Young fellow shooting next to me at the range today had an old gun on the table. I asked what it was and he said, "1915 Smith and Wesson .22." (At a distance I thought it was an old H&R Sportsman, just by the look for the grips.)

It looked old, with loss of bluing, aged grips, etc., but it seemed to shoot just fine. I did notice, however, the hammer spur was broken.

Fella said he got it from a neighbor's wife, who found it in her husband's sock drawer when he passed. The young lad has had the gun a couple of years and hasn't had any success getting it fixed.

I thought I'd help by asking here. (I also told him to check out this site; I've learned a ton and it's been the cause of my Smith addiction, which is not a bad thing.)

Anyone have any sources for parts for a gun like this?

thanks in advance.

Jack First Gun Parts - Rapid City SD

Numrich Gun Parts - W. Hurley, NY

Midwest Gunworks - MO

He has a .22/32 Heavy Frame Target model (.22 caliber chambered in the .32 caliber frame, the "I" size frame). His 22/32 hammer of course is a rim fire hammer with the firing pin mounted in the frame, and very hard to find. However, the lock work is identical to a .32 and .38 S&W I frame Hand Ejector 3rd Model all the way up to 1953. Those were made in much greater volumes than the 22/32 Target. So the hammers are much easier to find: on this forum in the classifieds section, e-bay and Gunbroker.

By grinding off the firing pin (which leaves a piece to fill the slot) or punching out the firing pin rivet to remove. In addition, after removing firing pin, grind the small face of the hammer slightly to match the angle of the original RF hammer. They will work perfectly in the rim fire gun. It will have an en extra hole in the side that can be left as is or if filled with a solid pin, hardly show. It'll have a proper length spur for cocking and shooting:

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Jim
S&WCA #819

What Jim said. It is virtually impossible to find a prewar .22/32 hammer. If I could find a small store of them somewhere, I'd buy five or six just to have them.

I have one gun that definitely needs a replacement hammer, and I have decided to get the equivalent .32 hammer and make it work. Trouble is, they aren't that easy to find either! But hundreds of thousands were made, so the odds are way better of finding one of those than coming across a surviving .22 hammer from one of the fewer than 30,000 units produced between 1911 and 1940.

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David Wilson