And that's where S&W's terminology gets confusing
Howdy
Yup, when I saw the title of this post,
Shooting my Smith & Wesson No. 1 1/2 I assumed you were shooting off some old 32 Rimfire rounds.
Generally speaking, collectors refer to the frame numbers 1, 1 1/2, and 2 only when speaking of the early Tip Ups.
When speaking of the Top Breaks, the frame size numbers are usually left out. Except for the large Number Three Top Breaks such as the Russian or the Schofield models. Probably because there were no big, Number Three Tip Ups made. The design was not strong enough for a large caliber revolver.
Here are a few photos to help keep things straight:
Technically you could probably call all three of these Number 1 1/2 revolvers. However the one at the top is the one the OP made his video about. The Standard Catalog of Smith and Wesson by Supica and Nahas (which I think of as one of the Bibles of S&W) calls it simply the 32 Single Action. SCSW also refers to it as (Model One and a Half Centerfire) in parenthesis, just like that. Notice the word Centerfire is included in the name. Notice too the big hinge screw towards the bottom of the frame. This one shipped in 1889. The other two are Tip Ups. Notice there is a small pivot screw at the top of the frame. The Blued one at the bottom is a Model Number One and a Half Old Model. It shipped in 1865. The one in the middle is a Model Number One and a Half New Model. It shipped in 1873. While we are looking at them, notice how much longer the Tip Up cylinders are than the Top Break Cylinder.
The 32 Single Action fires the 32 S&W round. Sometimes it is called 32 S&W Short, but most boxes just say 32 S&W. Yes, there is a 32 S&W Long round, but that came along later with the Model 1896, the first S&W with a side swinging cylinder. That is a whole 'nother story. The 32 S&W rounds are Centerfire, The rounds for the Tip Up are Rimfire. The Rimfire rounds pictured are 32 Long Rimfire cartridges. That is what the box says. Neal and Jinks say that the Model Number One and a Half Old Model was chambered for the 32 Short Rimfire, but it will also shoot the 32 RF Long cartridge. Yes, they do fit in the chambers just fine. I have some 32 Short Rimfires somewhere, but I could not lay my hands on them for these photos.
So here is how you load a Top Break vs a Tip Up. True to its name, a Top Break breaks open at the top and the barrel rotates down. Ejection is automatic, with the ejector rising up as the barrel rotates down and then snapping home. If you do it briskly and snap your wrist to the side, the empties will fly out. If you do it too slowly, the empties can fall down under the ejector and jam up the works. Trust me on this. A Tip Up is a much simpler mechanism. A latch at the bottom of the barrel allows the barrel to rotate up, hence the name. The cylinder is then removed. Empties are poked out of the cylinder using the rod mounted under the barrel. Fresh rounds are loaded, the cylinder is replaced, then the barrel is rotated down and latched in place.
Another view of the Tip Up ready to be loaded with fresh rounds.
Ejection with the Top Break. Yes, those are fresh rounds, I would never shoot this revolver with modern Smokeless ammo. They are only in the cylinder for the photo. The extractor is almost at the end of its travel, a little bit more rotation and it will snap down.
Yes, the sights are terrible. They are typical of most S&W Top Break sights. The rear sight is a pair of raised nubs attached to the barrel latch. These were hideaway guns, not meant for precision shooting. I would probably be hard pressed to hit an eight inch disc at five yards, kudos to the OP.
I was lucky enough to get the box with this 32 Single Action. Yes, it does have a rebounding hammer as the bottom line says.
The label on the end of the box is torn, but I'm pretty sure it used to say Single 32 Action. Yes, S&W nomenclature varied over time.
Anyway, kudos for making up some Black Powder 32 S&W ammo and shooting them. I make up large caliber S&W Black Powder ammo all the time, mostly 44 Russian, but I have only made up a couple of boxes of 38 S&W for a 38 Single Action 2nd Model.
I got a nice 38 Single Action 1st Model, also known as the Baby Russian not too long ago. It is in good mechanical condition and I should probably shoot it at some point.
By the way, let's not get into the whole loading Black Powder by volume thing. When we load Smokeless, if we are using a modern press we are loading by volume. In other words the powder measure is metering out the powder by volume. But anybody should know it is wise to do a sanity check weighing the powder with a scale. The same thing for loading Black Powder cartridges. I use a Black Powder measure that meters out the powder by volume. But I keep a chart in my loading notebook that tells me how much my standard charges actually weigh. The density of most brands of Black Powder varies. So XX.X CCs of Brand X can vary significantly in weight from XX.X CCs of Brand Y. For some cartridges, and for all my BP shotshells, I use a simple Lee dipper calibrated in CCs. But I can look in my chart and see how many grains it is, just for reference.
I guess it just seemed 5 grains .... or even 9 .... seemed a tiny amount of powder, even for a small caliber revolver like the OP's....
