Well, your 357 is WAY out of my area of interest-----AND knowledge, so on to the 32-20:
My earliest one was 42094, which was a target (as were all of mine), and shipped December 22, 1908----just in time for Christmas! The 32-20's started up in 1899, and kept on coming until 1940--after 144,684 of them had been made------but not neccesarily sold in any big rush. Yours was made sometime before 1905 in all probability---which is unfortunate.
Yours, as a "4 screw" is blessed (cursed) with the hand ejector action preceding the 1905 action, which I refer to as the "monkey motion" action. While the 1905 (and continuing to this day as far as I know) action utilizes a rebound slide with coil spring to tend to the trigger, the monkey motion action has a great, huge leaf spring which meets with a couple of levers which meet with the trigger to do the same. It works fine---no problem! If/when you might decide to take it apart for a PROPER bath is when the problem arises---unless you're blessed with three hands-----and a pair of "reverse pliers")!. If/when that time comes, let me know, and I'll enlighten you with the proceeds of a great mind possessed by one of our members (Mike Priwer), who has forgotten more about these things than most folks know----and who designed a mind numbing special tool to make your life simple again. The tool will take you a few minutes to make/install, and will save you from the need to say a whole bunch of bad words!
Oh! One other thing: It's been said a 32-20 "-----will shoot plumb through a man", so should the need arise, it'll do the job!
Ralph Tremaine
...Ben
...Ben
