I've seen a few and they look interesting. The grips are definitely different. I love .22's and wouldn't mind stabling one if the price was right. If you own and/or have shot one, let me know your impressions. I was just scoping out a .22/.32 HE series on-line. Thanks............Sprefix

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Go big or stay home

They are great fun to shoot and very accurate. You can't just own one it seems.


Sometimes you find them with neat period target grips:



Sometimes you find them cheap with a bulged barrel that allows you to be creative:

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Jim
S&WCA #819

WOW!! I love the first one most.

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Go big or stay home

They can be good shooters, but with the two screw extended grips they are a little hard to hold onto. Most have very smooth and rather light triggers that I have handled. Here's a picture of mine which was shipped in Sept. 1926.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Richard,

Having shot I-Frame guns in 38 S&W and 32 Long, I have to disagree with you about the light trigger pulls. Those little buggers are cute, but that leaf spring in the pre-war guns means a rather stiff factory trigger in my experience. I haven't experienced a 22/32 yet, but I would assume they're very similiar correct?

Furthermore, barring an action job, which due to the lighter mass of the moving parts could only go so far, I don't think any of the small frame guns with leaf springs could have a truly feather light pull. On this I may be incorrect, if I am I apologise in advance, and would love to hear specifics of how the lighter pull is acheived.

Regards

I have a early 22/32 (Bekeart type, circa 9/1924) that I shortened the bulged barrel. It had a very light single action trigger pull when I got, so light I must remind myself every time I shoot it. It is reasonably accurate and shoots to point of aim with the 3 1/4" barrel.


I also have a much later (11/1956) 22/32 pre-Model 35 (6") that is extremely accurate, and with the factory target grips I prefer even to my pre and post war K-22s for target shooting.

Three five shot groups with sight adjustments at 15 paces.

Sometimes you want the three that Hondo has!

A word of note: if your 22/32 does not have rim recessed chambers it is best to only shoot "standard velocity" ammo. The later guns (and much later Pre and Model 35 series) have chambers with recessed rims and are fine with "high velocity" cartridges.

That's always good advice in these old guns. Standard velocity ammo is usually more accurate anyway, albeit varies from gun to gun.

Just for reference, all Smith cylinders were heat treated after c.1920 but not recessed until 1935 on the I frames. So HFTs above roughly # 350,000 c. 1920 even though not recessed for another 15 years, should be of little concern.

But I still agree with SDH about standard ammo and for another reason, it is less stress on the barrel forcing cone.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Just received SN 4967XX. Heading to the range in the AM with my two sons. It will be interesting to see which of my S&W toys they like the most.
[ 22/32 or 1950 K22 or a 1971 Model 17 or a Model 617 ].
Range report and pic's to follow.

My guess, gun-to-my-head? The 617.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

OK, I'm off in the wilds of VA camping at N-SSA's Ft Shenandoah, so I can't send any pix right now, but I own 2 pre-War 22/32s, one of which was just rebarreled and has been discussed elsewhere on this board, and the other of which is in full Bekeart trim but is worn slam out. The newly rebarreled one is a ball to shoot and will get just a little more cleaning up then settle in for regular use (if all goes according to plan! ) I can't decide whether the second, badly worn specimen merits the effort and money to rebuild it or should be cannibalized. If I can get enough requests for enough parts, the decision will become easy! So far the sights and hammer are spoken for. Anybody need anything else? (Note: This is not actually a solicitation to sell, I'm just surveying the situation.)

jesseatamez, I find the opposite of what you observe about leaf vs coil springs. My big attraction to the I-frames is that they have a leaf spring and can be tuned like their larger brethren, and that you don't have that frustrating "stacking" effect of compressing a coil spring. If I wanted coil springs in my guns I'd shoot a Ruger or a Colt DA. Give me any of the S&W leaf spring guns any time! JMHO, YMMV.

Froggie

PS Hondo44 I frankly lust after those target grips. Are they Roper's or somebody else's? Regardless, they are gorgeous and really match the scale of the gun well... they look much better than Bekeart-type!

At one time the S&W 22/32 and similar frame sized Colt Police Positive target were considered the go to bullseye pistols. They were a bit light and thus the S&W K22 and Colt Officers Model became more favored. They all succumbed to the S&W 41's and Colt Woodsman Target semi auto's on the bullsye pistol scene.
I enjoy shooting the smaller framed 22 revolvers as much as the larger framed ones but favor the heavier ones for bullseye psitol.

Let's give it a try here. I took a family portrait of the rebarreled 22/32 along with the 32 Regulation Police and Snubbie and a lonely coil spring Baby Chief. Enjoy!

Froggie

Attached Images

Little I-family Portrait.jpg (111.9 KB, 45 views)

I find they are fun but challenging guns to shoot. The sights are very small and the guns pretty light. That being said, don't hesitate to pick one up if you find one at a good price and have a go.

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John. SWCA #1586

Everytime I look at your rebarrelled HFT I think: OMG, one of those phantom post war versions! We could have some fun with that and a set of post war RP stocks at a gun show.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

"You ol' debbil, you!"

You're just asking to get me lynched by a bunch of frustrated and disappointed collectors if I were to do that, don't you know? I'm not as good at running from disgruntled mobs as I used to be.

Froggie

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Jim
S&WCA #819

In a few months I'll be able to splurge on one if I can find what I like.............Searchin the puter....................................

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Go big or stay home

Forgive my ignorance on this, but what does the term "Bekeart" stand for?



.

Phil Bekeart, a San Francisco gun dealer, is credited with the concept of a larger (than the M frame) .22 target revolver built on the I frame. He agreed to order a large quantity of the new model if S&W would make it. The early models are known as "Bekearts", highly sought after and categorized in the four levels of collectibility shown below.

When Smith added this model to regular production it was given the model name of 22/32 Heavy Frame Target since the only other Smith .22 at the time was the tiny M frame Ladysmith.


Here's a summary from the SCS&W, 3rd edition:



The 1st production run in 1910 of 1,044 Bekeart models are in the serial range of # 138227 thru # 139275 (note the range represents 1,048 #'s so apparently some #'s weren't used). The original shipment of 292 to Bekeart was also in that range and is considered the 1st classification of "True" Bekeart Models from a collecting viewpoint.



The 2nd class of Bekearts are the remainder of the guns in that production run and serial range that went to other dealers.



The 3rd class is the remainder of the Bekearts with grip numbers up to #3000 when grip #s were discontinued, but there is no 'list' of serial numbers for this class; the grip number being sufficient to identify along with a factory letter.



The 4th, last and least desirable class is any Bekeart from later pre-war production runs that 'letter' as being shipped to Bekeart Sporting goods in S.F. Again there is no serial number list for this class. There you have it.

Note: Bekeart serial numbers were in the .32 Hand Ejector serial number series, so there are huge gaps in the Bekeart serial #s. For example, the next production run started at 160,000.

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Jim
S&WCA #819