| Smith & Wesson's answer to Colt's model of 1878. Although never as popular as the Colt, this big bore Smith saw widespread use in the old West. Over 50,000 were manufactured between 1881 and 1913. This particular example was shipped in 1893 and I brought it out of Texas in 2002. The gun has never been fired and has remained in its original Smith & Wesson box for the past 110 years. |
| Another double action 44. This time nickle plated with orginal ivory grips. The plating is original also. Note its slightly milky colour. In the parts where it has faded you can see grey metal. If this were modern plate, you'd see the russet hue of copper. The notorious gun fighter, John Wesley Hardin died with a nickle plated S&W double action 44 in his hands, when he was shot in the back by John Selman at the Acme Saloon in El Paso in 1895. The revolver shown was shipped by Smith & Wesson in 1888. |
| This was the second revolver made by Smith & Wesson. It dates from 1860 and models like it saw considerable service in the American Civil War. It fired 6 32 calibre rim fire ammunition. With the exception of Kansas, where Kitteridge & Co supplied the federal forces with No 2 revolvers, it was never officially issued to union troops. However many soldiers carried them as a backup weapon. Oliver Wendle Holmes, the celebrated Supreme Court Justice, wrote that he had owned a No 2 revolver when he had fought in the war. |
| The revolver shown is an early No 3 revolver chambered for 44 Russian, the so called 'old, old Russian model'. Apart from its chambering, it is identical to the 2nd Model American. The gun shown as nearly all its original finish and a perfect bore and looks as though it may be unfired. The stocks are not original to the gun and are stamped with another pistol's serial number. My guess is that they were replaced by the distributor before the gun was sold, perhaps because the stocks shipped from the factory were damaged. |
| Also called the 'triple lock' owing to its unique three anchor points for the cylinder. Considered by many to be the finest double action revolver produced. This example is a commercial model, made in 1910 and is chambered for the British Enfield 455 cartridge |
| Manufactured between 1915 and 1917 for the British and Empire armed forces, this revolver was a New Century with changes to the extractor rod, the lug which held it and the third locking system, which was removed. It was found in the trenches that mud and grit could prevent the finely engineered triple lock from closing, that, and its increased cost of production, saw the end of the triple lock design. |
