Burgo nr103 22 short

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ericuda

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Few questions on this little guy. Looks like the integral firing pin is broken off the hammer. I see numrich shows one. Looks like the cylinder rod is missing and not sure what kind of ejector that it should have. Pics online didn't show that well.

Few questions. How do you remove the cylinder and what kind of ejector did it use. Also the cylinder spins freely even with gate closed and hammer closed. Cylinder is right when cocked. Is a double action. Any thoughts or help appreciated.

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That is a neat piece. I've never heard of them before.
I don't think I see anywhere for an ejector rod to connect at the front, so maybe the hole in the front of the frame is to be used with a separate rod, like the Barkeep type SAs on the market today.
As for the freespinning cylinder, I do think that was a thing back in the day with some of the revolvers.
I hope you can get it up and running
 
Thx little looking it may compare to Jennings j22 quality. Barrel is marked made in Germany but quality is not good. Yes a few shots for my friend a year is all I want. She got from grandpa and shot as a kid.
 
Burgo was the brandname of Burgsmüller, a firearms distributor in Kreiensen, Germany. He sold Weihrauch , Anschutz, Voere and many other brands under his own name. Yours looks like a Roehm, maybe a model RG23?

My Burgo branded Anchütz 1422:
Burgsmueller-1.jpg
 
I was given one of those a few years ago. New. I'm not going to shoot it and destroy the obvious highly desirable gun's collector value. It is undoubtedly worth two to three times the original $14.95 cost.
 
Germany used to a be a major producer of cheap revolvers, some of them quite poor guns. I guess this is no longer widely known, because that business pretty much ended in the 1980's, when the Germany mark (their currency before the Euro) rose sharply in value compared to the US dollar, and they could no longer sell such guns profitably.

RG ("Roehm Gesellschaft") was a major maker, and had the lowest reputation, although they introduced better models as time went on. Apparently their first revolver was a blank-firing starters pistol which they adapted to live ammunition, which did not go well.

Weirauch, which used the Arminius trade name on the guns it sold itself, was a step up, and made decent guns, mostly in 6-shot 38 / 7-shot 32 / and 8 or 9 shot 22 sizes.

I think there was at least one more company, named Schmidt, about which I know little except that a US-assembled revolver named Kimmel used Schmidt parts.

All I know about Burgo is that it was short for Burgsmuller, and they bought revolvers from the other makers and had the Burgo name put on them, as PzGren says above. ericuda's looks like a Schmidt to me, but it could be an RG. Neither are considered worth fixing except for people who just like making things work.

BTW, what made it possible for the Germans to produce such cheap revolvers was the use of cast zinc alloy for the frames, and other parts if possible. US manufacturers of inexpensive guns adopted this approach when the Gun Control Act of 1968 cut off the import of cheap foreign pistols, but they focused on automatic pistols.

I don't know why the Germans focused on revolvers. As the US makers showed, automatics can be easier to make. Heck, so did the Spanish makers during the First World War. Maybe the Germans knew that the US was revolver country at that time.
 
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Germany used to a be a major producer of cheap revolvers, some of them quite poor guns. I guess this is no longer widely known, because that business pretty much ended in the 1980's, when the Germany mark (their currency before the Euro) rose sharply in value compared to the US dollar, and they could no longer sell such guns profitably.

.

Those guns were made for export mostly, there is always a sucker somewhere to buy something cheap. Those guns were designed in Germany for use as starter and tear gas guns. Weihrauch, not Weirauch, used the Arminius trade name only for some revolvers, not for the premier quality airguns, or their target rifles. Germans themselves used Walther, Hämmerlis, FN 150s, Korths, S&W, and Colt revolvers for target shooting in their gun clubs, which were accepted by the UNESCO as a world cultural heritage.

Arminius is the name that the Romans gave to Hermann, one of the many hostages of Cherusci nobles led into captivity in Rome, who later returned to Germany and defeated two Roman legions led into Germany by Publius Quinctilius Varus in the Varus battle.
 
Just to give a small example of the wide range of quality that H. Weihrauch has produced, the Arminius revolvers were budget revolvers but their HW9 is a serious target revolver with a very good trigger and capable of excellent accuracy. The HW7 and HW9 was often used in Germany as club owned guns, which speaks for their build quality and durability. Besdies the exceelent HW35 air rifle, that was imported by Beeman here, H.W. Weihrauch of Mellrichstadt also made the HW52 falling block rifle. This gun is very well made and was usually sold with diopter match sights.

Burgo's main focus was always on less expensive guns, the Roehm 23 and my Anschutz, which is actually a model 1420 and not a 1422, are good examples. The bulk of guns sold under the Burgo brand was the Voere repeating bolt action rifle, that is the German counterpart to the Marlin 925.

Weihrauch-HW52.jpg
This is actually a HW35E, the longer an nicer finished export version:
HW-35.jpg
HW7S.jpg
I tested this HW9 at 25 yards offhand, not too bad imho
IMG-2452.jpg
 

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Those guns were made for export mostly, there is always a sucker somewhere to buy something cheap. Those guns were designed in Germany for use as starter and tear gas guns. Weihrauch, not Weirauch, used the Arminius trade name only for some revolvers, not for the premier quality airguns, or their target rifles. Germans themselves used Walther, Hämmerlis, FN 150s, Korths, S&W, and Colt revolvers for target shooting in their gun clubs, which were accepted by the UNESCO as a world cultural heritage.

Arminius is the name that the Romans gave to Hermann, one of the many hostages of Cherusci nobles led into captivity in Rome, who later returned to Germany and defeated two Roman legions led into Germany by Publius Quinctilius Varus in the Varus battle.

The Battle of the Teutoberg Forest. 9/9/9

"Varus! Give me my legions!"
 
PzGren. Good info. If I look at the burgo 103 on numrich the hammer is different. Looks like the firing pin is cast integral with the hammer and the one I show looks broken off.
 
If this is the part:...
Hammer Assembly | Gun Parts Corp.
...then the solution should be easy and cheap. Cut a groove into the hammer, drill two holes and fit a firing pin that you can make from a piece of metal. Soldering and even gluing might also work.

*** I just looked at the picture of your hammer and it appears to be indeed broken off.
 
I think this is what ericuda's gun is. This one was sold under the EIG name: https://www.gunauction.com/buy/14477804

I think it is more likely to be a Herbert Schmidt product than an RG, but I am not an expert on German pot metal.

BTW, that auction ended in 2017, and the gun sold for $35 + shipping, despite the claim that it was in 85% condition. Prices appear to have skyrocketed since then, no doubt due to Covid, the fact that the Democrats are in power, and...I don't know, maybe the harmonic convergence? Anyway, this seller wants $130 + shipping for his: https://www.gunbroker.com/item/912258085

PS 10/06: This is a similar, although not identical guns sold under the trade name "Rosco" (1920's American slang for a pistol, I think). It is a mere $150 to start: https://www.gunbroker.com/item/910523864
 
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PzGren I am not sure but looks like frame had a rectangle slot where the integral firing pin would fit. Not sure though.
 
PzGren I am not sure but looks like frame had a rectangle slot where the integral firing pin would fit. Not sure though.

It is very hard to make a long distance evaluation with the given facts. You have the pistol in hand and can see it. The sheared off firing pin should be easy to replace and cheap enough. To find spare parts for the extractor housing would probably really go very much over the value of the gun.
I had bought Roehm, H&R, and Iver Johnson revolvers by the shoe box a few decades ago for $5 a piece and parts were dirt cheap and shipping cost was no factor then.
 
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