This is one of my favorite revolvers that I have ever owned. It shipped 02 February 1871, 150 years ago tomorrow. I was going to post it tomorrow, but we all need some cheer with the ongoing blizzard on the East Coast.

It’s amazing this one has reached its sesquicentennial anniversary looking this great!

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That is super cool! Thanks for sharing and stay safe over there.

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aka "Mooncat"

OMG, where's the drool button!!!!

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James Redfield
LM #497

Feb. 2, 2021 is my dad's 100th birthday...if he had lived. Unfortunately, he passed in 2007. He loved guns and seeing that American would have made his day. It is truly a magnificent work of art. Thanks for showing it!

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Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

What is meant in your letter as "shipped with rings" and what is your family history, if any, with this prized gun?

Outstanding gun and I really enjoy the pictures

My American will be 150 in June and it is also one of my most favorites.

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An earlier term for "Lanyard Loops" ( "Rings" )...

What a lovely old S & W!!

Do you load for it and fire a few rounds now and then?

That's a great piece! Thanks for sharing.

Does that oil hole actually mean you're supposed to put a drop of oil in it as part of maintenance?

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SWCA #3356, SWHF#611

There’s no reason why I couldn’t as I do shoot black powder from time to time. But I haven’t.

My understanding is that when this gun was designed, the hole was initially created to allow for the release of air, when opened, as it was believed to create a vacuum. When this was discovered not to be the case, the hole was eliminated. “Oil hole” is a colloquial term.

Let’s give some credit to a fine collector who found this GEM, and sold it to me, model3sw on this forum. This revolver is ex collection of Norm Flayderman, or so I have been told.

Sal (model3sw) is a great guy with some marvelous stuff. Congratulations!

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Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

Amen to that! I cannot think of anyone out there with that comprehensive collection of early Smith & Wesson revolvers, and every one of them with condition!

Yep. Sal is awesome.

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SWCA #3356, SWHF#611

Since we're sharing factory letters of our Americans, I had to scrounge to find mine that I got from Roy almost 10 years ago.
Shipped to the armory 150 years ago (in another month or so.)

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Does serial number 1030 have the oil hole? It likely should.

1030 "oil" hole

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That looks like something the Schofield kid might carry.

Is that considered a Schofield or is it an earlier model?

I've always wanted a Schofield but they run a little rich for my blood, even the repros.

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That's just somebody talkin.

The American has the best lines ever

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Some collect art; I shoot it!

Not a Scofield. The Schofield had a different latch mechanism for the barrel and was chambered for .45 Smith & Wesson, not 44.

Guy

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Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

After reading this thread I checked the pile of oil holes and the lowest serial number was number one hundred nineteen, which is in .44 Henry Rimfire. I have an old Pre-Jinks letter somewhere that I recall said it went to a Mexico City dealer in an early shipment. I picked this gun up in Mexico (Yo soy un pistolero grande, si ? ) in my cow punching days during WW2 as I had a Winchester Mod 1866 carbine then and some .44RF ammo. Once I shot up the ammo I traded the Winchester and retired the American. It's a grey gun, shows it's age and honest frontier use but mechanically OK and would still shoot if I had any more .44RF ammo. Ed.

Dear Lost
Not to hijack this thread, here is my Schofield. I got it in December from Dr. Roy Jinks.

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Don Mundell

Love those grips!

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aka "Mooncat"

Someone spent a lot of time on them. I can see a cowboy doing them sitting in a line shack in a blizzard somewhere in Montana.

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Don Mundell

My US Model 3 American is 1686 and does not have an oil hole.

Yes, it could be that mine is the last one with an oil hole or at least was in the shipment of 99 in which the last serial number sequentially of a revolver with an oil hole shipped. Mine was in a shipment of special order revolvers of non standard barrel length and with (lanyard) rings. I would guess that the earliest barrels produced had oil holes, the vast majority of not all of those shipped earliest had standard barrel lengths and oil holes. Those 99 shipped on 02 Feb 1871 used up probably most, if not all, non standard barrel lengths, all of which may have had oil holes and being earlier than the frames they were affixed to, or some of which may have had oil holes and the ones that did not were of later production, probably contemporary to the frame affixed to.

In summary, to paraphrase, mine is atypical and the special order shipment with non standard barrel lengths probably led to a sequentially earlier production barrel to be fitted to a sequentially later production frame.

This later serialiized First Model American was brought to the attention of Jim Supica for later editions of his book as I believe he states in his book that oil holes tend to prevail until about serial number 1500.

Don, what is the white center material?

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James Redfield
LM #497

James
It's pearl, or Rocky Mountain oyster!

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Don Mundell

Since the "oil hole" was not for oil, but for releasing air, why wasn't it called a "blow hole"?

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Don Mundell

I agree. An oil hole is a poor term to describe this. Especially when it doesn’t involve oil at all. Air hole, blow hole, pressure release hole, vacuum hole, etc are all better terms and better describe its actual purpose.

In my industry, we called them "vents."

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Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

I still like "blow hole".

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Don Mundell

Well, they were used on a "whale" of a good gun.

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Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

This is from the patent application-

"Smith and Wesson aperture designed to drive all future collectors crazy"

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James Redfield
LM #497

In Avian anatomy, the Bird's 'vent' is the outer aspect of their Cloaca.

The wonderful world of words!

Glad to learn the has-been-called 'Oil Hole' was for Air to escape.

I did not know this, and had I gotten an early S & W American Revolvers, I'd have been anxious to be reaching for the little oil Can of Whale Oil, and to Oil it up good..!

Might have had Oil squirting out of it when opening, huh! Lol...

That certainly cheered things up, thanks for sharing.
Steve

Congrats, as that looks like a fine American. I collect weapons of the Indian Wars, beginning with refurbished percussion revolvers which consisted of Remingtons & 1860 Colt army in .44 as the army knew you needed a large round. Only way you can tell if a 60 Army Colt was one issued, was a small U.S. stamped on the trigger bow. Remington didn't marks them as such. The military knew, in the expansion of the west, with a quick response, they needed mounted troops so 10 regiments of cavalry were created plus....
the army wanted new weapons & invited firearm manufacturers to enter their new revolver for trial. Colt, S&W & Remington & others entered.. Out of the gate was the S&W American and a new design. Colt was caught flatfooted plus wanted to use up percussion parts so he introduced the Colt Richards built from the 1860 army Plus, S&W owned the Rollin/White patent of a bored through cylinder & to get around this, Colt cut his cylinder, put a ring behind so as not infringe on the patent. The soldiers really liked the S&W & Colt. S&W worked w/ a military officer named Schofield & the revolver morphed into the trials as did the Colt .45 SAA. S&W refused to make a minor change in redesigning of their cylinder to accommodate the Colt .45 round & decided not to, thinking they could do better in selling to foreign countries. Pictured below is one of 1000 S&W American, Colt Richards conv., S&W 1st model Schofield & my U.S. Colt S.A.A. Ainsworth

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You're a little off track. Colt (the co. & not the Col. who died in 1862) utilized the Thuer conversion to get around the R.W Patent, but it was a miserable failure. Later on the patent expired and despite Congress' extension of the patent Pres. Grant vetoed it in what was clearly an unconstitutional gesture. Many think it was due to Military pressure. Regardless, after the expiration Colt started making rear loading ctg. firearms incl. conversions, or "altered" Colts as they were referred to then.

Bumped to the top, as pertinent information within, posted in another thread today. For fresh eyes…