Was at my LGS this afternoon and the owner showed me a 22 cal pistol made by The Reising Manufacturing Co. in New York

It is a 12 shot pistol, probably 6 - 6 1/2" pencil barrel, iron sights, hard rubber grips. He said they were produced from 1921 to 1924. Serial number is in the 10K range. The barrel is a tip up for disassembly and cleaning Didn't have my camera, so no pictures.
Finish was about 75-80%. Comes with a holster. He is asking $800

Anyone ever heard of this company, know anything about their pistols, quality or lack there of., desirability, price etc? I've never heard of the company before today and the LGS owner says he's never seen one in over 40 years in the business.

Try spelling it as "Reising" and you may get better answers.

Their submachine guns were disliked by Marines on Guadalcanal, as they didn't have fully interchangeable parts, and their armorers didn't realize that and mixed up parts in re-assembly.

I don't think much of their single shot target pistols. I think you should avoid buying guns that you don't already know a lot about.

I guess their closest competition was Hi-Standard, if that helps. But I'd buy the latter brand a lot faster.

Bear in mind that if anything breaks on a Reising, you'll be hard put to find parts or service, and they're probably hard to sell if you don't like it.

I'm not aware of any vast collector interest, but I've been known to be wrong. I was wrong on Nov. 2 one year. I got married that day...

I've always wanted a Reising Bearcat 22 pistol. Seems like every
one I run into is missing parts or broken. I have seen one NIB
a few years back at a small show in WVa, but it wasn't for sale.
I've never shot one but from all I've seen on them they were quality made. Some of them are manual repeaters, not auto loaders. I have handled several and they feel good in the hand.
I don't see them that often. I would imagine top shape pistols
will sell well as collector pieces. Parts would be hard to come by
and these pistols were made in Std Vel days, not a HV shooter.

I owned one for a while. Some previous owner had cut the barrel down and dovetailed a sight into it. It was ugly as sin and had been abused during it's life. The magazine had been tweaked to near junk by someone trying to get it to work, and had clearly hammered on the takedown lever. I got the magazine sort of back into shape, but it took a lot of trial and error.

Surprisingly, it shot well enough, though I can attest it was no longer a "target" pistol, it shot decent enough groups even after amputation. It did have a nice trigger. I actually think it handled better with the barrel cut. It was an odd design, and parts are truly unobtainable without cannibalizing another, so it's most definitely something you don't want to shoot often. I kept to standard velocity ammunition and did not have any problem, but the novelty wore off pretty quick and I passed it on to someone more interested than me.



The Reising submachinegun is much maligned, for good reason, by the soldiers who tried to use them in the Pacific. Aside from non-interchangeable parts, it's real weakness is the magazines which go from double to single stack feed at a shallow angle, so magazines are really finicky. The firing pin is another weak point, but thankfully those are still available. We've had one for a long time, and while it may be awful for combat in the sand, I can say that it is a great handling little machinegun, one of my favorites actually, when the magazines are sorted out. Lots of them saw life as prison and police weapons. Ours was a prison gun.

There was also a semiautomatic version of the Reising SMG. I had one of those many years ago. I think they were made mainly for LE sales during the postwar period. I never had any difficulties with mine, but I didn't fire it much, maybe 500 rounds tops. It's been a very long time since I have seen one. There were many Reising SMGs shipped to Russia during WWII under Lend-Lease. I doubt the Russians ever used them. The main problem with them was that they tended to become unreliable in muddy and sandy battlefield conditions, worked fine if they were kept clean.

H&R made the semi version of Reising SMG as m60. I think the
ATF shut production down because it only required parts switch
to make full auto.

While I can’t speak to combat efficacy I can say the Reising sub machine gun is a lot of fun to shoot.
I just received this Reising catalog, as some would guess my interest is the holsters that Heiser and possibly A.H. Hardy made for them. Heiser marked their holsters with either their logo or the Reising logo shown below, if the holster with the gun you examined is a Reising marked holster its worth a good amount by itself.
Regards,
turnerriver

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turnerriver

Thanks for all of the wonderful responses. Based upon these and my own research I've decided to pass on this pistol. I'll put the money to better use buying another high quality S&W revolver.

The Reising 22 is a neat pistol design, however they are known for cracked slides.

Here is a picture of one I have: Notice the discoloring just above the slide stop and below the breech.

That is a tig weld in an attempt to repair the most common crack. I have shot this pistol and it shoots well, but.........???

__________________
Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

A friend has a pistol that is like the picture above he paid 600 for it and it is very nice, you should shoot only low velocity rounds in it as he said they were made in the early 20's. His had the wrong grips but we found a few parts at the old Numrich Arms and they had the bearcat grips. Jeff

"....Was at my LGS this afternoon and the owner showed me a 22 cal pistol made by The Reising Manufacturing Co. in New York...."


With the mfg name as Reising MANUFACTURING CO,,,and NEW YORK address..the pistol the dealer has is one of the last made. Collectors call them the 3rd and 4th production Reisings.

The original production (1st and 2nd issues) were mfg'd in Hartford Conn and marked as such.

