H&R Defender 38

@ lowercase.
That is a nice little revolver.
I have a pile ofthe Old Top Breaks that I have got firing again, dating back to the 1890's.
I love playing with the designs from days gone bye,
But at least your pistol isnt limited to Black powder loads like many of mine.
Are you going to reload for it ?
For the first one I bought many years ago, I bought a Lee Classic Reloader and several boxes of ammo.
Thirty years now, and I am still reloading the same casings, and don't have to hunt around for in stock ammo.
That caliber seems pretty scarce at times, so stock up now.

It is still a weak top break design.

Use light loads that manuals say are for old top breaks.

The only top break .38 S&W you can use heavy loads is the Webely and Endfield.

Buffalo Bore makes self defense ammo for the round and they say use only in swing out cylinder and Webely top breaks.

Oh, and I have a Australian RAAF .38 S&W pre-victory, Colt Police Positive marked 'Chase Manhattan Bank, also in .38 S&W, and a pocket model Webely 3 inch .38 S&W.

I do enjoy them!

Deaf

Some of those guns were bought during WWII by the Defense Supplies Corp. (a U.S. Government entity) to arm plant guards and the like. Some were also supplied to the British (if they were used, it would presumably have been with their .38/200 ammo), and some to other allies.

If marked with any indication of such service, it would be quite collectible as a wartime secondary service revolver.

In any case, it was a good revolver and more than adequately strong enough for the .38 S&W cartridge.

Jim

That's a sweet lookin' H&R, lowercase.

I absolutely love it! I'm in my mid 50's and the older I get the more I get tickled looking at, holding and admiring designs from back in the day. Thanks for sharing. Don

I would imagine this revolver would be every bit as strong as a Webley, assuming it was made at the same time. A 1940's revolver was made for smokeless powder and would have been within spec for the .38S&W round. I can't how this revolver is any weaker than any Webley - I have owned the Mk VI in .455, a Webley Mk IV .38, and a stove-pipe painted Enfield in .38, and the top of the rear frame is no more substantial than that. The problem with the .38 S&W is the fact that many junk revolvers were also made in that caliber, including many made for black powder only. Buffalo is CYA because of those other ones. This H&R is the final design top break they used. It should safely handle any SAAMI-spec ammo.

I've got your gun's brother, except mine just has a plain blade front sight, no bead. The front sight elevation adjustment got mentioned in the OP. Just in case it got overlooked, the rear sight adjusts for windage via two small screws, one on each side of the fingergrooved portion of the latch...

Well Buffalo Bore says to NOT use their loads in any topbreak BUT the Webley.

Just FYI.

Deaf

I'd love to get one of those Defenders. I love the old top break revolvers. In part because I'm left handed.

You can determine the date of your H&R revolver with first letter(s) of the serial number. Each year was a different letter. Here is the method H&R used:

The prefix letter started in 1940 with 'A' and continued forward.
They did not use 'O' or 'Q'.
'Z' was reached in 1963, then 'AA' for 1964, 'AB' for 1965, and so on.

...
AR 1977
AS 1978
AT 1978
AU 1980
AX 1981
AY 1982
AZ 1983
BA 1984
BB 1985
BC 1986
..1986 also begins the use of new code starting with 'A' and the Second letter of prefix is either 'N' or 'H'...
N for NEF, H for H&R