Cool old oddball revolvers...

by Sarge, Friday, May 18, 2012, 13:19 (4372 days ago)

I mentioned to a friend in FL that I was looking for a .22 DA suitable for getting folks qualified on their MO CCW course and I asked that he check his stash for suitable candidates. I wound up with two old revolvers, which of course I took straight to the logpile upon arriving home with them.

The .22 is an old H&R 929. This is a much nicer nine-shooter than the NEF it replaced and it was built when there was an honest effort by manufacturers to offer a nice little gun for the pack or tackle box. The trigger is grooved for good purchase and the single action pull was surprisingly good. The grip is shorter and the barrel much lighter than the NEF R92, making it a handier package to tote. These attributes don’t hurt the way it shoots, as 9 rounds of Federal 38 grain HP attest. Range was 15 long paces and the target is a reduced silhouette, apparent from the head size next to the 929. Its sights were surprisingly well regulated and after shooting this group, I killed three 12 gauge hulls stood on end at the same distance- in four shots.

Revolver No. 2 is an F.C.A. De Armas Garantizadas 4” DA revolver dated 1924 and marked for the ’38 Long Ctg’. It is an approximation of S&W’s old .38 Hand Ejector and it times up and locks up nice on all six chambers. I particularly liked the nice old patina of nearly 90 years. This gun took me back to an old 38 HE handed to me by an older cousin, along with six cartridges, when I was 11 years old. That gun started me down a long path of pistol-toting.

’38 Long Ctg’, loosely translated from 1920’s Spanish sixgun lore, can generally be accepted to mean .38 Long Colt- which also means .38 Special. Now everybody on the web will tell you these old revolvers aren’t safe to shoot and while it wouldn’t be wise to stoke one with Treasury Loads, those people are sissies. I had a few low-pressure CCI Blazer .38 wadcutters on hand, which fit the chambers perfectly, so I fired a cylinder-full; again at 15 paces.

Next time I load .38 Special, I’ll cook up a few powder-puff loads for the old Garantizadas. It’s just too cool an old revolver to mothball.