An Anomalous H&R Sportsman

[Goony]

This is a birdshead (Rice) framed gun that was H&R's premier target revolver from the 1930's into the early postwar era. The curious thing about this example is that the serial number is "R" prefixed. Normally this would signify that it was made in 1955, but the problem with that scenario is that this version of the Sportsman was phased out and superseded by 1953.

From 1937 to 1939, Sportsman serial numbers ranged from 30000 to 90000 (no letter prefix) and on the whole this one conforms to those made in that period. The cylinder lacks patent number markings, but is correctly numbered and original to the gun. That detail aside, were it not for that pesky "R" you'd have no qualms about taking it to have been produced in the late 1930's.

To be sure, the circa 1940 Model 196 Eureka Sportsman had "R" prefixed serial numbers, but these didn't go much above R250, and in any event this gun is definitely not a Eureka.

So I'm left with two possibilities. First, that it is indeed a prewar gun and that the "R", rather than indicating year of production as normally would be the case, could've been later added to denote repair or refurbishment, or, alternatively, one might conjecture that H&R put out a limited run of these in 1955, ostensibly to use up leftover frames and other parts.

 

[BRING_GUNS]

I'm certain you're correct about it being a pre-1953 gun. Charles W. Pate's book "U.S. Handguns of World War II" has a few pages on H&R Sportsmans being shipped to various government organizations during WW2 and the 2nd edition actually has some tables of documented serial numbers. I think these records are extremely incomplete and I have no idea where Pate acquired these records (FOIA requests?) but the closest one to R35533 is 35571 which was shipped to a "Commanding Officer" on 7/19/44. Presumably your gun was shipped out around the same time.


The situation is more than a bit hazy but the evidence strongly points to H&R stockpiling a ton of frames in the late 30s and completing and shipping the guns during the early-mid 40s. I would personally call anything from SN 30,000-66,000 a WW2 gun, and 66,000-90,000+ were WW2 to approximately 1947 as far as I can gather.


As far as the R prefix it seems H&R used it to indicate something special although I'm not 100% sure what. I have seen it claimed that R=Reserved and indicates that the gun was held back for some special purpose, either a prototype or because it had some defect. I have a rather mysterious 6" Defender 38-style maybe-prototype gun with the serial "R 1184". If you can find anything non-standard about your gun then maybe it was some sort of experiment, otherwise my best guess is it had some sort of defect that may have been repaired at the factory.


I'm also not sure about the common claim that the 196 Eureka Sportsman series had an R prefix. I have seen pictures of R258 and R262 but I have seen several pictures of guns in the 100 range including my own SN 102 that do not have the R prefix, so either the R prefix always meant Reserved and just happened to appear on a couple very late production Eurekas or they didn't start adding it to every gun until part way through the small production run.


I also seem to recall seeing one or two guns that had an R added before the normal prefix although I unfortunately didn't save any pictures, but that would reinforce it being an additional prefix added for some special reason.

 

[Goony]

Another of these surfaced this month in an auction. The listing represents it as dating to the "mid-1950's" but the detailed description of its markings would seem to peg it as having been manufactured in the 1937-39 time frame. The "R" serial number prefix thus remains enigmatic and unexplained.

https://live.amoskeagauction.com/lo...on-Model-999-Sportsman-Double-Action-Revolver