Quote:
Originally Posted by glowe
Joe - This has long had me confused as well. As you have, I did as much research as my resources allow, but have not come up with the answers either. Serialization of the 2nd Model Russians appear in several publications, but the authors never seem to be certain if their information is totally accurate. Probably due to difficulty in deciphering old production records. My dilemma is that have a Commercial Second Model Russian with a serial number above 50,000, which in some books appears that it does not exist.
SCSW references that each of the three Russian contracts began with serial number 1. Supica also states that Commercial guns were continued in the American serial number range - 32800 to 39000 (probably taken from Roy Jinks book.
Roy Jinks does reference some 2nd Models being sold as commercial with Cyrillic markings with the reason you suggest, being reject guns.
Maybe someone will be able to solve both mysteries for us.
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Both models of the Russian, Second and Third remained in production side by side until the last deliveries of the final contracts. It has never made sense to me that the commercial revolvers would neatly fill the serial blocks allowed for them. If the serial number block alloted for the 2nd models was filled, I would assume they would just start using the other block or tack them on the end of the other block. Your revolver would indicate that tacking them into the block at the end was the likely solution.
Each of the Russian contracts was
supposed to have started with serial 1 and gone to 20,000 or the end of the contract which ever was lowest. The few contract revolvers and contract rejects seen in the 24000-27000 range seem to indicate that this wasn't the case, in at least the second contract.
Another interesting puzzle is that there is a large time gap of exactly 2 years between the 4th and 5th contracts as listed in current references - this doesn't make sense from the Russian point of view. Since it wasn't at a total model change, the 2nd model was still in production, and the first 5000 3rd Models were delivered in March of 1875, the 4th contract (the first third models) should have been completed well before the end of 1875 and there would be a 10 month gap before another contract was even signed? Older references list a different set of contract dates and the numbers from those contracts much more closely match the total numbers that were given by Gorlov himself.
The biggest problem is the lack of surviving examples - especially the Russian contract pieces.
"If you aren't confused, you weren't paying attention!"
Joe