Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What is this revolver?

Plowed up in East Tennessee in the 1940s. Appears to be a short 44 of some sort. 5 shot cylinder. Note notches on the grip. A third can be seen where the grip break begins. Blood gun?

Rusty!?!

Old 'H and R'

Thats what I was thinking, old H&R.

Best to throw it back in the dirt.

LOL! Well, it ain't repairable for sure but bet you ain't got a wall hanger with notches in the grip. It's in my bro-in-laws shop. His dad did the plowing for a corn field. Back then, and where it was, wouldn't be at all surprised if shine had a little to do with it and it got lost on purpose. What flavor of 44 would have been chambered then? It's a short cylinder.

Very likely a 44 rimfire.

Colt python

Rebore it to 44 mag.

wd40 works wonders!

All there was that I'm aware of is .44 rimfire, .44 Colt, and .44 Russian. Those were the short .44's. The pistol looks very H&R or Hopkins & Allen.

Evidence that not everything old is valuable.

To me, it looks like an old Belgian or British gun, and in that case, it would be something like the .442 Bulldog or something like that, a Webley Royal Irish Constabulary, something like that. It's unlikely to be an H&R, I don't think they made any .44s. Maybe a Forehand and Wadsworth.................

I have a similar revolver made by H&R. It is called The American Double Action and is chamberd for the 44 Webley. That is a very short 44 centerfire cartridge that was made in the early part of the 1900's up til the 1940's. The markings on mine are deep enough to have probably survived the rust that is on that one. Might check the top of the action to see if there are any markings left. The H&R is faintly marked on the left side of the barrel flats and I doubt it would have survived a good cleaning or two.

Thanks for that info.

Joe Salter has one listed like it H&R "The American".44 Webley.

The grip angle looks different from the H&R, although a similar type gun.

DF

Send it off to JES for that rebore

Early in my gunsmithing career, I ran across all sorts of H&R, Hopkins and Allen, and S&W pocket pistols; along with tons of Belgian copies. (Smit&Weston, Hopkins& Albert, Harold and Richards, etc.) It was common to see a pistol with what looked, at first glance, looked like the S&W monogram. Looking closer, it wasn't S&W. In fact, it wasn't anything at all. Same with the Owl's head on the H&R's.
The notches might mean crows killed or gophers! GD

Grip angle and length are terrible. You’d need awfully small hands and a crooked wrist for it to work well.

Trigger guard looks larger than the H&R.

I’d guess it’s a foreign copy. Probably a cheap gun when it was new.

If someone could post side by side photos that would become more evident.

DF