I would like to know if for the Iver Johnson Trailsman 66 .38 S&W and the H&R Defender are made by the same company ? Or were they just the same designer or what ?
HARRINGTON & RICHARDSON, INC.
Location: Madison, North Carolina
One of the oldest manufacturers of firearms in the United States. Original Harrington and Richardson started in 1871 and was in existence until 1986. For all those years, the company was located in Worcester, Massachusetts. After the original company closed, in 1991 a new company, H&R 1871 was formed in Gardner, Massachusetts. In 2000, H&R 1871 was purchased by Marlin Firearms. The assets of Marlin, including H&R 1871 and its subsidiary, New England Firearms (NEF), were bought by Remington in 2007. H&R's corporate office is now located with Remington and Marlin in Madison, North Carolina, while the production facilities are at the former Remington plant in Ilion, New York. New England Firearms brand has been used for marketing some H&R products in recent years. See separate listing under New England Firearms (NEF). H&R ceased production in 2015
I don't think there is a current company
If you look over both the Defender and the Viking .38 S&W snubbies, as I have and start measuring things you really get puzzled because they are so similar except for stylistic features . Seems like a cross over in engineering for these two 50s-60s designs if you look closely. My Defender has a slightly better finish and is slightly beefier in certain places that really don't count than the Viking (Trailsman 66) but startling similar. Just wondering as they are NOT copies of any modern S&W or Colts and differ radically from their earlier top breaks they produced.There was no connection between Iver Johnson and Harrington & Richardson. Simplified copies of the S&W Double Action 32 and 38 became essentially a generic product by the 1890's, and it is difficult to tell them apart by eye until you become familiar the grips and other minor details. Even these 1950's/60's versions somewhat resemble each other, for the same reason that small frame S&W, Rossi, and Taurus 38 snubbies all used to look much alike; as Rubone says above, they are doing the same thing in pretty much the same way.
PS - I will say that it is strange to me that both these top break revolvers have a manual ejector. I don't know why this was ever a popular feature on top breaks, because it gives up automatic ejection, which was, to my mind, a significant advantage of the top break revolver. Maybe by the 1950's, manual extraction seemed like a high-class feature, since it was standard on Colt and S&W swing-out cylinder revolvers?
Likely simply stylistic influences. Here is my pre-"Defender" name and pre-model number version most likely made in 1938. You can see the early versions were very very plain. This one is serial number 234.If you look over both the Defender and the Viking .38 S&W snubbies, as I have and start measuring things you really get puzzled because they are so similar except for stylistic features . Seems like a cross over in engineering for these two 50s-60s designs if you look closely. My Defender has a slightly better finish and is slightly beefier in certain places that really don't count than the Viking (Trailsman 66) but startling similar. Just wondering as they are NOT copies of any modern S&W or Colts and differ radically from their earlier top breaks they produced.
Yes, it is pre-war as I said most likely from 1938. It's from before H&R started the year markings in 1940. It is not yet a "Defender" or "model 25" and pre-dates the name and model.Those are wonderful photographs, jar. Thanks for posting them!
Just to be detail oriented, that is an early WWII style H&R Defender. The later-war version had an adjustable rear sight like the Model 999. It may have had a different front sight, and maybe internal changes as well. The US government bought a lot of both kinds, for issue to armed guards in the US, and for the small arms issued to Liberty Ships.