I had a chance to buy (and took!) an 'H&R Sportsman' (no other identification on it) serial 39*** suggests it was made in 1939, with 9 rounds and top-break design and automatic ejection of spent brass as the 'star' pops up at opening. Adjustable rear sight and will fire single action or double. Nice trigger feel and almost looks like a jeweler made it by todays standards. I mean it is 'pretty' and sturdy and not 'modern' like guns from the 1960s forward. The grip is a one-piece wooden one with hand checkering and attaches to the rear of the grip frame with a single slotted screw through the rear of the grip. The gun is easily 90-95% condition and appears to never have been carried or otherwise marked up. It may have been fired very little, if at all. I gave $125 and added $10 for a 'box of bullets'... My lady friend didn't know what a brick was... Viper .22 brick and 1 box of something else. 550 +- rounds for $10 was nothing to quibble over and I just thanked her for thinking of me. No registration to anyone and it's a nice .22 that could fire .22LR and shorts and 9 rounds surprised me for an old revolver. Your thoughts ?
Even 1 single picture is 'too large' to upload. So I see no way to provide pictures. It seems odd that even 1 picture is considered 'too large' by the upload feature.
This software, for some reason, will not allow pictures (even one) much over the 1 mb limit. Here is a link that gives some pretty fair instruction on posting them. All you will need to do is reduce the size or compress them to the 1 mb size. I use microsoft office picture viewer an compress them to "document" size. http://www.thefirearmsforum.com/threads/how-to-post-pictures.19430/
If you have any more, feel free to email them to me and I can resize or host them. knight0334@yahoo.com
From what I can see - we're going to have a problem figuring this beast out. The barrel clearly doesn't match the receiver, and could have possibly been replaced. Or someone did a horrible job of trying to refinish the receiver with the barrel off.
It is certainly pre-1940, but the barrel has some of the features that help determine the variation(the era of production). And if the barrel isn't the original, it may be impossible to figure out.
Adjustable front sights started in the 2nd variation, 1933 and later.
Is the plum color on the frame an indication of re-blue? I have an H&R dingle action that shows similar coloring, blue barrel and plum frame. I've been told it is caused by re-blueing and different alloys but do not know this for sure. Any info appreciated.
Reminds me of the movie the Good the Bad and the Ugly where the Ugly goes into a gun store and mixes/matches revolver parts to make one gun. Still a bargain.
Plum isn't always an indicator of a rebluing. But when you have a plum receiver OR barrel, and the other is blue - the following possibilities may be the case:
1. One part was reblued.
2. One part was replaced.
3. The factory used parts from different grades of steel or bluing methods/batches.
4. The factory used parts from different eras(mix-matching happened back then to use up old parts to save $$$).
However, H&R would try to match the colors up a lot closer because that is a obvious flaw if it left the factory. That is too drastic of a color difference not to be noticed.
The only way to know for sure is to absolutely know the history of that gun while it was in the hands from the first private owner all the way to the present.
The plumb color is a clear indication of an error in the blue process. The chemical bath was not hot enough for the type of steal being blued. Without more evidence, I would consider a 999/Sportsman with a purple frame to be a reblue. In the case of blackdogxx's Sprotsman, I'm convinced that it has been reblued. It was not a bad deal for a shooter but not a steal either.
Pic 5470 is the right barrel side with Harrington & Richardson Arms then Worcester, Mass USA on line 2. Pic 5472 is the other side and the stamp is : H.&R. "SPORTSMAN" ... then line 2 is Double Action ... Tha hammer,barrel, and cylinder are blue and the frame/trigger appear reddish ( 'plum' ). The Cylinder and 'star' are both marked with '691' as you open and view the chambers, as is the inside of the rear sight/latch (only '91' is visible to the eye). That matches the '39691' on the inner side of the frame grip steel. Maybe this helps tell something. I see no marks on the frame anywhere except the '39691'. So to me the frame and the cylinder assembly and the rear sight are coded the same. One last clue is that the gun I have was wrapped in exactly the same sort of wrinkly strong paper as the gun shown above from 1941. No box.
The comment that it was 'not a steal either' seems short sighted to me, practically speaking. It's a gun that is not damaged, worn, or defective and it cost me $125 for a 9 round .22LR revolver that was never registered and is not now since it came as a private sale. Any .22 revolver that is mechanically sound and in good or better condition and unregistered is worth $125 if it was a fairly well-made weapon. To my eyes, this was never a cheapie handgun.
One more question(for now) - is there (1) or (2) patent dates on the cylinder? I'm going to guess there is only (1) patent date.
With the cylinder and extractor marked with the same serial number as the receiver, and the cylinder and barrel match in color - it is fare to assume the barrel is original. But the receiver may have been reblued, or a mix-match at the factory.
With the adjustable front sight, frame mounted firing pin, the shape of that barrel - I'm leaning towards a 2nd Variation(04/18/1933 to 1934 production).
Blue Book lists $160 for a 60% gun, and this gun is far above 60%. Without knowing if that is a factory botch or an aftermarket reblue - I'm not sure what to grade that as. I'm thinking around 80% to be safe, which is $265.
For $125 it was certainly a decent buy if you're a collector. If you're a shooter is was an awesome buy.
I must have misunderstood the serial numbering scheme. With 3 parts that are '039***' I thought it denoted 'made in 1939', but whenever it was made, as an unregistered .22 revolver with 9 rounds, it's certainly a good buy at $125 and $10 for a brick plus 1 box of hot .22s is also a very attactive deal.
Some H&R's have plum colored frames. The Sportsman is not one of them. And the hammers were never blued. That is one of the most reblued guns I have ever seen, Not surprising, 22s tend to get a lot of use.
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