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I retrieved my father's old revolver, H&R American Double Action

Prepper

Prepper

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My mother's selling her house and I'm removing all the crap from it and cleaning it. It was missing for 10+ years, but I finally found the old revolver my father had somewhere. I didn't know what it was until now, since he never talked about it or anything.

It looks rather crappy to me. I looked it up and learned these were last made in 1904, which surprised me since I thought my father got this new as a teenager. It must have been handed down to him, but not sure from who. There's no serial number or caliber written on it, just says "The American Double Action" on top. It has some weird caliber .32 S&W. Dad's stuff contained a few ancient boxes of ammo, including one small box of this caliber. I have it all pictured below.

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I'm not sure what I'd do with it. I'm not about to put this ancient ammo in and try it. I wonder how old the ammo is... it could be this was handed down too and is older than Dad?
 
greencobra said:
when i die, someone is going to inherit a safe full of nice stuff.

i'd have this gun deactivated and have a shadow box made for it and have it as a keepsake on the wall.
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Great idea. Keep the parts just in case you consider selling it down the road.
 
I have something similar and had it welded up and it's hanging on the wall. It was probably less safe to fire it than to stand in front of it when fired. It's also 32 S&W.
 
I'd keep it just because it was my dads. I wish I had my dad's gun, mom made him sell it when I was a teen. he had a German handgun that he had taken off a German officer in WWII while he was in Germany. Not sure of the make or model.
 
greencobra said:
when i die, someone is going to inherit a safe full of nice stuff.

i'd have this gun deactivated and have a shadow box made for it and have it as a keepsake on the wall.
Click to expand...

out of curiosity have you chosen said person yet? I am starting to wonder who to leave stuff to....but hopefully a long time from now
 
xjma99 said: Did you look at the bottom of the handle for SN?
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Prepper said:
Yup nothing there.
Click to expand...

How about under the grip panels?

I have a similar H&R thing that was my grandfather's. It was his "boot gun" (AKA "belly gun"). He was a bit of a hell raiser as a young man. If I can find some ammo for it, someday I'll give it a try.
 
The ubiquitous Saturday Night Special wheelgun! Tons of those were made by different companies. I have one made by Forehand & Wadsworth marked "British Bulldog", chambered in the same caliber. Notice on the box of ammo it says "central fire"? About the same time that ammo was made there were also very similar looking rounds of .32 caliber, but were rimfire.

To the right buyer, that old box of ammo is probably worth half as much as the gun itself. ;)
But I like greencobra's idea. Clean it up best you can so it doesn't continue to rust away, and shadowbox it. Being in NH, zero fux given about storage laws and all that garbage.
 
Chances are its chambered in .32S&W vs the more common and modern .32S&W Long.
The .32S&W was originally designed around blackpowder.
A number of manufacturers made them at the turn of the century.

You can find .32S&W loads but make sure they're suitable for "top break actions". They'll be much softer on the gun.
 
Is there any chance it’s a pre 1898 piece? That gives it some relative value. On top of that I’d always keep family members guns. Don’t change anything about it.

How is the timing and lockup?
 
Looks like some one shot that at one point with those black powder cartridges and tossed it in a draw.
I would clean it up and use it to shoot wax bullets on cold boring winter days in the living room.
 
mac1911 said:
I would clean it up and use it to shoot wax bullets on cold boring winter days in the living room.
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Cold boring winter days are when you head out to the range for Winter Warrior entries. C'mon man!!!! ;)

I have a box of .45colt wax rounds. They came with a bunch of other ammo that was part of the deal on my Uberti Cattleman. I've never fired one. Not sure what to expect. You can just shoot them indoors? You're gonna convince me to do like a desk-pop scenario, aren't you. Haha.
 
Al-Jim19 said:
Is there any chance it’s a pre 1898 piece? That gives it some relative value. On top of that I’d always keep family members guns. Don’t change anything about it.

How is the timing and lockup?
Click to expand...

Could be, but I'm not sure how to tell. Some of them were manufactured before 1898. I'm planning on keeping it, although I'll have to figure out if I want to do anything more than just leave it in the safe.
 
Archilochus said:
How about under the grip panels?

I have a similar H&R thing that was my grandfather's. It was his "boot gun" (AKA "belly gun"). He was a bit of a hell raiser as a young man. If I can find some ammo for it, someday I'll give it a try.
Click to expand...

I didn't look there yet... maybe I'll try later if it's obvious how to safely remove them (flat-head screw driver, I guess?).
 
dhuze said:
It was made in 1904 there is no SN on it.
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OP said they stopped making this revolver in 1904. Was there another tidbit on its history I missed?

If there is no serial number and there were some made prior to 1899 it would be hard to prove it’s not an antique.

It’s the Preban Glock principle: 1898 edition.
 
Al-Jim19 said:
OP said they stopped making this revolver in 1904. Was there another tidbit on its history I missed?

If there is no serial number and there were some made prior to 1899 it would be hard to prove it’s not an antique.

It’s the Preban Glock principle: 1898 edition.
Click to expand...

So.... This could actually be legal in Massachusetts without an LTC? Woo hoo! Although, I'm not going to go test out that idea.
 
dhuze said:
It was made in 1904 there is no SN on it.
Click to expand...
I found this over at the firearms forum....
H&R's THE AMERICAN DOUBLE ACTION
greg,
all H&R handguns will have a serial number (batch number) usually found as you stated under the grip panel or on the bottom of the butt.

the american double action revolvers take a several chapters in the up coming H&R book. without going into a lot of detail there are two models and several variation of each model. the two model are first 1884-1904 and second model 1905-1942.

first model first varialition 1884-1887 round barrel
first model second variation 1888-1897 octagon barrel
first model third variation 1898-1904 octagon barrel with company name and address on left side of barrel.
serial numbers for the first model are in at least two different series each starting a 01 and going up to 99,999. there are strong possiblities that there are as many serial number series as the first model was manufactured. could be one per year. not enough information has been gather to make any decisions on the number of serial number series yet so it is best just to identify them by variation. all first models a designed for black powder cartridge pressures

the second model 1905-1942 octagon barrel with company name and address and caliber marked on left side of barrel. one serial number series starting at 01 and going to over 700,000. all second models were desighed for smokeless powder cartridge pressures

the safety hammer models were treated by the catalogs as a seperate model even though they were serial numbered in the same series as the regular america double action revolvers. the H&R bulldog (chambered for rimfire cartridges) is treated the same way. both will be found in the first and second models

there is also a larger frame chambered for the 44 webley cartridge that may have a completely different serial number series. as there are no known serial number records available for this model and other pre1940 models an exact serial number record may never be possible.

you are just going to have to wait for the book for a full explaination of the serial numbers and even that will not be considered 100%, only my interturpation of known serial numbered revolvers.
bill
 
45collector said:
Cold boring winter days are when you head out to the range for Winter Warrior entries. C'mon man!!!! ;)

I have a box of .45colt wax rounds. They came with a bunch of other ammo that was part of the deal on my Uberti Cattleman. I've never fired one. Not sure what to expect. You can just shoot them indoors? You're gonna convince me to do like a desk-pop scenario, aren't you. Haha.
Click to expand...
Ok so days when your to lazy to go out.
I used my SW 32cal top break with loads consisting of primed brass and 1/4" ish thick wax sheet. Prime the case and then " cookie cut" the brass into the wax. Makes for some plinking fun. Warning they are enough to injure and can go through some material.
 

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