Old 'Econo-gun' .22's

Old Corp · Jan 10, 2020

A couple of what used to be 'econo .22 revolvers'.
Bottom is an H&R M999 'Sportsman'
Top is an Iver Johnson 'Sealed Eight'.

In their day, these were 'working man's revolvers', meant to be a far less expensive option other than S&W and Colt.
Interesting to me that there is absolutely nothing on the market now that occupies that niche anymore with anything approaching comparable quality - and never will.

ISCS Yoda · Jan 10, 2020

Those have always been cool guns. I gave my 2" to my late ex-father-in-law and my 4" to my girl friend who still has it somewhere.

kraynky · Jan 10, 2020

I have an old H&R 22 that belonged to my Dad. The timing is off so bad that it has fired a few times when the cylinder was not aligned with the barrel.

I only noticed it once I received it, after Dad's passing, I took to a gunsmith to see about having it fixed. Nope, the darn thing is riveted together, no part available. I forget the model number, but it's a 9 shooter, .... or it was at one time.

Those appear to be much better built revolvers, and in much better shape. Love the old top break design.

walkinghorse · Jan 10, 2020

Recently bought a used Taurus 94, have been shooting it a bang every time, and accuracy comparable to what 70y.o. eyes can do. Both single action and double action very nice. Was looking for a High Standard Sentinel, first revolver I had a a kid, but kept coming up a day late when one showed up around here.

crazyphil · Jan 10, 2020

My first revolver was an H&R 922. 9 shot. 2.5" barrel.
It was kind of a pain to remove the cylinder to reload,
but it always worked just fine. A little later on, after WWII
they came out with a swing out cylinder and called it 929.

Most recent .22 I had was a Taurus model 94, that I used
to teach a lot of folks how to shoot. Gave it to a great
grandson a couple of Christmas ago. Have heard of, and
witnessed a lot of problems with Taurus semi-autos but
that model 94 revolver was flawless for many years,
and still going strong last I heard.

Bosquebass · Jan 10, 2020

A few years back I came across a JC Higgins 9 shot 22 revolver made by High Standard and sold by Sears Roebuck. Same gun as the Sentinel. Not much for fancy but it shoots good and with it's alloy frame is light to carry. I even found a set of the thumb rest target grips Sears sold as an accessory. The target grips are a little like lipstick on a pig however because a target gun it ain't.
Maybe with Ruger getting back into the economy 22 revolver market other companies will follow with their own offerings.

DWalt · Jan 10, 2020

crazyphil said:
My first revolver was an H&R 922. 9 shot. 2.5" barrel.
It was kind of a pain to remove the cylinder to reload,
but it always worked just fine. A little later on, after WWII
they came out with a swing out cylinder and called it 929.

The H&R 929 "Sidekick" was the first .22 revolver I owned. I bought it from a neighbor back sometime in the early 1960s and actually used it in competitive shooting with a group that fired on the local YMCA 50' indoor range weekly (wonder if the YMCA still has ranges anywhere?). A pretty good gun. Like someone earlier mentioned, I loaned it to a girlfriend who wanted it for protection. When she moved away, she took the gun, haven't seen her or the H&R since.

Pisgah · Jan 10, 2020

I bought my first revolver, a High Standard Security Six, at age 14. I shot thousands of tin cans, pine cones and dirt clods, and hundreds of squirrels and rabbits over probably 15 years before I finally "put it on paper" and realized it wasn't very accurate. My solution -- I quit shooting it at paper! It is still my favorite handgun to shoot and even after countless thousands of rounds aside from a bit of holster wear it is as solid as the day I brought it home from K-Mart. No better plinker/trail gun ever made.

fiasconva · Jan 10, 2020

That 922 stayed around for a long time. I have a '55 version of it with the 6" barrel. It's pretty accurate and it still fun to shoot.

d524ax · Jan 10, 2020

I grew up shooting my dads 999, my son has it now. I finally wound up with one a few years back. They are hard to come up with in my area. The coon hunters scoop them up as soon as they show up. I have a 929 and a HS Sentinal too. Shooting those old revolvers takes me back to great childhood memories shooting with dad.

Rubone · Jan 10, 2020

I was given an H&R 923 by a friend who said it didn't work. A good cleaning and lube and it functions just fine, and is pretty accurate too! Same as a 922 but chrome with plastic stocks.

dmthomp32 · Jan 10, 2020

I've always loved the top break .22 revolver. The H&R sportsman was the best example in my opinion. I've owned the 999 and the 999 SAO as well as the Iver Johnson. My only issue is that most of the examples I've owned end up having an issue that affects reliability and also the double action is pretty heavy. I just can't get away from the cylinder full of those time holes and the ability to break open the revolver and pop out all those empties at once!

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Drm50 · Jan 10, 2020

My Dad had a Iver Johnson Sealed 8 when I was a sprout. I was less than 5 and remember sitting in his lap and shooting at the glass lids they use to use in mason jars. Of course I had a lot of help holding gun up.

panther · Jan 10, 2020

I worked in a gun store in the 90's. We sold lots of those econo-22's. The cattle ranchers liked having one in the truck when they were keeping an eye on calves. Coyotes and feral dogs were always a problem. The old H&R and New England Firearms pistols were popular, so were Iver Johnson(we always had at least one guy who called them Ivory Johnson), FIE revolvers and old Hopkins- Allen too.
The Heritage revolvers play the same role now. I bet Ruger's Wrangler will too.

jmace57 · Jan 10, 2020

I have a Supershot Sealed 8 (circa 1941) that is one of my favorites.

Tubbsy · Jan 10, 2020

I've got a 7 shot iver Johnson circa 1928, was originally my great grandmother's, then my grandfather's... it's easily tied for the most prized gun in my collection, the other being grandpa's duck gun.

aimedfire · Jan 10, 2020

Old Corp said:
A couple of what used to be 'econo .22 revolvers'.
Bottom is an H&R M999 'Sportsman'
Top is an Iver Johnson 'Sealed Eight'.

In their day, these were 'working man's revolvers', meant to be a far less expensive option other than S&W and Colt.
Interesting to me that there is absolutely nothing on the market now that occupies that niche anymore with anything approaching comparable quality - and never will.

I love those top-break rimfire revolvers. Thanks for sharing.

tops · Jan 10, 2020

Old Corp said:
A couple of what used to be 'econo .22 revolvers'.
Bottom is an H&R M999 'Sportsman'
Top is an Iver Johnson 'Sealed Eight'.

Mom had a sealed 8 but the barrel was octagon or hexagon (can't remember) and the cylinder pin pulled out too remove the cyl. so you could load and unload it. My brother has it now. A few years ago I saw another one in a store that had a round barrel. Both had one piece grips grips with a screw in the bottom like yours. I never knew the made a sealed 8 top break. Thanks for posting. Larry

D Brown · Jan 10, 2020

My dad had one of the H&R top breaks when he was a kid. One day when the gun was apparently very dirty from high volume shooting, Dad attempted to perform a rapid reload so he could take a shot at a jackrabbit. When he slammed the barrel down onto the receiver, one of the rounds in one of the outside chambers went off and put the bullet squarely into the bottom of his right ring finger. There was no exit wound.

He told his parents (my future grandparents) that he had cut his finger crossing a barb wire fence. He figured they would confiscate the gun if they were told the straight story.

He carried that bullet around in his finger for eighteen years with considerable discomfort, but finally, an Army Flight Surgeon insisted on removing the bullet. Dad was 35 years old at the time. The bullet had evidently hit the bone in his finger dead square, because the deformed lead bullet was wrapped completely around the bone.

I just thought everyone would appreciate this as it shows that it's not a good idea to get in a hurry when shooting one of these top break revolvers.

swsig · Jan 11, 2020

Here are my old econo-gun .22s. Top is my Dad's 9-shot H&R "Expert" target pistol from 1938. It has the classic H&R top-break design which automatically ejects the shells from the cylinder as it opens. It still works perfectly, considering it went unfired for 75 years. I shoot it once or twice a year. Double-action is really hard, but single action is just about perfect. The second photo shows it with its target from Rastoff's Challenge.

Bottom is my Ruger Standard from 1974. As I recall, I paid about $60 for it. It also works perfectly, and still has the best trigger of any semi-auto I've ever shot, about 3 1/2 lbs. with zero takeup, and ultra-smooth. It's as accurate at 15 yards as most of my non-econo semi-autos.

Old 'Econo-gun' .22's

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