Howdy

I came across this No. 2 Old Army at a silent auction table two weeks ago. Anything look unusual?






I stopped and looked twice at the 'ejector rod' under the barrel. I wondered why it had been cut down to a narrower diameter.






It has been sleeved for 22 Long Rifle! I already have two of them, regular 32 RF, but I couldn't resist this one, so I bid on it. I won the bid and took it home last week. 'Serious' collectors won't be interested in it, because it has been modified, but I have often wanted to fire one of these.





The lock up is tight and everything functions just as it should. To make things even better, I found some CCI CB Longs which have a muzzle velocity of only 710 fps. I took it to the range yesterday, with a few different types of 22s. First I fired the CB longs out of a K-22 to get a feeling for how much power they had. It was like firing a BB gun. Then I shot some CCI Shorts out of the K-22 and they had considerably more recoil. So I loaded up the No. 2 with the CB Longs and fired them.

Great fun. The gun has obviously been refinished at some point. No idea when it was modified, but the sleeved barrel is like new, as our the sleeves in the chambers. So it was very accurate, even with the tiny sights.

I didn't overdo it, only fired a few cylinders full, but what fun. No idea when it was made, Roy said he is out of town for a few weeks.

The SN is 33XX. I'm guessing it's a pretty early one.

This must have been a labor of love by a very skilled craftsman ! You could have bought several .22RF revolvers for what it would have cost you to have this made. Great gun ! Ed.

You might try searching the Ship Date Request section of the S&WCA forum. Many times if you use the right keyword it will bring up tens of listings showing shipping dates of the model that you are interested in. Again as we all know, guns with one digit difference can ship months or even years apart but usually that is not the case and you can hopefully get a rough time frame.

I would have also been all over that gun. As Roy Jinks has often stated, sometimes the modifications made to these guns are more fascinating than the hundreds or thousands of original models.

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James Redfield
LM #497

While I would never do that to an original antique, I'd rather own that gun than an unmodified one. Nice!

Hard to tell from the posted photos, but why do you think it has been refinished?

Right! At least from the posted photographs, it doesn't appear refinished to me.

That thing is COOL!

Howdy Again

A few things tell me it has been refinished. The grips are original, they bear the same SN as the gun, however they are clearly refinished, much too old to be that shiny given the wear to the gun blue. Yes, refinished grips does not necessarily mean a refinished gun, but it is an indicator.

Not pictured is the SN on the butt of the gun. A little bit difficult to read because of the metal having been polished prior to refinish.

On the side plate is a barely readable inscription: "E.H.TODD" in a nicely executed flowing script. Difficult to read because it was partially polished away before the refinish.






One other thing: the catalog stated it has been refinished. Granted, an excellent job, not showing any softened edges or dished holes, but still a refinish. The wear visible to the blue in my photos is wear to the very professionally done reblue.

Don't get me wrong, the modification to 22 LR plus the reblue knocked the value down considerably, which I benefited from.

P.S. When I took the grips off it was evident the main spring is not original. If it is, it has been polished and is very shiny bare metal.

Again, not complaining, I like the gun just fine and am glad I was able to buy it.

Nice gun. Very interesting. Some years ago I bought a Model No. 3, second model .44 Russian top break. It was all original except that it was converted to .22 RF ! I removed the sleeves in the cylinder and barrel and restored it back to original, except for the modification to the firing pin and recoil shield. Everybody who looks at it scratches their head, until I tell them the story behind it.

nice gun I have had a couple that were sleeved It appears to be a two pin according to my study the highest serial number for a two pin 3346I would guess shipped Feb of 62 The ejector modified for the 22. If you have not filled out the survey for your other two number @s would appreciate for the data base

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www.model2project.com

Ron, I'm pretty sure it's a 3 pin gun. I can see the third pin in the first photo, however with a 4 digit serial number in the 3300 range, it's a very low # 3 pin. Ed.

From the photos it is definitely a 3 pin.

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James Redfield
LM #497

It is a Three Pin.