spanish revolver

Pictures and more information are a must.

I would love to help, but cannot at the moment.

Armero Especialistas Reunidas of Eibar, Spain

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But you probably already knew that because it probably says it on the barrel.

http://books.google.com/books?id=ok...specialistas Reunidas of Eibar, Spain&f=false

Like I tried to say in you other thread, cheap Spanish junk of the early 19th. century.

And it may in fact be an 8mm Lebel bore size and possibly chambering if it has a lanyard loop on the butt.

rc

Almost all those Spanish guns were made of cheap cast iron and I strongly recommend NOT firing them with ANY ammunition. It would be better to remove or grind off the firing pin to prevent future problems.

Jim

One www student said the reason you see so many cheap Spanish .32-20s is that they were making 8mm Lebels for the French alongside all the Ruby .32 Autos. After the war, some Basque genius concluded that if he ground a .32-20 reamer he could keep making 8mm barrels he was set up for and sell guns for the Winchester caliber in the Americas.

There is a long thread on the Spanish Alfas with pictures at
http://smith-wessonforum.com/lounge/145045-help-identify-alfa-revolver.html
They look like a Smith outside but not inside.

My 1911 Adolf Frank catalog shows a lot of knockoffs trademarked Alfa, but none of the Hand Ejector type. I conclude these are strictly Spanish.

That's exactly why you see so many old Spanish 32-20's.

Almost all of them have over-size 8MM bores and haven't blown up yet.
Even when .32-20 WCF Hi-Speed rifle ammo was being loaded years ago.

Or ringed a barrel yet from a stuck bullet like many S&W's of the day you see so often.

rc

Well, I have known of a couple of .32-20's that did blow up, though it seems more common with .38 Specials.

As to the "rifle" vs. "revolver" .32-20 ammo, I seem to recall reading that those revolvers were the reason. Prior to their importation, the only .32-20 ammo was the "rifle" load and both Colt and S&W revolvers were fine with it.

But when the Spanish guns were imported in that caliber, they began to come apart. Rather than try to handle the "your bullets blew up my new $2.00 gun" letters, the ammo companies reduced the power of the "regular" .32-20 and loaded the original specs for "rifle only" ammo.

Jim

The ORIGINAL .32 WCF was a black powder cartridge.
I thought the standard load was just a "nitro for black" type thing, little if any higher pressure and velocity than black.
Sharpe shows loads at "handgun" and "rifle" levels; maximum 15000 and 30000 psi respectively. No mention of low loads for 1873s.

It had nothing to do with Spanish S&W copies.

The reason they dropped the .32-20 WCF Hi-Speed rifle loadings was because of sticking bullets in the barrels of S&W and other 32-20 WCF revolvers.

The slow burning rifle powder of the day (similar to 2400 but slower I think) would sometimes fizzle out the barrel / cylinder gap without a complete high pressure burn.

That left the jacketed bullet stuck in the bore.

The next shot likely ringed the barrel.

That's why you find an uncommon number of old S&W 32-20's with ringed barrels compared to any other caliber they made them in.

There was never a problem with 32-20 WCF Hi-Speed ammo in 92 Winchesters or 1895 Marlin rifles.
It was all due to gas loss causing low pressure incomplete burns of slow burning powder of the day sticking the jacketed bullets in revolvers.

The same applies today with the warnings about down-loading slow burning ball power like H-110 / W-296 in revolvers.
If gas loss in a revolver exceeds the pressure requirements for a complete powder burn, you will have stuck bullets, and big problems the next shot!

rc

I wonder why that story is always told about S&W and if the ringed barrel problem was as common in the Colts. Colt made the SAA, the 1878, the Army Special, and the OP in .32-20, but no one ever mentions Colt's having problems. They may be heavier guns than the K frame S&W, but a stuck bullet will ring the barrel in any gun, even one that says "Colt" on it.

Or were some of those "S&W" revolvers really Spanish copies?

Jim

Well, I've seen more then one real S&W 32-20 with a ringed barrel.

It's the first thing I look for when I pick one up.

I haven't really paid much attention to Colt DA's, but Colt 32-20 SAA's barrels are several times thicker then the pencil barrel S&W's.

rc

No telling. I have a Spanish-made .32-20, which has been rebarreled with a real S&W factory barrel, possibly the original barrel got "ringed." It works fine as a plinker with Cowboy type reloads using Traiboss, I haven't tried pushing it for high performance.

GCBurner said:

No telling. I have a Spanish-made .32-20, which has been rebarreled with a real S&W factory barrel, possibly the original barrel got "ringed." It works fine as a plinker with Cowboy type reloads using Traiboss, I haven't tried pushing it for high performance.

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Don't.

natman said:

Don't.

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Wouldn't think of it. Anybody who tries to upload an 80-year old .32-20 into a .327 Magnum is just asking for a KABOOM!