Kind of fun and wacky - a later 'long Cylinder' 'DA', in .44 Russian -

This amuses me, as the whole purpose of the long Cylinder, was to chamber the longer .44 - 40 Cartridge.

Otherwise, lovely Bore, very nice Rifling, very nice Timing and Lock up, and, will go give it a whirl at the Range some time soon, after a nice cleaning of Lockwork and fresh Lube, of course.

Any insight as for about what year it was made? - would be appreciated..!

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As you belong to the SWCA, how about asking Roy Jinks for a ship date request? Obviously, it would have been produced prior to that, but it could give you a better sense of when this revolver may have been produced.

If you do ask Roy, remember to give him a serial number. You cannot tell when it was made, only when it shipped.

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Don Mundell

With the caliber marking and trademark on the frame it would probably be circa 1900

I really dig that gun, I’ve really started to like these old timey big bore 44s

I have become very fond of them myself, the Single Action, and the "DA" ones...and, .44 Russian is such a nice Cartridge.

I have been so slammed with Work-work I have had no time yet to partially dismantle, clean, inspect and lube the old thing, but, 'sometime soon' I will, and soon on also, maybe a nice "Range Report" as well.

At least I have about four Boxes of .44 Russian Black Powder loaded up anyway, and ready-to-go.

Our 'Official House Gun' here is a DA, but an earlier one, with the 'short' Cylinder, Blue, and in .44 Russian.

It is always at ready, if needing to be called upon.

Cartridges are all full flat front all meplat Wadcutters of 240 odd Grain, over 3 F Swiss, and a lovely thin Beeswax Disc, between Powder and Bullet.

it is a healthy round..!

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I put the question to the Roy section for it, and, he relays, "September 1911" ship.

The marking on the barrel says "44 S & W CTG". Wouldn't that be the 44 S&W American cartridge?

No, ".44 S & W" was .44 Russian...though it was not till late in the production of the Big Frame Break Tops, that any Cartridge designation Stamp was applied.

Of course, by this time, .44 Special had been out a while, and I suppose, in theory anyway, one could have ordered this Model in .44 Special, or, I can not imagine any reason why not, anyway.

I have no idea what the Barrel side stamping would have been by this time period, had someone ordered one chambered for .44 American, but it'd sure be fun to see one and find out..!

Here's my 4 incher in action

Thanks for posting your experience. While doing my black powder shooting with my 1st Model .44 D.A. I also found it difficult to hit to point of aim at even ten yards, shooting high and to the left. Which is common for my eyes with just about any fixed sighted handgun. I got used to shooting low and to the right with the U.S. Army 1911 in order to qualify.

Wonderful!

I did finally get a Samsung 'Tablet' so in theory I can learn to make Videos finally...you have inspired me to want to make a little Video of me putting a few rounds through mine..!

So, as you can see, I finally got some old "DA"s...

I have shot another one I have, an earlier one, also Nickel and in .44 Russian, and with 23 Grains of 3 F Swiss and a heavy Bullet, it is "Healthy", I doubt anyone could tell it from full house .45 Colt if they did not know.

I was Oyeboten on the Colt forum ( till I left after their horrid re-do), but when joining here back when, I had a typo with my user name, and I just left it...Lol...

Good to see you firing yours!!

The old Top Break Big Frame "DA"s are such a different world from the later N Frames!

I also hit high at 10 Yards with mine, with my SAs and DAs.

If either was my EDC, I'd spend time perfecting my Kentucky Windage to put 'em where I want 'em.

I get very nice groups, just up a ways from the small "Bulls Eye".

We have a reduced silhouette target at the range that works perfectly at 10 yards. I usually aim at the point between the 3' O-Clock nine and the 6' O-Clock nine in order to put them in the center. At 25 yards I'm pretty much dead in the water with my D.A. .44 for any accuracy anyway, basically aiming at the edge of the lower right hand black six and usually keeping everything in the center of mass. I consider these little gems to be excellent "Belly Guns", and probably what they were designed for.

In the beginning (1870), the only .44 revolver cartridge was the .44 S&W albeit it was later renamed .44 S&W American (headstamp ".44 S&W A") to help distinguish from the first hated and later loved ... .44 S&W Russian.

We know the .44 S&W (American) was a heeled bullet with internal primer.

Only a year or two later the Russian Government ordered the .44 S&W Army Revolver with certain modifications ... one being the Russian designed .44 S&W cartridge. It took awhile before the .44 Russian bullet became endeared to the U.S. Market.

So much better that around 1900-02 (I feel) the .44 S&W R, became the .44 S&W, dropping the "R" or Russian designation, upon which the original S&W .44 was more formally described at the .44 S&W AMERICAN as it had been from about the mid 1870s.

And to add to the confusion, S&W felt is unnecessary to imprint ... anywhere on the revolver ... what caliber the gun was chambered in.

In the New Model 3 and the .44 Double Action, First Model (it is not a New Model 3 Double Action), caliber markings start to show up sporadically around the 1900 and newer time frame, FINALLY !!

Too little, too late !

Best Regards, Sal Raimondi

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ANTIQUESMITHS
LM1300 SWHF425

I bet there were some occasional confusions back when, in moments of loading, especially with Revolvers which one was not all that familiar with or had only recently acquired used, other than, that they seemed like some kind of "44"...

Anyway, thanks for the correction on what these "DA"s are to be called.

I corrected two of my Posts in this Thread to just call them "DA"s now.

One thing I want to note here is that mine would throw by in quick double action. I think the old cylinder stop spring is probably weak with age and is no longer up to the task of rapid fire. With empty cases in it it does not throw by. But with the inertia of loaded rounds it throws by. So next time I fire it ot wil be single action only or very slow FA pulls

The change to a long cylinder/frame was most likely a money decision at the factory. I would not have taken long after 1886 to consider changing the manufacturing process to eliminate the short cylinder production. I am sure that it would have been costly and unnecessary in their minds to make both configurations and to move to using the same cylinder/frame for both calibers. Once the change was made, the factory would have used up all their inventory of short cylinder/frame 44 DAs before changing over, which could have taken years considering the low sales numbers. I would guess that the transition took place before 1900, meaning there were lots of long cylinder 44 Russians were made, so not uncommon. I recall seeing one in the upper 30,000 range with the long cylinder.

The first 44 DA I ever owned was a chrome gun that I sold several years ago, but it shot probably 100 boxes of 44 Russian Smokeless hand-loads. THat finish sure made it easy to clean chrome. #53116 shipped in 1910 with the long cylinder. I still own one 44 DA in 44 Winchester.

As for caliber markings, I have notes that state caliber stampings did not start until around 1900 on any S&W model.

Attached Images

	44 DA2.jpg (102.9 KB, 27 views)
	P8150001a.jpg (59.0 KB, 25 views)
	P8150021.jpg (41.9 KB, 28 views)

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Gary
SWCA 2515