Hello All,
I am a long time lurker, a short time member, and first time poster.
First I would like to commend THR and it's members for consistently high quality information, with none (or very little) of the scary stuff found on other gun boards... thank you all!
Now on to the question / situation at hand...
Just today I acquired an early-ish S&W 5 screw and pinned revolver. I was led to believe it was a .38 but on closer inspection, the chambers looked a little small and the lo and behold the barrel is stamped (roll-marked?) 32-20 OTG.
The serial number is 1315XX, which if this is a "32-20 WCF Hand Ejector Model of 1905" would indicate it is a 4th change manufactured around between 1915 and 1940. It is a square butt with checkered wooden grips with no S&W medallion. Also, it has about 20% of the nickel finish left. Lockup is tight, I haven't checked the cylinder gap yet, but it looks pretty good.
Before I go any further, I have searched the web and THR quite a bit and have found no references to 'OTG', though I have found a few for 'CTG'. I am pretty sure the mark on the barrel is 'O' and not 'C' but I am perplexed.
So my questions are:
1. What is a 32-20 OTG?
2. If this is a 32-20 WCF, is the correct ammo the 32-20 WCF bottle-necked cartridge?
3. And last but not least, what is the recommended way to strip the nickel finish in preparation for bluing? I expect I will use a cold-blue as the few people still hot blue.
BTW, I have refinished a couple of MILSURP rifles using glass bead blasting and then parkerizing, and have also DuraCoated a 1911 after blasting and parker-ing, but I don't know the best way to proceed with this project.
Thank you!
I am a long time lurker, a short time member, and first time poster.
First I would like to commend THR and it's members for consistently high quality information, with none (or very little) of the scary stuff found on other gun boards... thank you all!
Now on to the question / situation at hand...
Just today I acquired an early-ish S&W 5 screw and pinned revolver. I was led to believe it was a .38 but on closer inspection, the chambers looked a little small and the lo and behold the barrel is stamped (roll-marked?) 32-20 OTG.
The serial number is 1315XX, which if this is a "32-20 WCF Hand Ejector Model of 1905" would indicate it is a 4th change manufactured around between 1915 and 1940. It is a square butt with checkered wooden grips with no S&W medallion. Also, it has about 20% of the nickel finish left. Lockup is tight, I haven't checked the cylinder gap yet, but it looks pretty good.
Before I go any further, I have searched the web and THR quite a bit and have found no references to 'OTG', though I have found a few for 'CTG'. I am pretty sure the mark on the barrel is 'O' and not 'C' but I am perplexed.
So my questions are:
1. What is a 32-20 OTG?
2. If this is a 32-20 WCF, is the correct ammo the 32-20 WCF bottle-necked cartridge?
3. And last but not least, what is the recommended way to strip the nickel finish in preparation for bluing? I expect I will use a cold-blue as the few people still hot blue.
BTW, I have refinished a couple of MILSURP rifles using glass bead blasting and then parkerizing, and have also DuraCoated a 1911 after blasting and parker-ing, but I don't know the best way to proceed with this project.
Thank you!
