Good show Jack! Sometime in the early 60's a young woman came to my father's office with a box full of old pistols that had belonged to her grandfather, I think my father gave her $50.00 for them. The catch was that they were all missing parts and needed work. This is one of the pistols after I made grips and a spring for it.

Thanks for the advice.  This pistol went for 1/2 of what I have been seeing others (in better shape) go for. 
Wes Turner will be glad it is not a high wall.

I had one when I was a teen. I think I gave a buck for it. Had to build up the locking wedge with some braze. It was fun to shoot.

.22 long rifle.  The bore is not the best but it is fun to shoot. If I wasn’t a relative of Harlow Parkenfarker I would consider relining it myself.

SchwartzStock wrote on Dec 10^th, 2023 at 3:42pm:


I had one, made in Germany, imported by Hawes. I want to say that those were mostly discontinued by the mid 1970s.

I didn’t know then about holding back the locking button, and mine was soon rattling like a castanet. But it had two disadvantages to begin with, prior wear as it was used, and a frame made of zinc alloy. In a few words, nothing to write home to Mom about.

You have to make sure the round is fully seated by hand or the rim will hit the firing pin and  it will not close.  The existing firing pin is too short for a spring but I am going to try and make one that is spring loaded.  The spring will only have like 2 coils.

Otony wrote on Oct 27^th, 2023 at 2:07pm:


When you close the action on your SxS or O/U or any other break type action, do you snap it shut? Of course you do. Having done as much (or more) accuracy improvements and range testing on Stevens Tip Up rifles as most folks in modern times, I can emphatically state that a firm snap shut is a big contributor to accuracy! I have hundreds of shots testing the whole “snap” equation ranging from a wimpy breechlock closure to a light tap with a copper bar to FULLY and CONSISTENTLY seat the barrel catch before each shot. Of all the dozen or so Stevens Tip Ups that I have owned, all but two had excessive wear in this area. Many can be brought back to a nice lockup by simply removing slight material on the back flat to allow the upper taper more travel to seat. In my opinion the single most useful improvement is a new oversize barrel hinge screw. 

doesn't that photo belong in 'hunting with single shot rifles'? That looks like it wasn't a wing shot, but, rather, a sluiced kill. Looks like fun either way, Mike. Carry on 

I can't recall seeing those grips on that model before, but now that I have, I call the effect "beautiful".

Bill Lawrence

I joined the club too Jack!
Just before Christmas a friend told me about two Model 1867 Remington Rolling Block pistols for sale at a local shop, and was sad because the shop would only sell them as a pair! I told him I'd gladly buy one if he got both, and he did the deal!

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The Model 1867 were all reworked Model 1865 Remingtons that began life chambered as .50 Navy rimfire. Just a year later the Navy asked Remington to convert all 6500 pistols to .50 centerfire, and the Navy began recalling all Model 1865's from service to be converted. They only returned 6358 pistols, and it took 6 years for the project to be completed.
As part of the conversion Remington added a new CF breech block, and a whole new lower tang and trigger that added a trigger guard the 1865 didn't have. They also shortened barrels from 8.5" to 7", and blued the actions over the original casehardened frames.
Both of these pair of pistols have minty bores, and mechanically perfect inside. They appear to have been just banged around a little from marks on the stock and forearm, but not fired much.
I'm building ammo from .50-70 cases shortened to .86" long, and fitted with a 300 gr. .512" bullet. Powder charges were originally 25 grs. of 2fg, so I'll experiment with something around there for loads.

That Smith is a thing of beauty!

Crown-C wrote on Jan 2^nd, 2024 at 10:29am:


As a long time S&W fan I love those old single shots! Very nice looking guns Richard!

Stupid question but are the Smiths SA only or DA also?

Harrington and Richardson made a similar single shot 22 pistol.

The S&W single shot pistols evolved from the old S&W Top Break revolvers, and the first variations still had the recoil shield the revolvers used. The single shots were made from 1893-1905, and offered in .22LR, .32 S&W, and .38 S&W. calibers. Barrels were 6", 8", and 10". The 1st and 2nd variations had only one difference and that was the recoil shield removed on 2nd variations. 3rd variations were given the name S&W Perfected, as they were the best of the 3 versions. S&W actually made a 4th model called the "Straight Line" which was a totally different design, looking more like a semiauto frame, and I've never really considered the Straight Line part of this series.
The .32 and .38 are extremely rare as most were .22RF at 862 mfg., and 229 in .32, and 169 in .38 calibers. Some were also ordered with match chambers in .22LR, so get a little premium too.
A rare option on the first variations was you could order a revolver barrel and cylinder as an option and have your gun be single shot or revolver! Never even seen a picture of one, and supposedly about 92 sets were sold.
Another rare variation were barrels built for these marked HM POPE. No idea how many of those Pope made, but like anything rare and Pope they'll get huge money.

