You'd think I'd know better...

[Michael Tinker Pearce]

...and here's the 'after' shot of the gun refinished:

 

[Tallball]

Nice work!

 

[kBob]

"OH MY GOSH! HE HAS RUINED THE COLLECTOR VALUE!!!!"

There, I have gotten that out of the way for everyone. Personally I feel Tinker has ADDED value to this revolver.

Great work , Tinker. Now go shoot it. Thanks for the lock work pictures as well as you before during and after pics.

I would be proud to own that gun.....and you know, Tinker, Christmas IS in only a few days........ Now that there is a compliment in these parts.

-kBob

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy Again

Thanks for posting the photo.

Well, so much for my theory. The internals of your revolver are pretty much the same as any modern S&W revolver. If your gun is really a 4th Change, and the SN seems to indicate that, and if my theory about 'major internal changes in the trigger, hammer and sear' with the 5th Change had been correct, I would have expected your lockwork to look more like this.

This is the lockwork of the 32 Hand Ejector 1st Model (Model of 1896) that I posted earlier. Notice instead of a rebound slide there is a rebound lever, actuated by a leaf spring pinned to the grip frame. Underneath the rebound lever and hidden from view is a trigger lever. Your revolver has a rebound slide, pretty much the same as any modern S&W revolver. The earlier mechanism, with the separate rebound lever and trigger lever is the way S&W started making their swing out cylinder models. S&W changed over to the current design in 1905 with the 38 Hand Ejectors, and I was curious when they would have made the change with the 32 Hand Ejectors.




To further illustrate the point, here is the lockwork in a 38 Military & Police, 1st Model (Model of 1899). Notice it has the same rebound lever/trigger lever arrangement of your 32 revolver.

Here is the lockwork in a 38 M&P from 1920. Notice it has the current rebound slide type of lockwork.

But thanks anyway for posting the photo.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

"OH MY GOSH! HE HAS RUINED THE COLLECTOR VALUE!!!!"

Well, there are collectors and there are acquirers. I consider myself to be somewhere in between. I have a few truly collectable firearms, and I have a whole lot of interesting examples of old firearms that do not have any 'COLLECTOR VALUE!!!!' to a serious collector. The subject of this thread did not have any serious collector's value when the OP purchased it. The condition was pretty bad, and there were enough of these made that no serious collector would have been interested in it anyway. If this had been a really beat up Walker Colt and he had stripped the old finish off of it, it would have been a different story. But it is not. Besides the fact that it is the purchaser's gun, and he could do anything he pleased with it, no serious collector would have been interested in this example anyway.

 

[MikeJackmin]

If it won't shoot well because of the pitting, you might consider having the barrel counterbored instead of chopped.

 

[Monac]

Maybe someone has already mentioned it, but you will find that pretty much any grip that will fit a J-frame round butt will also fit this gun, which is very nice when it comes to actually shooting it. I like the old J-frame Target (Trophy?) grips. You can find them on E-bay, and sometimes you can even find them at a good price. (BTW, the preceding is also true for the S&W 38 Perfected Model - same grip frame.)

This website:

http://www.hollowpointmold.com/wondersight/

advertises bolt-on adjustable sights for I-frame revolvers, among others. However, I have no experience of their products. Perhaps others here have?

To me, 32 Long is one of the most pleasant cartridges to shoot, on a par with 22 rimfire. I like wadcutters for paper punching. Fiocchi makes a 32 Long load with a FMJ round-nosed bullet, for some reason. It disappeared from the market for years, but is back. It used to be loaded a bit hotter than American factory rounds. I don't know if the current stuff is or not.

Congrats on a bargain, and kudos for fixing up a basically sound, good quality gun. My first two pistols (a new H&R 999 and a battered Sauer 38H) cost $125 each, but that was over 35 years ago!

 

[Monac]

accidental double post, don't know how to delete.

 

[Michael Tinker Pearce]

Maybe someone has already mentioned it, but you will find that pretty much any grip that will fit a J-frame round butt will also fit this gun, which is very nice when it comes to actually shooting it. I like the old J-frame Target (Trophy?) grips. You can find them on E-bay, and sometimes you can even find them at a good price. (BTW, the preceding is also true for the S&W 38 Perfected Model - same grip frame.)

This website:

http://www.hollowpointmold.com/wondersight/

advertises bolt-on adjustable sights for I-frame revolvers, among others. However, I have no experience of their products. Perhaps others here have?

To me, 32 Long is one of the most pleasant cartridges to shoot, on a par with 22 rimfire. I like wadcutters for paper punching. Fiocchi makes a 32 Long load with a FMJ round-nosed bullet, for some reason. It disappeared from the market for years, but is back. It used to be loaded a bit hotter than American factory rounds. I don't know if the current stuff is or not.

Congrats on a bargain, and kudos for fixing up a basically sound, good quality gun. My first two pistols (a new H&R 999 and a battered Sauer 38H) cost $125 each, but that was over 35 years ago!

Thanks Monac!

I'm most likely to make a custom grip for this gun- I want to do stag with a home-made T-Grip, or might do a target grip myself. I love the look of that adjustable sight and I'm going to research it some more. It would really fit the vintage character of the gun. Thanks for the link!