That works for my purposes, Andy. I'd have liked to been present when you fired it.

JohnHenryD; How do you come up with the ammo?

I guess Iam in the I shoot everything crowd:~) Shot my Ladysmith today with mild shorts in it.I have lots of early 20th cent stuff I shoot all the time. I shot my 1878 vintage Colt Lightning many times before I sold it, that one was fun to shoot! I have my eye on a 1 1/2 tip up that I will shoot if I get it....

Colt Mod. 1877 D.A. .38LC ("Lightning" mfg 1893) with "Goex" BP ammo.

OK, thats not a S&W. But the only old S&W's I have are .38 or .32 S&W cal. And altho large cal. BP ammo (i.e. .45-44/40 etc) can be found fairly easy. (I don't have any reloading equip.)The smaller cal.s just don't seem to be availible.


Personaly I think BP is no harder to clean up then smokeless. Takes a little longer maybe, but it's no more work. (you just can't put it off)

I had a number 1 that was a tight gun, some of the nickel was off so I thought I would shoot it, I only shot standard velocity 22 shorts in it but it shot fine, no sigh of any trouble.

TheGunCellar

I have a S&W No. 2 Army. It is just about as tight as it was new. .32 rimfire and still going strong! Serial number range puts it at
1864.
Thanks for the interest on the old girls. The older the better. Would like to hear about more of these.

For the fellow who can't resist touching off a .32 rimfire, what are the options for providing ammunition?

There have been various offerings of .32 RF over the years. Navy Arms, Old Western Scrounger, SOG are a few that come to mind.
Be aware that some of this ammo is smokless and some BP. Stevens offered single shot rifles in this caliber and some US companies loaded it up to the 1930s.
Some of this stuff is a little hot for the weak action of the S&W tip-ups.
Be careful.

I am curious about how fragile the tip-up is. One of these days I could end up with one of the graceful little things. The latch appears delicate and the cylinder walls are pretty thin and of uncertain composition. Are they iron or a mild steel?

When I was young, I shot a #2 Army regularily from 1958 to 1963. The Peters .32 RF ammunition was plentiful. In Canada, the cost was 35 cents a box of 50 (1961). The #2 Army belonged to my father's Great Grandfather. When my father was a boy, he'd shoot .22 RF Shorts in it by rolling up tissue and stuffing the cylinders to hold the rim of the .22 shorts against the outer edge of the cylinder. The accuracy was +/-6 feet at 10 yards.

A First Model, Third Issue was also shot and I often shot a .32 RF Pond (Made for Smith & Wesson)into the mid '70s. The latter would drive the Range Master nuts. I still have all these revolvers and wouldn't think about doing that again. I was lucky. To me they are all priceless. Mike

Cheat a little. Actually someone converted this to a centerfire years ago by installing a firing pin through the frame under the sideplate . I reload S&W 32 longs with BP and round lead balls by hand. Pretty accurate and fun to shoot. I carry it on fishing trips, mushroom hunting, etc. There is no finish on it but it's basically mechanically sound so I don't worry about hurting it or the value.

Nothing that old.

1915 is the oldest I shoot regularly.

My first 2 Antique S&Ws were a model 1 3rd and a model 1 1/2 2nd issues tip ups. I fired both; the model 1 with cb caps and the 1 1/2 with dominion .32 rf shorts. I had no problem with them. Later I boughr a 1 1/2 tip down, a model 2 .38 Single action 2nd, a .38 DA 4 th, and a .32 DA 4th which I fired with vintage .32 and .38 S&W cartridges.

quote:

Originally posted by bmcgilvray:
For the fellow who can't resist touching off a .32 rimfire, what are the options for providing ammunition?

Hi! Southern Ohio Gun (SOG) has a limited amount for $24.95 a box of fifty. Sounds high, but a few years back they were going for twice that.

I shoot all my antique guns with black powder and clean them out caerfull.

Smith and Wesson second model single action.38
" " " model 1881 in .44 russian.
" " " New model 3 target in .44
" " " Second model Schofield .45 S&W

Off all the New Model 3 is the best off all. This shoots a fly of the wall or castrate him.