I see one H&R for sale at Simpson: (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) for only $1500 and found another, a USRA model, for only $1000. Oh well... I recall around 1960 a friend's father had one or the other and took us to an indoor range to shoot. The range officer inspected the pistol and said "no, it's too old".

oneatatime wrote on Jan 2^nd, 2024 at 6:36pm:


Sure hope I don't ever run into that range officer at our range! 

Nice find and Great looking gun Vall.
Bob

Nice pistol Vall!

marlinguy wrote on Jan 2^nd, 2024 at 7:50pm:

Odd that it doesn't have the distinguishing 1901 rear sight on it. Hmmmm. Hal didn't claim it to be a 1901 on his site but from the Poulin auction sight forward it turned into a rare 1901

I remember seeing those photos in 2021, still make me look in amazement of a fine collection! As Vall said, the cased one is fabulous and makes one weak in the knees!

marlinguy wrote on Jan 3^rd, 2024 at 11:10am:

The auction between Hal and your Gunbroker auction. The one where the gun sold for $900
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That's a beauty, Vall. But, NSN! Our governor just made these ghost guns illegal to possess... Wonder if he will send someone to the show to check all the old guns?

Ah, a good excuse, too. Want to see the serial number? Do you have a set of gunsmith screwdrivers on you? Well. you'll just have to take my word for it then.

I don't believe this is a 1901 after looking closer at the details on rollstamps, and the "P" "S" stamps on the receiver. Those markings add up to a Model 1891 Remington not a Model 1901. But I believe the barrel is from a 1901 as it doesn't have a barrel sight on it.
I don't think the Poulin buyer made much if he bought it at $900 and paid the usual auction fees on top of that, plus GB fees when he sold it to me. But he was able to make a profit, and that's his business, not my concern. I rarely look at online auctions or I'd have bid on the Poulin auction too.

oneatatime wrote on Jan 3^rd, 2024 at 5:03pm:


The stock shape and style was the same for the 1891 and the 1901, but 1891 stocks were smooth, while 1901 stocks were finely checkered. But since this Hubalek 1891 has his grip frame extension done to it the grips are not Remington, and not one piece like all the Remingtons were regardless of model. Hubalek didn't do wood work, so no telling who he use to do his stock or grip work. 
The 1891 is more rare at just 116 made, but the Bluebook shows them not being more valuable than the later 1901 versions.

RDBallard wrote on Jan 3^rd, 2024 at 5:22pm:


The pictures at HALP's site are better than auction pictures, and show the forearm off the barrel with Hubalek's markings and other features. 
I contacted the seller on GB to tell him the markings that make it a Model 1891 and not a 1901, but he simply replied, "It came to us as a Model 1901 so we need to sell it as such."
I told him two mistakes still don't make it a modern pistol, and my FFL dealer wont be the one to make it three mistakes. He'll simply check the markings and if he also agrees it's antique he'll just hand it to me.

I remember that so-called "Stevens-Pope" very well.  Speaking just for myself, I don't deal with sellers who indulge in such "puffery", regardless of the excuse.

Bill Lawrence

Speaking of puffery, eBay is offering sellers the option of using AI to write the item description. I tried it once on a MAJOR ugly aluminum adjustable buttplate that came on a high wall stock I bought (and instantly regretted). I made a useable stock by adding some wood and decided to see if I could sell the aluminum monstrosity.  It was so bad that the piece that attached to the wood which required a 3/4” hole was wider in both dimensions than the adjustable part it mated with.  All I had done was write a title and eBay AI ended up with a glowing description praising the fact that it was aluminum and how versatile it would be because I had used the word adjustable.  I was so impressed with the description that I thought about keeping it (not).  I redid the description to be honest and managed to get $25 for it.  Since then I have been able to recognize other AI generated descriptions on eBay items.   

Is there an eBay anonymous?  I need to join!!!

Jack

bpjack wrote on Jan 4^th, 2024 at 12:05pm:


Since I’ve retired I have been selling quite a bit of stuff on eBay to whittle down the mountains of stuff I’ve collected over the last 50 plus years.

I learned sometime back to recognize the AI descriptions, and have never even bothered to try it. Some of the stuff is so obviously wrong, and yet the sellers will still use it! I believe it is because they have no real idea what they anre selling and aren’t inclined to try searching for information.

Supposedly the largest private seller on eBay lives one town over from me, and he purchased a huge building a year or two back to store his “stuff”. He has a team of employees just to list and describe his items!

I was just browsing eBay. Here is a good example of an AI generated description

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Howda?