Hi; my mother-in-law recently passed away and my husband inherited both a rifle and a handgun that belonged to his father who died in 1972. The handgun needs repair and I am trying to find out as much about it as possible before taking it to our local gunsmith. I know NOTHING about handguns and would like to restore or repair this for my husband. It is marked "Howard Arms Co.", with a serial number in the 9000's, and is small, less than 8 inches from barrel tip to farthest edge of handgrip. I believe I heard my husband mention that it is a .38 caliber, but to me it looks smaller and more lightweight than the images of .38's that I've pulled up on the internet. It holds 5 bullets. I can't find anything about Howard Arms Co. except that it no longer exists. Does anyone know how I could find out more on this pistol?
handguns marked "Howard Arms Co." were actually manufactured by "Meriden Arms Co." for the sears, roebuck co. (meriden was partial owned by sears. the time frame of thier manufacture is about 1910 through 1920's. if in need of repair it is usually not cost effective to do any repair.
the main retailer for these revolvers was sears but overages of sears orders were usually sold to other mail order companies. a good guess would be sears retailed at least 95% of meriden's production of firearms.
bill
also what kind of rifle did you aquire? What needs to be repaired on the pistol? this will also help . please post some pics and we can point you in the direction to getting it repaired
Thanks to both of you; I'm gradually learning quite a bit about this little pistol. I posted some pictures of it on this site, into an album called "Apron Pocket Special," which is what a woman in my town who has a collection of similar pistols calls it. She said it was manufactured as the first "child-safe" pistol because it's impossible for a small child to pull the trigger. With its 3-inch barrel it slips easily into an apron pocket. It was not only sold through Sears, but also through Montgomery Ward catalog and some drug/department stores, retailing back then for less than $10. Our particular pistol has a piece that's stuck tightly, not allowing proper assembly of the cylinder. I didn't want to force it, so took it to our gunsmith today. The rifle that my husband inherited is a .22, a Model 5 by Savage; it seems to be in working condition but needs a thorough cleaning after being stored without a case in the corner of a closet for so many years.
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