They were never mfg'd in NewYork..only marked as such (marketing?)
The 3rd was made in NewHaven, Conn by the New Haven Arms Co. Only about 400 made there.
The 4th issue was made in in Chicopee Falls, Mass. by the Page Lewis Arms Co. This last bunch by Page Lewis was a run of about 2000 pistols.

Collectors info would most likely separate the serial numbers and tell if the OP pistol was a 3rd or 4th issue. I don't have that info.

There were Deluxe hand engraved versions made up and sold also. These Deluxe pistols seem only to come out of the 3rd and 4th issue NewYork address marked guns. They came in a fitted, lined case. Choices of grip material, plated finishes, ect.

Here's a factory engraved/pearl grip Reising from an Auction.
They credit Wm Gough for the engraving. A good bet IMO.
A NewYork address pistol of course.
** Carved Heiser Holster pictured with it***
Reising Arms Co - Standard-Pistol Firearms Auction Lot-1429


Deadin's Reising looks like a 'NewYork address' pistol also.

Interesting.... My Reising is part of my "Pre-War 22 semi-Auto Pistol" collection. (Which is nowhere near complete..)

I never did any research on it and didn't realize there was much history to be had. (Guess I was wrong..)

Anyway, my serial is 10582, so it makes it a late one? Any information if all 4 variations had the slide cracking problems? (Or just certain production)

Who might have a serial/production list that I could tap for information?

__________________
Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

The best I've been able to untangle is that the NewYork address pistols started with ser# 10,000.
An arbitrary new ser# starting point aside from the old Hartford numbering system.
That seems to be agreed upon.

The first 400 (or so) of the NY address pistols carry over a couple of traits of the HArtford address pistols.
The most easily seen are the slide serrations.
The HArford guns used 12 serrations and they were a V cut in the slide.
The first 400 or so of the NY address guns had those same 12 V cut serrations.
Note that collectors generally feel that the first 400 of the NY address pistols were made in NewHaven Conn by the New Haven Arms Co. Perhaps they were only assembling parts already machined or in some partially mfg'd from the HArtford operation.

After NY address ser# (approx) 10,400,,those slide serrations turn over to a square cut style (no longer a sharp V cut) and the number is reduced. I think the number of square cut serrations is 10 but I might be off on the number.
These guns after ser#400 are said to have been made by the Page Lewis Firearms Co in Chicopee Falls, Mass.
(Page-Lewis was bought up by Savage Arms not long after this.
These square cut slide serrations on the late Reising look like those of the Savage 32 and 380 semiauto pistols)

Reports vary on the total number of NY address pistols made.
The 400 with the V cut serrations is generally accepted.
The total amt overall inclusive of the above is given anywhere from 1000 to around 2500.
I'd hazzard a guess,,and it's a guess only at the 2000+ mark.
That engraved one in the link is 11396.

2800 to 3000 pistols is the number given for production of the HArtford addressed guns. That's based on a 1921 patent that was roll marked on a few of the late Hartford guns.
Ser#'s of the pistols before that marking (1916 patent only) went just over #2800.
The changeover to the NewYork address came about in 1922.
The assumption is that only a few (200+ in this case) were made at Hartford before the slide address change to the NY address.
2800 pieces plus the 'assumed' extra 200+ with the added 1921 patent marking for a total of 3000+ Hartford marked Reisings.

Approx 5000 Reisings total

That's about all I got. I don't even have my Reising anymore.
It's a Bear..

Good move!
You know what’s better than a Smith Revolver?
Two Smith Revolvers!

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

I think a lot of pre war 22 pistols were given a bad rap on cracked
frames and slide stops. When Hi-vel 22lr became more less the
standard 22 ammo, even in bulk a lot of these pistols were subjected to metal to metal recoil. Add the fact that they were
designed to fire Std Vel ammo and fatigued springs from age or
use, it's no wonder they show up with cracks. Most people would
be unaware of this and use Hi-vel. When I look at these vintage
22 pistols it's the first thing I look at. This is also true with early
22 auto rifles. My Bro had a nice Walther 22 rifle made in 1920s.
It was a bolt action that could be shifted into semi mode. He was
careful with it but a hyper 22 was fired in it and the torque of the
recoil snapped the ball of the bolt handle.

New member and see that this is an older thread. I have two Reising pistols. Deadin, I have #10534 and it has a slight crack in the same place as in post #9. Looking for a quality shop to repair. I also have #11050 that is in almost new condition. My main question here is for some posted photos of holsters that were used for these pistols in the "period". I have one that only has "346" stamped on the belt loop. It carving around the edge of the flap and down the sewn side of the holster. Any information would be appreciated.

Reising SMG, Caliber .45acp:

The last time I handled one was in the early 1960s. Backup for another agency. A barricaded subject in a block home whom had shot gunned two Deputies, killing one and wounding the second. Being a "Newbie" young and dumb two of us "Volunteered" to sneak up to a kitchen window and try to get a shot at the "BG". Someone gave my partner a Reising of which He didn't know how to fire it, so he handed it to me (I had shot one in the past in the USCG). We reached the window which was open and I stuck the muzzle in and fired. I didn't get the BG, but I think I took out every dish, glass, and pot in that kitchen. The BG later came out the front door after tear gas was used and was taken out by a number of rounds from various weapons.