Howdy
The 38 Safety Hammerless revolvers went through 4 different designs of the barrel latch. The first type was called the Z Bar, which was pushed sideways to open it. Sorry, I don't have a photo of a Z Bar equipped Safety Hammerless.
With the 2nd Model S&W came up with a pretty elegant design for the latch. A knurled button that you pressed down to break open the gun. The revolver on the left in the photo below is a 2nd Model. With the 3rd Model they changed the latch again, but you still pushed down the knurled latch to break open the gun. The revolver on the right is a 3rd Model.
The difference of the two designs becomes obvious in this photo.With the 2nd Model, the knurled button stays attached to the frame. With the 3rd Model, the knurled latch is attached to the barrel extension. Yes, it can be confusing opening it. I had to refamiliarize myself with it just now, and wound up breaking a thumbnail in the process. With the 3rd Model you have to push the latch down far enough to free the barrel, but you have to push it light enough so that you can rotate the barrel up. It takes a little getting used to. Why did they change the design from one that is easy to use to one that is not so easy? My guess is cost to manufacture. There are less parts in the 3rd Model latch than in the 2nd Model latch, and flinty old Daniel Wesson was always looking for ways to drive the cost out of manufacturing. The 2nd Model was only produced from 1887 until 1890. The 3rd Model was produced from 1890 until 1898.
By the time the 4th Model came out in 1898, S&W went back to the same 'T Bar' style latch that they had been using all along in the larger #3 Top Breaks.
Here is a photo of basically the same style latch on a Russian Model from 1875.
Why did they mess with those other designs? No idea. But an interesting research project.
Here is a photo of the innards of my 38 Safety Hammerless 3rd Model. If the gun is working correctly, I would not bother taking it apart further than this to clean it and lube it. If you are going to shoot it with Black Powder (and I will explain in a minute why you
should only shoot it with Black Powder) all I would do is flush it out real well with a strong solvent. I used to use lacquer thinner, but these days I prefer to use regular drugstore rubbing alcohol. Do it in a well ventilated area, the fumes can overcome you. Just flush it real good with alcohol, working the action.
The cylinder is easy to remove on these. Open the gun and press down on the spring in the hollowed out area on top of the top strap. Lift the cylinder slightly and rotate it counterclockwise. There is a reverse thread on the arbor and the cylinder will rise up off the arbor. Reverse the process to reinstall the cylinder.
Before you close it up again, lube the insides. If you are only going to shoot it with Black Powder (as I am recommending) use Ballistol to coat everything real good. I don't subscribe to the school of thought of lightly lubing these old guns, I coat all the parts real well with Ballistol. Then button it up again.
OK, here is why I never shoot any of my antiques with Smokelss ammo. I have heard all the arguments about modern ammo is loaded down to simulate the pressure of BP ammo. What nobody tells you is almost all Smokeless Powders have a much quicker pressure spike than Black Powder. The old steel of these guns may not put up with that rapid pressure spike. Think about it this way. If you are trying to pull a car with a rope, and you have the rope tied to the bumpers of the cars, what happens if you start the towing car up with a jerk? The rope breaks. But if you ease the gas and start pulling gently, the rope will not break and you can get the other car rolling. It is the same thing with the old steel in these guns. The fact is, Colt did not factory warranty the SIngle Acton Army for Smokeless Powder until 1900, when they felt they had developed a good enough heat treating process for the steel of the cylinder to withstand the shock of the Smokeless pressure spike. It is dicey trying to pin down S&W as to when their guns were factory guaranteed for Smokeless, but I doubt if they had access to steel that was any better than Colt did just a few miles down the river. Anyway, I have a reprint of a 1900 S&W catalog and it specifically states they will not guarantee their revolvers when fired with Smokeless Powder. By the 1905/1906 they had softened their stance on it a bit.
Anyway, if you want to shoot your Safety Hammerless with Black Powder you are going to have a hard time finding 38 S&W bullets that carry a BP compatible lube. I use BP compatible lube on the bullets of all my BP cartridges, but I doubt if you will find any for 38 S&W. My solution was to use regular hard cast modern bullets with Smokelss lube, but rather than loading the cartridges with real Black Powder I used American Pioneer Powder (APP). APP can be used with modern hard cast bullet lubes. Don't try it with real Black Powder or Pyrodex.
