I always remember my Dad telling the story behind this revolver. It's an Iver Johnson Arms and Cycle Works topbreak in .32 S&W. My Dad told me it had belonged to his Great-Uncle, who had been a police officer in our hometown. It was his "Belly Gun". That was the first time I heard that term, and as a kid it seemed so cool. The story was, one hot July night, he was in the bad part of town, and he'd been bashed over the head with a pump handle and killed. I don't know how Dad ended up with it, but it was probably through my Great- Grandfather, who died when I was three years old. My Grandparents also had told me this story.
In my home county every year they have a tribute service for all the LEOs killed in the line of duty. My Great-Great-Uncle was not on the list, which I assumed was an oversight. I had seen his grave near my Great and Great-Great-Grandparents, and saw the date of his death was 10 July, 1910. I went to the local library and looked at the micro-film of the newspaper for the following day. All this time I envisioned an interesting story, resulting in my contacting the PD, and then having the paper do a story, complete with picture of me and the revolver. There it was in the next days headline: "Local police officer dies of tuberculosis".
To say I was shocked is an understatement. This story was in my family for generations. It had never been questioned. Unfortunately, I did this shortly after my Dad passed away, but when I showed his Mom, my Grandma, she said that was the story she heard all her life. It kind of took some of the luster away from the gun, but I thought it was interesting that a story could be passed down for generations and be totally false.
I took this gun out in 2000 and shot a cylinder full through it and it worked fine. I even carried it once......just because.
Anybody else have an interesting urban legend story about a gun that turned out to be somewhat less than truthful?

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I guess I have one. My Grandpa has pistol that was once owned by a famous bank robber. I have never seen it. It resides in a safe deposit box with it's holster. It does have a historian notarized letter with it explaining it's origins supposedly. My dad has seen it before. My Grandpa is now 91 and in less than good health. I probably won't get to see it before one of my Uncle's inherits it never to be seen again.

Seeing that in writing makes me want to go and try and see it this spring if I can.

I don't have the gun itself, but we do have a family legend in which a gun is involved. My 4 x great grandfather accidentally killed his wife when he was dismounting his horse and his gun went off.

That particular legend was never *proven* false, but I'm not sure anyone ever believed it...

Hi, P@R Fan:
That Iver Johnson B/T .32 is just like the one my Mother carried in Her apron pocket forever. Mom was convinced that it was powerful enough to stop a bear.
After I entered L.E. I upgraded Mom to a nickeled Model 36 2" RB with pearl grips. One of my Sons have it now.
Jimmy

Rumor has it my Grandfather brought a Luger home from WWII. I remember seeing the holster but the actual pistol was put into my uncles safe because my mom did not like guns. It has not been seen or spoken of since.

My grandfather was a police officer in the 30's. He was attacked on duty and he later bought a S&W and he cut the barrel and hammer off. he used this as his backup.

I have it now.

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Corripe Cervisiam

I don't have any but my wife's cousin has an old US Arms .38 S & W breakopen that was used by his grandfather when he was a cop in Troy, NY. Apparently it was during the prohibition days and there was the tale of one shootout. The old gun wasn't his issue gun, but his back up gun and somehow the little wheelgun came into play.

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Vaya con Dios

Now that's a cool revolver LouisianaJoe!
Caliber? .44 Russian?

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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

My Grandfather was a Justice of the Peace in a tiny little Adirondack Town of Northern New York. He often was called upon to act as a constable as well... he carried a pair of long barreled Colts, one in each pocket of his overcoat. I saw them once as a very small child. I think they were .32's....

My Uncle Harry was the High Sheriff of Saratoga County, NY during the late Prohibition days... Last summer I saw a photo of him taken in the late 20's or early 30's with what looked like a 5" S&W .44 HE3rd. Dad handled it as a young man and swears it was a .44. Wish I could track that gun down....

That's the same story I've got. My father brought home some kind of pistol but ended up giving it to his brother because my mother didn't like guns,either. Apparently my father had had enough of them, too. He never fired another gun to my knowledge. The same cousin who has that gun now also has my grandmother's pistol. She supposedly used it to scare off an intruder. It apparently shot high--the bullet was still lodged in the transom of her kitchen door. The intruder made an about-face and high tailed it.

i have the model 1894 32 win spcl that my great uncle, Earl Roe, likely bought with his mustering out money from the navy in WWI. he was born in 1895. anyway, born and raised in Hollister CA his whole life and was a hunter and serious rockhound. well story goes one day he shot a deer and set his rifle down for somereason to chase it or follow blood or whatever. ended up getting all disoriented and never got the deer and then couldnt find the rifle. spent all day hiking over the mountain looking fot it. lucky for me he finally did find it.

