Always wanted a S&W Top Break...found one

Nice!
Hard to find em without flaking.

Checking your pics against Supica's "Standard Catalog of S&W," this is looking like a .32 Double Action, 4th model. Dates to 1883-1909 (your s/n shades toward the latter). His guess at price: $235-$285 (back in 2006). If you want to shoot it, try not to use smokeless.

I love double action top breaks. I would love to have a S&W double action and a Webley Mark VI. Looks like you got a nice revolver there.

WOW, WOW WOW, That looks like it was made yesterday. The grips are good and sharp from what I can see in the pics also, so it would lead me to believe that it may be original. Hard to believe though, but if it is, you may have found something special.

Is all the print on the barrel good and sharp or is it feathered in places?

@Driftwood Johnson and others , we need a little help.

The Colonel was posting while I was. I would have thought it was worth more than that. I would be to me.

tightgroup tiger said:

The Colonel was posting while I was. I would have thought it was worth more than that. I would be to me.

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It could be! Hard to tell between "really really nice" and "museum quality" just from a few pics.

Paul R Zartman said:

It's got quit a few scratches, not a museum piece in my mind

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That's the trouble with pictures, It still looks really nice though for that age.

Nice catch, looks like pretty good for its age!

.32 what? 32 S&W long? .32-20? When was Nickel Planting invented?

Looks more like a .38 to me.
Double Action .38 Third Model, 1884-1895, therefore a BATF Antique.
Black hammer, trigger and trigger guard on a nickel gun are correct but blue pins and screws are not.
Looks good but they made 200000 of this one model and resale value is not great.

I don't know when nickel plating was invented but S&W was selling nickeled revolvers in the '60s. The 1860s.

Col. Harrumph said:

Checking your pics against Supica's "Standard Catalog of S&W," this is looking like a .32 Double Action, 4th model. Dates to 1883-1909 (your s/n shades toward the latter). His guess at price: $235-$285 (back in 2006). If you want to shoot it, try not to use smokeless.

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Dang, I would have called it a 38. I can never tell when there is just one of them in the picture. It's a good looking example of the type.

whm, the ammo these 32 S&W top breaks used was just called "32 S&W". The 32 S&W Long came later (1896), and will not fit in these guns. When it did arrive, the name of 32 S&W was NOT retroactively changed to "32 S&W Short". This has caused confusion amongst the general public ever since.

Nickel electroplating was probably invented soon after nickel began to be produced commercially, which seems to have been in the 1850's. That is when nickel began showing up in coins, anyway. The coin we in the US call the nickel was introduced late in the US Civil War, to replace a silver 5 cent coin called a "half dime" (really). With the war on, silver coins were hoarded, and new coins were needed for daily business. There were a bunch of weird coins at the time, including a two-cent piece and a three-cent piece that was also made of nickel, once again confusing the general public ever since.

PS - If this was a 38, would J-frame grips fit it? It would be nice to keep the original hard rubber grips from cracking if fired, especially if they are even slightly tinted red-brown.

Howdy

Without having something to scale them against, it can be tough to tell from a photo if it is a 32 or a 38.

The 38 Double Action at the top of this photo is a 4th Model, it shipped in 1898. The 32 Double Action at the bottom of the photo is also a 4th Model, I have not looked up exactly when it shipped.









Judging from the size of your cylinder in comparison to the frame, I suspect you have a 38, not a 32. Serial Number range for the 3rd Model 38 is 119001 through 322700, manufactured from 1884 -1895. The only problem is your front sight should be pinned to the barrel like the two revolvers in the photo above. Your front sight has been forged in place as part of the barrel. The 5th Model had either a pinned front sight or a forged one. Perhaps somebody swapped out your barrel for a 5th Model at some point. Who knows?

The cartridge it is chambered for is 38 S&W. Not 38 Special.

If a 32 it is chambered for 32 S&W. Not 32 S&W Long, that cartridge had not been invented yet. Certainly not 32-20, the cylinder is way too short for that.

Yes, S&W was nickel plating revolvers from the very beginning in 1857. In fact with their small revolvers more left the factory nickel plated than blue. 19th Century blue finishes were not as robust as modern blues are. The old blue could rub off fairly easily, that is why nickel plating was popular, it provided better corrosion resistance than some of the old blue finishes. Case Hardened hammer and trigger are correct for Nickel Plated S&W revolvers, notice the colors on the triggers and hammers in the photo above. Trigger guard is blued, which is also correct. Blued latch near the hammer is also correct for a Nickel Plated S&W.

The grips are Hard Rubber. Be careful, they get very brittle with age.

I suspect your revolver may have been refinished at some point. The joint around the side plate should be almost invisible. Still, it is a pretty good job. Often the edges of the side plate get rounded over when polished for a new layer of nickel, and then the joint stands out like a sore thumb. I can't tell from your photo, but if the marking on top of the barrel rib looks a little bit 'washed out' in places, then almost certainly a refinish. If refinished, it is a pretty good job.




The nickel plating on this 38 Double Action 3rd Model, which shipped in 1888, is a bit more challenged than yours. Yes, the screws should all be nickel plated, but it is not unusual for screws to be replaced over the years, with whatever happened to be handy when needed.









As far as ammunition is concerned, none of my 19th Century revolvers ever get fired with modern Smokeless ammo. Only ammo that I load with Black Powder or a black powder substitute.

The old S&Ws are awesome. I’m building my collection still. That 32 is a beauty, if you don’t reload, you should consider it. Even getting into reloading the cheapest way possible with a can of powder and a used lee-loader set will produce enough ammo to enjoy that little gun for a long time. Save your brass!!! They are a sickness. One word of caution, the guns are a bit on the fragile side. The later ones less than the earlier ones, but the design of them lends to problems with parts peening, cracking (grips), shearing (trigger sear) or breaking (bolt aka cylinder stop). None of that really happens when a gun is well lubed, and not abused by shooting rapid fire or flipping the latch and playing with it.

Since it was mentioned and out of curiosity - say this is a .38, which .38? .38 Special, Long Colt, Other? 2nd question, if you were to reload for an old cartridge like this, and use modern powder, can you just shoot loads on the low end of the scale? or is there some other reason to shoot black powder, well - other than it being cool, and is what it was designed for?

Very cool firearm.

Yes, a collector here said that the small frame double actions were Smith's equivalent of the Colt Lightning, early design, not real sturdy.

Caliber is, as said, .38 Smith & Wesson. Period.

I think J grips can be trimmed to fit but there are plastic grips looking like the hard rubber.

I think Driftwood J covered all the bases. Here is a .38 from 1901 and the difference between 38 S&W and 38 Special.

How did you come to buy a gun without knowing the caliber?