I was eating lunch with my family today and my granpa was telling me about teaching my grandma how to shoot last week. The conversation lead to him asking if I had seen some of the old guns he had. I thought I had seen everything he had, but apparently I had not. My grandpa is not a collector, just a farmer that uses what he has as tools, so these are not pretty. I just want to know what they are. Apparently one of these was my great great grandfathers gun.
The patent on the top of the barrel on these is from 1865 i think. Due to the condition it was hard to read.


There were also two .32 long revolvers that they had. My grandma has started shooting the one with wood grips and says it shoots just fine. The gun with wood grips has 15798 on the frame, and 3695XX on the front strap. I didn't get any numbers off the one with hard rubber grips.




I am pretty new to Smith and Wesson revolvers, but I have a few, but these just really caught my interest as they all seem to be really old, and the two .32 longs are still functional and shootable. Sorry for the poor pictures, but I just snapped a few real quick so as to get some feedback.

I LOVE MY 32HES ALSO THEY SHOOT VERY WELL.YOURS LOOK VERY GOOD AS WELL. WELCOM TO THE FORUM. IM NEW HERE AND TRYING TO LEARN FROM THE OTHERS.

I'm new here too, so I think we are in the same boat

The first guns are model 1 1/2 Second Issues in .32 rimfire.
The others are .32 Hand Ejectors but I'm not sure about the specific nomenclature. Someone else will know more.

Are the 1 1/2 Models in .32 or are they .22 like this little guy? Wait, looking at your cylinder, it's probably not the .22 short.

What you have there is a model one 3rd issue. The model 1 1/2s are all .32 rimfire.

The ones I found were .32 rimfire so I guess they were 1 1/2s. Too bad they aren't in good shape though. The cylinder still turns, but there is pretty much no way they are shootable in my mind.

I think with some careful cleaning and TLC you might be able to at least make them functional. I think they would be worth a little effort.
I love those old spur trigger Smiths. I used to have one just like it but in a bit better condition:

What can I use to try and clean them up. I doubt I will ever shoot them, but it would be very nice just to make at least the one with some finish left presentable.

The blue finshed guns can be very effectively cleaned with bronze wool (available from Brownells) and light oil. Any and all crud will go away and some/many/all worn/damaged areas on the finish will be nicely blended-----------or not, depending on how bad they are. I'm not a fan of nickel guns, but I've used this on one nickel gun with a "frosty" finish (no wear/no damage), and it bought it back to like new.

Ralph Tremaine

I may get me some and give it a try. I think the 1 1/2 guns are pretty far gone, but if nothing else that bronze wool may spruce up the .32 hand ejectors.

The gun with the SN on the front strap, with the wood grips, is a I frame Regulation Police IE pre model 31 or 33 (the 31 and 33 differed only in caliber, AFAIK). The other gun is a 32 hand ejector, IE pre model 30 (round butt I frame, later became J frame).

Nice guns. Even the antiques. When they are in your family, they should stay that way.