Cool old oddball revolvers...
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.
![[image]](http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x187/SargeMO/HPF929_15yds.jpg)
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.
![[image]](http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x187/SargeMO/DeArmasGar_15yds.jpg)
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.
Cool old oddball revolvers...
by Slow Hand 
, Indiana, Saturday, May 19, 2012, 08:35 (4576 days ago) @ Sarge
I learned to shoot with a longer version of that H&R. Good old guns. Clunky but reliable and accurate.
I had an old Spanish S&W copy years ago. It looks like a Hand Ejector on the outside but more like a Colt internally! It was supposed to be a .32/20 (marked .32 Winchester) but the fired brass looked almost straight walled until the very end where it had a sharp shoulder to close to .32 caliber! Needless to say, it didn't hand around long...
Funny 32 Spanish Revolver Story
The first drug raid I ever went on, I was working Uniform and just got 'drafted' help with a search warrant at a coke dealers house. The little shit was maybe 22 & had two new Camaros--sans plates of course--in the driveway. It was a pretty big house and they wanted a uniform on the spearhead team, which was to keep pressing until we cleared the last upstairs bedroom with detention teams rolling in behind us. It was in that last upstairs bedroom that our entrepreneur of creative pharmaceuticals was found. He was in bed when I kicked that door and being young and catlike (LOL) I was on him instantly.
I grabbed one wrist and he shoved the other under his pillow, while his girlfriend exited the covers 'in such a manner as to cause considerable distraction' ;) I snicked the safety off a Colt Series 70 as I introduced has nose to the muzzle and told him that other hand better come out slow and empty. He complied and when the cuffs clicked I jerked the pillow back to find a Spanish .32 DA revolver, not unlike the one described above. When I picked it up by the grip, two shiny little 32 Auto cartridges peeked out the end of the cylinder at me. I read the barrel inscription which said something like "32 Ctgs" along with other inscriptions. Me & the evidence guy, another gunnie, later dropped a 32 WCF into each chamber. It was a sloppy fit in all of them. I guess it might have fired a 32 auto cartridge if it was pointed up... I didn't intend to get shot with it in any case.
There is a certain calming effect that a 1911 renders like
by Rob Leahy , Prescott, Arizona, Saturday, May 19, 2012, 22:35 (4576 days ago) @ Sarge
no other...on both ends of the gun.
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Of the Troops & For the Troops