P@R Fan: Story or not, that's an interesting gun; it's the first model of IJ hammerless. They didn't yet have a hammerless frame; they used the hammer-style frame and just pinned a sort of shroud over the hammer. It also has the very early type of latch which has only one knurled finger piece, and that's at the front of the lever, not the back.

No wise to shoot smokeless in an IJ that old (about 1895±).

My Uncle Gene spent a lot of time in taverns during the Great Depression. Our family legend has it that he carried a small revolver, said to be a .22, that he lost in a card game. He wanted the gun back but had no money to continue playing or to buy it.

Somehow or other the new owner challenged him to take the gun and if he could open his mouth and shoot in one cheek and out the other without hitting his teeth he could have it back. Well, that's exactly what he did! This was witnessed by a neighbor of my grand parents who said there was not much blood but some individuals still got sick.

Uncle Gene did have strange dimples, on one cheek was a small indentation while on the other there was a nasty looking bulge with a dent in the middle.

I swear......................

My great-great grandpa made the Cherokee Strip Land Run with a 2-horse team, a double-barrel 12 gauge, a box of shells, and 50 cents in his pocket. My grandpa had the shotgun.

My wife's family has an FN 1900 that was supposedly liberated from a deceased Japanese officer.

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Where's my dad's America?

My uncle has my Great Grandmothers Iver Johnson .38 S&W topbreak that her Dad gave her as a schoolgirl in about 1892 or so. She would take the stage coach down to Colorado Springs from Cripple Creek to go to school. He told her a proper lady should be able to take care of herself. I don't know if she carried it around Colorado Springs or just for stage coach ride a few times a year.

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Mike
USMCR 84-87, USAF 87-07

My wife's grandfather passed away in 1973. Shortly after, her grandmother came in the den with a box - looked new, but old graphics. I opened it up and there lies a brand new H&R 32 snub nose, nickel plated. I looked up at her and she said her husband who was a longtime leader in the church had bought it for the preacher back in the late 20's early 30's. Seems an irate husband was looking for the preacher and he came to my wife's grandfather who purchased the gun for him. Preacher later returned the gun, unfired.

Oh, yeah ... wife's grandmother said she walked out on the porch and shot it into the backyard 50 yrs ago just to see if it would work. All the chambers were brand new, except one ... and the barrel of course. You could see light thru the bbl, just barely.

Charlie

I've got my g-grandfather's nickeled plated, MOP gripped S&W .38 top break. He got it when he ran a saloon in Hopkinsville Kentucky sometime shortly after the turn of the 20th century. i have never fired it as it doesn't lock up very well and the barrel looks like the inside of a chimney after cleaning.

I also have a S&W .38 Spl. M&P 5" that belonged to my dad's half sister. Supposedly some cousin had carried it in Tennessee when he was a constable or a deputy sheriff. Aunt once said that he had killed three men with it but I never got any more details. It is in great shape and it goes to the range with me once in a while.

I have my Great Grand Father's .38 S&W Regulation Police. The story is as follows. He worked as a railroad engineer with the Southern Railway in Alabama. About 1920 he was the engineer on a train that took someone to a State Mental Facility. The crazy guy got it in his head that it was my GGF's fault. He apparently got out and threatened to harm my GGF and his family. My GGF got a carry permit and this revolver. .

I also have his pocket watch, union card and bylaws book, Book of Common Prayer, daily devotional book, family bible etc. My Dad was named after him as was I.


If anyone has an upper sideplate screw in nickel for an I frame please let me know, I will pay well for it.

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I have a nickel Model 15 that allegedly supposedly with which the high sheriff in a county just across the state line shot a miscreant 6 times and the miscreant survived. He never again carried that revolver and purchased a Browning Hi Power which he carried up until his demise from a heart attack. I purchased both guns from the widow several years ago. Wish now I'd have documented the Model 15 and the story that went with it.

I certainly hope she didn't carry it onto school property. We all know how wrong that would be.

My FIL has his mom's S&W Model 30. She kept it on the farm for self protection and story goes she fired off a couple shots and scared off an intruder when grandpa was gone.
He showed it to me once and I made a few notes and researched it's age etc. He was real happy to learn about that.
This would have taken place in Arkansas 40's or 50's.

Got a couple; the old Iver Johnson .410 single-barrel that my Methodist minister grandfather used to help feed his family during the depression, and my wife's grandfather's 1917 S&W he brought home from his tour as a pursuit pilot in France during WW1. He was also the first public safety commissioner of the State of Iowa and the military governor of Sardinia after it's liberation in WWII.

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Rick, W0FG
CTR2 68-72

My dad also brought back a luger from WWII. My mom did not want it in the house and she says she still doesn't know what happened to it. I also have a fn browning mod 22 that my wife's uncle supposedy carried as a sidearm with the British army during the war. After I inherited it and was cleaning it up, I noticed the Nazi markings on it. It has to be a bring back.

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Why duck?? It's a 9mm!

David LaPell mentioned Troy, N.Y. and that brought to mind a story my best friend told me a number of years ago (we're both from the Albany, N.Y. area). He was relating the story to me as an example of the incredible good luck that followed his first cousin. His cousin was the guy in the hunting party who got a deer on opening day even though the rest of us saw nothing for our efforts. If several of us shot deer his would be the biggest, or would have the biggest rack. You know the type of guy I'm talking about. Anyway they're rabbit hunting not far from home in Watervliet, N.Y. They pass an old tree by the trail. They've probably walked past this same tree hundreds of times. There's a hollowed-out section in the tree, but it's high up out of reach. His cousin says " I wonder if there's anything up in that hole in the tree". My friend says "Let's find out" and then proceeds to boost his cousin off the ground so he can have a look-see. What does he find in the tree? A rusted Colt .32 auto! When they asked old timers about the spot in the woods they told them that that area was a meeting place for prohibition era bootleggers. I've often wondered if he still has that gun.

Keith

I've told this before, but my Dad used a Colt Model 1903 semi-auto to kill a rattler who had bedded down with a buddy while they were camping out West. Seems the snake liked the warm body to sleep with. He also went around a bad-guy's roadblock in the '30's in either CA or NV and fired several shots in the air to keep them from following. Road bandits were often encountered in his travels. My sister has the gun now.

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Term limits!

When I was 17, my great aunt gave me her dad's (my great grandfather) .38 S&W. He was sheriff in Chickasaw county Iowa ca. 1885. The nickel plate was worn, but the holster was in pretty good shape. I lettered it, and it was shipped in 1881.
When my nephew graduated from cop school, I gave it to him as a graduation present.

A young attorney that WAS a friend of mine got a draft notice many years ago almost immediately after he passed the Bar. To avoid serving, he shot his big toe off with a Titan .25 auto.

He did not have to serve but no longer wanted the gun and I got it for $20. Still have it today and never felt like shooting any of my toes with it. Never have shot it yet and it was never cleaned after he shot it.

bshepherd: is that two large dings, or did your great grandfather put two "notches" in them grips?

One of my Uncles has a Spencer carbine and Remington revolver that belonged to my Grandfathers Uncle. This Uncle was a member of an Illinois Calvary troop in the Civil War, 6th IIRC. We don't know for sure that he carried these during the Civil War but we do know that he used the Spencer in Coffeyville Kansas in 1892 as part of the group that defended their town from the Dalton Gang.

In the letter describing the event he mentioned firing the Spencer from rooftop. Contrary to TV and Movies I doubt if many of those Civil War Veterans had qualms about shooting from cover when placed on the defensive. Family legend says he carried the Spencer and Remington in the CW but it's not unusual for "This rifle is LIKE the one I carried in the War" to become "This rifle IS the one I carried in the War." He was a farmer not a cowboy so it would have been logical for him to have simply stayed with the firearms that worked for him in the War. The other firearm we know he owned was one of the seemingly million Springfields that were turned into a shotgun.

"but we do know that he used the Spencer in Coffeyville Kansas in 1992 as part of the group that defended their town from the Dalton Gang."

Boy, the Dalton Gang must have been really old by then!!

Well, he said they were moving pretty slow ;D. There, I fixed it, thanks for pointing out my typos.

Just kidding around

Kiethpip

They do kinda look like notches. As far as I know he never shot anyone, no family lore about that. There are also holes in the bottom of the stock where it looks like some used the gun as a hammer. The holes are about the size of the heads of little square headed brads. Probably used to hang pictures on a wall.

Regards

Ben

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My story is of my grandfather's New Departure in .32 S&W. Actually, not much of a story but that he traded a mule for it. The consinsus was that he got the short end of the deal.

regards

yashua

One of my wife's uncles allegedly brought back a .25 pocket pistol he liberated from a German officer during the Battle of the Bulge. I have seen the pistol and it looks like an Eibar copy of a Baby Browning with no grip safety or Nazi proof marks, so the story looks a little flakey.

My grandfather was born in 1903 in rural, south MS., and grew up on a farm near what has long been a popular subdivision. When I was young teen, I asked him if he'd ever found anything interesting. He said he'd been hunting rats at an abandoned plantation house when he was about 12 (c. 1915) and went into the smokehouse. There, he found a trunk, and opened the lid with his .22 rifle ready, hoping rats might jump out.

No rats, but there was a wooden box. Inside the wooden box was a Colt black powder pistol with "2 cylinders -- 1 used caps and balls, and one took cartridges that loaded into it from the front." He said it had cartridges with it, black powder, balls, etc. I asked him what ever happened to it, and he said he'd shot up all the ammo that came with it, and traded it for a bicycle! :-O

I got interested in what type of pistol it might have been that took cartridges that loaded from the front, and got a book on old guns from the library. (This was in the pre-PC days when libraries had decent gun sections, before they were purged.) I found what I thought it was -- a Colt 1860 Army or 1851 Navy with a Thuer conversion cylinder, designed to get around S&W's patent on the bored-through chamber in revolvers. I showed it to him, and he confirmed that was what he'd found.

He was not a "gun person" at all. He just had a shotgun for hunting and a pistol for self defense -- not even a .22 for plinking. He would not have known about the Thuer conversion unless he'd encountered one, so I tend to believe the story is true.

Boy, do I wish he'd kept it!!

John

My family legend is a little different. My grandfather was first, town marshall, and as the town grew, their first Chief of Police, for 24 years. It was an elected position. He never carried a gun. My Dad ask him why. His response was, "if you carry a gun, people will think you are afraid of them."
He wasn't. He was six feet five inches tall and weighed about 250 pounds. That was in 1924. The town only had one police car then and Grandfather thought it ought to be on patrol, not transporting prisoners. The arrested were told to report to the police station, with the admonishment, "Don't let the Chief have to come after you." No one ever failed to turn themselves in.

My parents didn't own guns. My Dad had his Dad's SxS from 1912 which is mine now, but he never shot it.

I, OTOH, have a 1987 Sig P220 that I bought new and used 1 year later to defend my family from 2 very bad men.

Dark and lonely middle-of-nowhere last camping trip with my pregnant wife. 2:30am these buttclowns pull into our campsite looking to subdue me, rape the wife, kill the witnesses.

Apparently the business end of a .45 looks much bigger. I heard them say.. "watch this" as I was slipping out the back of our camper with the Sig in hand and a fresh magazine in the pocket.

The bad guy saw me pop up from cover and dial him in and then he said... "I think we better go now" - then they took off.

So, I'm starting the tradition in our house. My daughter is 23 now and alive as a result.

A good friend of mine (who is in his late 80's) has a Winchester 94 in .32-40 that he says belonged to an uncle of his. His uncle was a gold miner in Idaho or Montana and lived in a cabin by himself. He had accumulated a large amount of gold and carried it with him all of the time to make sure nobody stole it. One day some other miners found his body laying in a creek (he had been shot) and no gold around anywhere. The Winchester was back in the cabin so when other relatives went there to make sure final arrangements had been done properly they brought the rifle back.

It is a .38 S&W

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Corripe Cervisiam

My grandfather moved from New Jersey to the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the late 1800’s to make his fortune in the lumber business and as was the custom he carried a single action revolver of some unknown make. When he moved the business headquarters to San Francisco in the 1930’s he purchased an early S&W 38/44 revolver that was his pride and joy. In 1950 he was indicted on what today would be wire fraud, arson, and other “white collar” crimes. As he was unwilling to do the time he was facing he chose to take his own life. He could not bring himself to shoot himself with his beloved 38/44, so he purchased an M&P at the local hardware store, that he used that to kill himself. He left the 38/44 to my no account uncle who refused to touch the M&P. My dad destroyed the M&P and my no account uncle gave the 38/44 to his even more no account son who had no interest in it, but to this day refuses to sell it to me.

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Always Stay Strong!

Long story short:

in-law's father won State Championship with a S&W circa 1960.
had a modded grip for his strong-hand thumb, shooter inscribed name inside grip panel.
pistol was stolen, recovered 14 years later, the grip mods were the big clue.

in-law's elderly and very sick father committed suicide a few years ago with that very pistol.

I almost forgot about the Colt Model of 1905 .45 I have in the back of the safe. My father's elder brother won the pistol in a card game in El Paso in the late 20's. He came home to visit his family in NC a couple of years later. His youngest brother won it off of him over a bet of some kind. That brother kept the pistol until he was stationed overseas while in the navy. He gave it to my father to keep for him. I got to hold it and look at it as a special treat when I was a kid. My uncle took it back eventually. About 10 years ago he gave it to me. He has no kids and wanted me to get it before he dies. The finish had been mostly worn off and a friend "helped" him out by putting it to a buffing wheel and removing the remainder of the finish off ...So, any collector value is pretty much ruined. Since I would never sell it, it doesn't really matter. Its still a treat to take it out and clean and oil it once in a while...

My wife found this old S&W revolver while cleaning out her parents house. We just received our letter from S&W saying it is a 1930 Model 1905 4th change shipped to Wolf and Klar in Fort Worth, TX. She also knows her great grand father was a Texas Ranger around this time so now we're trying to find something to tie the gun to his Ranger service.

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