Double Action Top Break?

I picked this up a couple years ago for $400. Enfield in 38/200 (38S&W) If you reload, 38/200 is easy to put together.




Fun gun, good shooter.

There aren't any Harrington & Richardson Model 926's in 38 S&W for sale on GunBroker.com now, but if you go there and search for H&R 925, there are four for sale at the moment. The priciest one is $325 right now, plus shipping (and FFL at your end). I think one of them isn't really a 925, it's actually a Defender, an earlier model with automatic instead of manual ejection. Being the oldest, it's also the most likely to have problems, of course. I owned one for a while, and never got the cylinder retaining latch to let go of the cylinder. The one on GunBroker has nice grips, though.

Given that .380 Enfield isn't available without handloading, the Enfield and the H&R use the same ammunition. The Enfield is sturdier and is real piece of military history; the H&R has adjustable sights and is double action, not double-action-only. The Enfield holds 6 shots, the H&R 5.

PS - Once my brain finally kicked in, I also did a search on GunBroker for Harrington Defender. There are two of those up, one early type without adjustable sights currently at $380, and one "project gun" at $75. The title for the project gun calls it a 32 S&W, but the description calls it a 38. Isn't GunBroker fun?

Funny this question.

I have been a fan of top breaks for MANY decades.

My only one is a H&R 999 6" barreled sportsman.

Now I just found a MINT H&R .32 S&W [ also Colt .32's ] that I am picking up tomorrow.

I fired it and she is too sweet to shoot !.

Luckily I have a couple of boxes of .32 S&W long & shorts that I have saved for many years !.

Might become a BUG ,if I want to live dangerously !

https://webleyscott.in/collections/frontpage/products/mkiv-32-pocket-revolver

Im sure these will be imported


Webley and Scott

I thought to go to the Gunbroker website to look at Webley mk. IV and VI. “Gotta be a few affordable there,” I thought.
Wrong.
Wow.
Asking prices have sure gone up since I bought my Webley some years ago.

no.5enfield said:

That looks exactly like what I want!

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If you check gunbroker and are willing to accept a less than collectible example, you can still get lucky. I got my Enfield that way for considerably less than $400 only a couple of years ago.

I have one of the last 250 Webley Mark IV that Webley and Scott made.



Matt's bullet makes a 200 gr hemispherical round nose bullet sized for the 38/200 mimicking the original MkI loading. You can buy it as a bullet for reloading or loaded ammunition. All Remington, Winchester Magtech and PPU all run occasional batches of a more tradition ~145 gr 38 S&W loadings that work just fine in the 30/200 Webleys.

I really want a shoot-able Mark VI in 455 Webley, preferable not shaved for 45 ACP but at this point I would take a shaved one that was in shoot-able shape and not exorbitantly priced.

Might be for a different thread, but even a single action (schofield?) for use with 45acp moon clips sure would be fun.

Just picked up this minty 32 H&R.

Do not know the date of birth,but its the best I have seen in a very long time.

Shot it before buying and she is dead on.

Luckily I saved 4 boxes of .32 long and a box of shots [ ok,one is a box of Colt .32's ].

There's an H&R top break in .32 sitting on the shelf in my local gun shop: Fox Valley Firearms in Appleton, WI. The price is well inside your budget. They have a website with contact info.

I used to have a Wembly .38 S&W that was a good shooter. Bought in the early 80s for under a $100.

There were a lot of .32 and .38 cal. double action top breaks made by the likes of S&W, Iver Johnson, Harrington & Richardson, Forehand & Wadsworth, and other names that have passed into history. Quality and refinement of design is usually not up there with modern designs, but it’d get you something to play with. These usually sell for $150 or less, even on gunbroker.

I have an H&R 999, a Webley Mk VI and an Iver Johnson that were all WELL under that.

Iver Johnson 3rd Model 38 S&W




Webley Mk VI

Surplus top break revolvers are not cheap. There are some Spanish copies that are out there that are pretty good that can be had for just a little more then the Enfields and Webley.
I got lucky and got mine a few years ago.

Mosin77 said:

There were a lot of .32 and .38 cal. double action top breaks made by the likes of S&W, Iver Johnson, Harrington & Richardson, Forehand & Wadsworth, and other names that have passed into history. Quality and refinement of design is usually not up there with modern designs, but it’d get you something to play with. These usually sell for $150 or less, even on gunbroker.

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Good luck with that, as far as the small S&W Top Breaks are concerned.

I have a few S&W Top Breaks, and some of them are double action.

38 Safety Hammerless at the top in this photo, 32 Safety Hammerless at the bottom.






38 Double Action at the top of this photo, 32 Double Action at the bottom.






32 Bicycle Revolver.






Another 32 Bicycle Revolver.






Double Action Perfected models.






I can tell you that none of them cost $150. If you find an old S&W Top Break for $150, grab it and run.



I paid $100 for this Iver Johnson Hammerless a whole bunch of years ago, but that was quite a long time ago.

Maybe I should start sending you links to gunbroker auctions We usually pay customers $25-50 for old top breaks and sell 5-10 a year on Gunbroker. There are a lot of them out there. When we throw em on gunbroker they sell between 75 and 200. Most have flaking nickel and aren’t as pretty as yours. Very seldom do they break 150. If it does though, you’re right, it’s usually one of the S&Ws. We’ve considered not buying them anymore just because they consistently don’t sell for a whole lot.

Are they fun to shoot?

Yup.

Bought a near mint 1932 Enfield in 1972-paid $35. With the older H&Rs, Iver Johnsons, etc. remember they were designed for low pressure cartridges. Most of the ones I have seen look like they were usually kept in a sock drawer.

Hey Driftwood, are those grip safeties on some of your top-breaks? Or just a part of the frame between the two grip panels? (Never seen that on a revolver - just curious, thanks).

There are plenty out there. Some need work, some just need love. Don’t be afraid to open one up to work on it. They are simple enough that they can be fixed. I recently bought 3 top break S&W guns and the total for all 3 was roughly $300. The single action just needed cleaned, the double actions both needed a little help internally but were working properly with very little expense.

^^That is known as the “lemon squeezer.” It is indeed a grip safety, designed to make it very hard for a child to fire.

wiscoaster said:

Hey Driftwood, are those grip safeties on some of your top-breaks? Or just a part of the frame between the two grip panels? (Never seen that on a revolver - just curious, thanks).

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There are grip safeties on a lot of the old top breaks. Much like the safety on a 1911, it’s a very simple mechanism that just locks the action until a bit of pressure is put on the grip by the web of the thumb and the fatty part of the palm below the thumb. Once there is pressure there it unlocks the gun.