SEE POST 16 BELOW FOR LETTER INFO ON THIS REVOLVER.
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This Prewar .22/32 Kit Gun (532410, shipped December 1938) took up residence in my safe yesterday. This one has the rebated frame that allows use the square-butt Regulation Police stocks, but these particular stocks are not numbered to this gun. A five-digit number on the inner surface of the right panel (43835) indicates that they were first mounted on a .38 Regulation Police. Since they are not original equipment, I may move them around to other guns with non-original RP stocks to see if I can find a set that mates with this frame a little better.
Without the few freckles that are scattered here and there, I would call the finish about 96-97%. But because there are some tiny blemishes in addition to the muzzle and light high edge wear, I consider it a 95% gun. The action is tight and precise. After I cleaned some soot and congealed lubricants out of the interior, it proved to have the smoothest single action release I have felt on any Kit Gun. The double action trigger pull is not bad either. Bore and chambers are mostly good, and some of the dark features I see may be just residual grime. I will know better after the third or fourth serious brush-and-solvent cleaning.
An interesting aspect of the gun is the front sight, a Patridge blade with Call Brilliant bead inserted. I doubt this was original to the gun, because it seems to be rather imprecisely mounted: a thousandth of an inch above the base, and a couple of thousandths further forward on the base than I would expect from a factory installed blade. The Call Brilliant front sight was standard on the K-22 Outdoorsman, but in my observation not much used on other revolvers. This is the only Kit Gun I know that has one.
I now know the serial numbers of about 40 prewar KGs, as well as having descriptions and even photos of many of them. All are numbered in the .32 Hand Ejector series between about 529500 and 534600, with known serial numbers falling into four or five rough clusters that may indicate serial number blocks. Exact numbers have not been published, but it seems to me that no more than 1500 Kit Guns (and maybe only about 1200) could have been produced between their 1936 introduction and the cessation of commercial production in 1940. That makes them almost as scarce as the K-22 Second Model and quite a bit rarer than the K-32 Masterpiece (Pre-16 and Model 16 combined).
I will be shooting this one at some point. I'll post a range report when I have a chance to test it out.
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This Prewar .22/32 Kit Gun (532410, shipped December 1938) took up residence in my safe yesterday. This one has the rebated frame that allows use the square-butt Regulation Police stocks, but these particular stocks are not numbered to this gun. A five-digit number on the inner surface of the right panel (43835) indicates that they were first mounted on a .38 Regulation Police. Since they are not original equipment, I may move them around to other guns with non-original RP stocks to see if I can find a set that mates with this frame a little better.
Without the few freckles that are scattered here and there, I would call the finish about 96-97%. But because there are some tiny blemishes in addition to the muzzle and light high edge wear, I consider it a 95% gun. The action is tight and precise. After I cleaned some soot and congealed lubricants out of the interior, it proved to have the smoothest single action release I have felt on any Kit Gun. The double action trigger pull is not bad either. Bore and chambers are mostly good, and some of the dark features I see may be just residual grime. I will know better after the third or fourth serious brush-and-solvent cleaning.
An interesting aspect of the gun is the front sight, a Patridge blade with Call Brilliant bead inserted. I doubt this was original to the gun, because it seems to be rather imprecisely mounted: a thousandth of an inch above the base, and a couple of thousandths further forward on the base than I would expect from a factory installed blade. The Call Brilliant front sight was standard on the K-22 Outdoorsman, but in my observation not much used on other revolvers. This is the only Kit Gun I know that has one.
I now know the serial numbers of about 40 prewar KGs, as well as having descriptions and even photos of many of them. All are numbered in the .32 Hand Ejector series between about 529500 and 534600, with known serial numbers falling into four or five rough clusters that may indicate serial number blocks. Exact numbers have not been published, but it seems to me that no more than 1500 Kit Guns (and maybe only about 1200) could have been produced between their 1936 introduction and the cessation of commercial production in 1940. That makes them almost as scarce as the K-22 Second Model and quite a bit rarer than the K-32 Masterpiece (Pre-16 and Model 16 combined).
I will be shooting this one at some point. I'll post a range report when I have a chance to test it out.
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I'm glad this one has enough wear already that you can actually enjoy shooting it, because that configuration just screams for a day in the woods or at the range. Gotta love that Call Brilliant Bead sight, too! Eagerly awaiting test fire results. 
