Hi,

My last purchase

Any idea how many are five inches?

1000018346.jpg

__________________
Daniel
SWCA#2471

Nice gun in great condition, Danalex !
According to Flayderman, only the 4" and the 6" barrels bring a prenium (10 % for the 4" and 100 for the 6"). Otherwise, the 3 1/4" and the 5" barrels are considered standard.

I track the features of these early 38 Single Action (SA) 2nd model revolvers. Right now I have 391 in my spreadsheet. Here is a breakdown of what I have found:

Short Barrel 2" - 1 which is .26% of production
3.25" - 312 which is 79.80%
4" - 36 which is 9.21%
5" - 35 which is 8.95%
6" - 5 which is 1.28%
8" - 2 which is .51%
10" - None

The single 2" barrel gun was returned to the factory to have a 2" barrel installed.

Here is another 5" barrel SA 38 Second Model. It was one of 50 shipped to Emilio A Combaluzier, Mexico City in April of 1886.

Attached Images

20240521_144204.jpg (277.5 KB, 9 views)

__________________
Mark

For your records.

Murph

Attached Images

	IMG_9522.jpeg (75.7 KB, 41 views)
	IMG_9523.jpeg (53.6 KB, 43 views)
	IMG_9521.jpg (52.4 KB, 36 views)
	IMG_9520.jpeg (97.9 KB, 30 views)

Murph,

Thanks for sharing. Awesome that its lettered.

Is it a 2 piece barrel? Did you say they were 2 piece until 1890 or 1891? Did they solve the long barrel manufacturing about 1892 or 1893 when they released the target barrels for the SA 3rd model, model of 91?

__________________
Mark

Mark,
So far the research supports that all early long barrels were two piece from introduction in 1887 until 1891(Possibly a little later).That includes early 6” barrels also. I’ve documented a few now.

It’s unproven about the early target single shots. So far no two piece barrel single shots have turned up that I am aware of. Also the early 38 New Departure sold to the Military in 6” barrel circa 1890 that I’ve seen and documented appear from photograph to be 1 piece. However, I’ve only seen 3 and none in hand inspection so that to me doesn’t prove much.

So I’m not convinced.
The earliest variations of single shots would also include 38 cal so it’s possible that some of those were two piece with the longer barrels. Problem being that they are pretty rare. So finding one is beyond difficult. It was a transitional period and from research transitional periods find many oddities manufactured and more importantly “overlaps” in production.

There is also documented a Model of 91 in the Neil/Jinks book that shipped in late 1891 with a 10” two piece barrel.

Roy Jinks lists the two piece barrels as “extremely rare”. My research supports that position. Manufacturing trends support that a leftover two piece barrel could have been shipped many years later on a long barreled gun.

Since the early target single shots were manufactured at the exact same timeframe of this transitional period that is a focus of my research.

So it’s either the single shots introduced the one piece longer barrel or the one piece barrel transitioned during the single shot production. I don’t see the 6” barrel 38 New Departure as a definitive example since the single shots were much longer barrel lengths in some cases they may have still had warpage issues. It’s a tough nut to crack.

Need to actually see more examples of very early single shots and actually close inspection of more of the 1890 Military 6” New Departures.

There is also documented that over 1900 single shot barrels were manufactured and sold separately in all 3 production calibers so there may be some early two piece single shot barrels out there.

Murph