanks, Gordon! So your Pocket Positive is one of the early ones that did not have the new frame with the integral trigger guard? That fits with the early cartridge marking, before they came up the "Colt New Police" marketing ploy. Boy, there is a LOT to know about the evolution of Colt revolvers. Just keeping all the small frames straight is tough. For a long time, I thought all "Bankers Special" Colts were in .22 rimfire, because of an old detective novel I read. Now I can't remember if any of them were. Or, just to keep things relevant to the thread, if any of them were in 22 WRF.

ThomasT said:

Could you just have the cylinder reamed for 22 mag? I love shooting 22 mag from my Single Six Rugers. And the 22 WRF is a pretty cool round two. I have 200 or so left from an old Winchester run a couple of decades ago.

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Ebay sells them often has Single Six 22 mag cylinders for reasonable price. I got a Single Six from auction site that had both cylinders, but both were fluted same and I've gotten to the range and found I had wrong cylinder for the ammo, so I bought a spare Mag cylinder (unfluted) to easily tell the difference at a glance. This isn't recommended without fitting by a smith, but simply using a bore size rod and cocking and pushing rod down bore to base of each cylinder without touching cylinder at gap will tell if it's aligned, mine was actually better than the factory fitted one that came with it, surprisingly the factory matching mag. cylinder; fluted worked on my Stainless one perfectly. The other Single Six is Blued.

This is my H&R 22 Special from 1925 with the original grips.