When I was young (no more than 15 or so) I was already a gun nut, and a schoolfriend told me that he had an old revolver.
I was very excited to see it, as in the UK guns are scarce to say the least (although they are a lot more scarce now than they were then)
He brought it in to show it to me, and eventually gave in to my pleas to buy it from him. I got it for the princely sum of 5GBP (about $7.50)
I have two pretty much unrelated questions regarding this old revolver.
The first deals with legalities, and the second with identification. I hope I posted in the right part of the forums, but if I didn't, please feel free to move this post to a more appropriate place if you're a mod.
The legal question is about importing the gun.
I am from the UK, but have now moved to the 'States.
The gun is currently 'living' with my parents in the UK, but I'd love to be reunited with it as it has enormous sentimental value.
The gun is most definitely in an obsolete caliber, being a rimfire of around .32".
I guess from what I can find that the obsolete caliber makes the gun legal pretty much anywhere (even in the UK
) but I live in NY (State, not City) and thus have to deal with pretty restrictive laws.
I'm worried about mailing the thing here and having a postal worker freak out.
Has anyone done this type of thing before?
Do I have to let anyone know if I import an obsolete caliber firearm?
My second question is one of identification, which is going to be difficult without a photo.....
The gun is weird.
Caliber seems to be around 7-8mm rimfire (I never measured it with anything accurate) and the cylinder has five chambers.
The front end looks EXACTLY like the front end of a S&W tip up revolver:
Everything is the same as the S&W, the small brass sight, the scalloped barrel rib, the ejector rod thing, the catch.
This really confused me as a kid when I was trying to identify it from photos in books!
The barrel hinge area is identical to the Smith, and the topstrap is very very similar, the rear sight area being the only difference.
The cylinder looks almost the same as the S&W too, it is fluted and has chamfered front edges. The only difference is the locking area. My gun has little ramps to lock the cylinder instead of the notches on the Smith.
Ok, moving around to the rear part of the gun, it looks like one of the many Belgian pinfire revolvers.
The gun has a folding trigger which flares towards the tip in a spoon shape, generally along the same lines as this one:
I have inspected many of these pinfire revolvers, and the lockwork always seems to be the same design. My revolver also has that same type of lockwork.
Here's a picture of a disassembled pinfire revolver with essentially identical lockwork and general construction:
The butt has an oval plate with a lanyard ring. Interestingly, the lanyard ring is held on with a square (ie 4 sided) nut.
The screw that holds the leaf mainspring to the frame also has a square head.
the finish was completely absent when I acquired the gun (or it was in the white to begin with)
The grips are made from wood that had been blackened (some areas inside the grips show that the wood was not actually black like ebony but had been stained) and were fitted perfectly to the gun, obviously by hand.
So, the gun is a bit of of a hybrid between Belgian pinfire revolver design and S&W design!
The only markings are a digit (a 5 or a 7 I think) stamped on the rear end of the cylinder.
My best guess is that this revolver was made by a Belgian gunmaker, who was accustomed to making pinfires and decided to copy the S&W design.
Has anyone encountered such a beast and might be able to tell me a bit more about it?
I was very excited to see it, as in the UK guns are scarce to say the least (although they are a lot more scarce now than they were then)
He brought it in to show it to me, and eventually gave in to my pleas to buy it from him. I got it for the princely sum of 5GBP (about $7.50)
I have two pretty much unrelated questions regarding this old revolver.
The first deals with legalities, and the second with identification. I hope I posted in the right part of the forums, but if I didn't, please feel free to move this post to a more appropriate place if you're a mod.
The legal question is about importing the gun.
I am from the UK, but have now moved to the 'States.
The gun is currently 'living' with my parents in the UK, but I'd love to be reunited with it as it has enormous sentimental value.
The gun is most definitely in an obsolete caliber, being a rimfire of around .32".
I guess from what I can find that the obsolete caliber makes the gun legal pretty much anywhere (even in the UK
) but I live in NY (State, not City) and thus have to deal with pretty restrictive laws.I'm worried about mailing the thing here and having a postal worker freak out.
Has anyone done this type of thing before?
Do I have to let anyone know if I import an obsolete caliber firearm?
My second question is one of identification, which is going to be difficult without a photo.....
The gun is weird.
Caliber seems to be around 7-8mm rimfire (I never measured it with anything accurate) and the cylinder has five chambers.
The front end looks EXACTLY like the front end of a S&W tip up revolver:
Everything is the same as the S&W, the small brass sight, the scalloped barrel rib, the ejector rod thing, the catch.
This really confused me as a kid when I was trying to identify it from photos in books!
The barrel hinge area is identical to the Smith, and the topstrap is very very similar, the rear sight area being the only difference.
The cylinder looks almost the same as the S&W too, it is fluted and has chamfered front edges. The only difference is the locking area. My gun has little ramps to lock the cylinder instead of the notches on the Smith.
Ok, moving around to the rear part of the gun, it looks like one of the many Belgian pinfire revolvers.
The gun has a folding trigger which flares towards the tip in a spoon shape, generally along the same lines as this one:
I have inspected many of these pinfire revolvers, and the lockwork always seems to be the same design. My revolver also has that same type of lockwork.
Here's a picture of a disassembled pinfire revolver with essentially identical lockwork and general construction:
The butt has an oval plate with a lanyard ring. Interestingly, the lanyard ring is held on with a square (ie 4 sided) nut.
The screw that holds the leaf mainspring to the frame also has a square head.
the finish was completely absent when I acquired the gun (or it was in the white to begin with)
The grips are made from wood that had been blackened (some areas inside the grips show that the wood was not actually black like ebony but had been stained) and were fitted perfectly to the gun, obviously by hand.
So, the gun is a bit of of a hybrid between Belgian pinfire revolver design and S&W design!
The only markings are a digit (a 5 or a 7 I think) stamped on the rear end of the cylinder.
My best guess is that this revolver was made by a Belgian gunmaker, who was accustomed to making pinfires and decided to copy the S&W design.
Has anyone encountered such a beast and might be able to tell me a bit more about it?
:banghead:
