Top Breaks?? pics??

BigBill

Absent Comrade
Joined
Jan 29, 2011
Messages
13,869
Reaction score
13,356
Location
Planet earth
Let's see a few pics of your top breaks or what ever there called.

The only top break I have is an older H&R 999 sportsman.
Sorry for my ignorance when it comes to the top break era. I think the scholfield is in that era.
 
Register to hide this ad
Perfected model, c. 1917, 3 1/4" barrel, shortest available. Same action as the 32 HE Model of 1903 - 3rd Change.

orig.jpg
 
.32 Single Action (Model No.1-1/2 Single Action)
Manufactured 1878-1892
Serial Numbers 1 - 97574
Barrel lengths of 3-1/2" are most common, 3" are not rare, 6", 8" & 10" rare.
According to Neal & Jinks book, revolvers before about serial number 6580 were equipped with an eccentric mainspring strain screw mounted under the grips. Somewhere between serial numbers 6559 and 6603 the company returned to the more standard strain screw mounted in the front strap. The change was made in May of 1878.

1st photo:
Top: 3" barrel, serial no. 13443, external standard strain screw.
Second: 3-1/2" barrel, serial no. 144, internal eccentric strain screw, shipped April 1878.
Third: 3-1/2" barrel, serial no. 7692, internal eccentric strain screw, shipped Sept. 1878. As of Sept. 2013, Roy Jinks stated this is the highest serial number known for having the internal eccentric strain screw.
Fourth: 6" barrel, serial number 96761,
external standard strain screw.

2nd Photo shows the external standard strain screw & the internal eccentric strain screw.

Dave
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0812.JPG
    IMG_0812.JPG
    53.2 KB · Views: 134
  • IMG_0808.JPG
    IMG_0808.JPG
    89 KB · Views: 96
Here's a funny story about s&w top breaks.

I just got home from work and was lying on the couch half a sleep when my 10year old son ran by me holding a silver revolver and I was half a sleep I swear I saw the cylinder turn. I woke up really quickly. My neighbor gave my son this old broken revolver he had as a kid. I made him take it back. I told him it was too dangerous for a child to have. Any Leo would think the kid is armed. The silver revolver didn't bother me but when the cylinder turned I woke up really quickly. The kid got a real gun. It was a top break s&w 32cal.

I wonder why we never seen top breaks in n frame sized revolvers to this day. I think the ejection part of top breaks design is awesome to this day.

I still love wheel guns to this day where pistols are taking over. How would dirty Harry say did I fire five or six? How could he say that with an auto?
 
Last edited:
Thought these were kind of interesting. M 2 38 DA's with serials 25 apart and Checkered Walnut' Regulation Police Extension stocks (pre WWII) Silver Medallions. Client brought them in and had a story about an Uncle that was PD in Madison WI. Don't know about the story but liked the matching guns. These are not for the purist ,they were altered to accept the stocks, still nice. I bought them on the spot. Gotta wonder though... was an officer in WI carrying around a pair of 1883 TB's in the 30's?
 

Attachments

  • 002.JPG
    002.JPG
    189 KB · Views: 94
What's with the thumb release on a top break? Please educate me....might be another one I need to look for.

Supposedly S&W started producing the "perfected" model after hearing about a police officer getting the snot beat out of him when a bad guy managed to empty the cops gun.
 
What's with the thumb release on a top break? Please educate me....
might be another one I need to look for.

Although by physical description, the gun breaks at the top, but literally it's a ".38 DA Perfected Model".
Made from 1909 to 1920, #s 1 thru 59400, on the P frame, it has the same action as the ".32 HE Model
of 1903 - 3rd Change", with a .38 DA 1st thru 5th Model top break barrel and cylinder arrangement.
Chambered only in 38 S&W, there are a few variations around w/o the thumb latch but rare.

The added thumb latch takes two hands to open and was designed to prevent a thug from reaching
over the top of the gun, pulling the latch up and disabling the gun. S&W chose the Perfected name
to denote this model as the pinnacle of the top break design evolution and was a fad marketing word
of the time. Not unlike today's Smart word as in Smart Phone, etc.
 
Last edited:
38 perfected 2 inch barrel

Has anyone seen a perfected 38 with the bicycle gun 2 inch barrel? I have one it was my grandmothers brothers police leg gun.
 
38 perfected 2 inch barrel

Has anyone seen a perfected 38 with the bicycle gun 2 inch barrel? I have one it was my grandmothers brothers police leg gun.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20140214_204705.jpg
    IMG_20140214_204705.jpg
    40.9 KB · Views: 115
  • 1392428847946.jpg
    1392428847946.jpg
    36.7 KB · Views: 95
  • 1392429213376.jpg
    1392429213376.jpg
    71.9 KB · Views: 112
Pic. and serial would help... Police could carry what they liked in the day, if there sarg. didn't mind. Detroit and Chicago PD were the first, after Hover's men(maybe before, up for debate) to have full auto in a Metropolitan area.
 
Back
Top