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Jim Hauff · 09-30-2011, 10:25 AM

Old Gun,
Somehow I missed your response and photos - anyway, am I seeing your s/n correctly? Is it 7893?
Those letter stamps on the grip frame are found on almost all of the guns from that era and are apparently internal H&R inspection marks.
As you surmise - I'll bet that the cylinder was replaced at some point. As to the 4 digits stamped into the cylinder and "star" - probably all four because of the number ending with three zeros???
I have seen several cylinders with 6 digits stamped into them and on the star, while the vast majority have only 3 (rarely 4) - but SIX seems a bit of overkill - maybe the assembler had some spare time?

09-30-2011, 10:25 AM	#16
Jim Hauff Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Lehigh Valley, PA Posts: 2,980	Re: H&R Defender 38 (& relatives) Research Old Gun, Somehow I missed your response and photos - anyway, am I seeing your s/n correctly? Is it 7893? Those letter stamps on the grip frame are found on almost all of the guns from that era and are apparently internal H&R inspection marks. As you surmise - I'll bet that the cylinder was replaced at some point. As to the 4 digits stamped into the cylinder and "star" - probably all four because of the number ending with three zeros??? I have seen several cylinders with 6 digits stamped into them and on the star, while the vast majority have only 3 (rarely 4) - but SIX seems a bit of overkill - maybe the assembler had some spare time? __________________ Jim Hauff ~ H&R Collector In Memory of Bill Goforth and Jim Ritchie