I NEED HELP FROM GUN EXPERTS

Just read your article on H & R Guns. Perhaps you can help me wit this. I have a H & R 32 cal. with a stamped name on the bridge, “Vest Pocket, Safety Hammer” The Patent Date is April 5, 1807, and the serial number is #4260. It is a small, chrome plated,32 cal.weapon. From the rust pattern I suspect that it shot black powder center fired cartridges.I appears to be in “good” condition. However, all of the small springs have rusted away. Any information will be appreciated. Larry Simms Parkville, Maryland

The patent date should read "April 5, 1907", not 1807...

A word of warning with guns or any serialized personal property. DO NOT post the serial number in a public forum... anyone can take your serial number and make a police report claiming your item has been stolen from them... resulting in your item being added to lists of stolen property lists that are checked be police departments when being sold, pawned, or insured. If you need to post a serial number to check authenticity of a gun, such as this, use the format "serial number 42XX" so this cannot happen. However, if I recall correctly for early model H&R revolvers, this is not so important, as H&R reused serial numbers, resetting the numbers after reaching 99999... and sometimes they reset at the end of the year... so H&R serial numbers are hard to associate with a year manufactured or even with a specific model revolver. Later guns may have had a letter designation starting the serial number... but H&R often broke their own serial number rules.

These are the three candidates for your gun:

Early Model - Vest Pocket Safety Hammer (small solid frame centerfire revolver with bobbed hammer and shortened round barrel) Safety hammer patented 1887 Calibers: .22 and .32:
Later Model - Vest-Pocket Self-Cocker (same as Vest Pocket Safety Hammer but without half / full cocking sear) NOTE: Some trigger guards installed on this model had cutouts which would allow the installation of the half / full cocking sear. Early models had an 2 1/2 inch octagonal barrel with front sight, later models incorporated a short 1 inch round barrel, no front sight:
Late Model - Vest Pocket Safety Hammer (small solid frame centerfire revolver with bobbed hammer and shortened round or hexagonal barrel) Safety hammer patented 1887 Calibers: .22 and .32:

My guesstimate of the value of your gun, without seeing it, from your description with rusted away springs, would be between $50 and $100. It would be good only as a wall-hanger. Years ago when I was in the gun business, these were sold for between $2 and $10 for decorative purpose junk guns.

However, H&R, Iver Johnson, and other secondary brands have become more interesting to collectors as the "name" brands such as Smith and Wesson, Colt, Remington, Winchester, etc., have escalated in value to the stratosphere, making the prices of even poor quality specimens outside the reach of starting collectors. There is a lot of variation in the H&R brand name and models. H&R manufactured for the catalog trade so there are H&Rs that are branded under "house" brands for Sears and Roebuck, Montgomery Wards, etc., so that there are "rarities" that can be sought that would bring premium prices for collectors in H&R. H&R was probably the "Top of the Line" of the secondary brands, with some of their models approaching the desirability of Colt and S&W. The US Army pistol team actually selected the H&R single shot pistol as the team's target pistol. I once owned one of these and they are a fine shooting pistol:

" In 1932, an H&R pistol was used to set a new U.S. pistol record, and would go on to become the most famous firearm of its kind—the U.S.R.A. single-shot target pistol. This pistol was so accurate that it was adopted by the U.S. Army Pistol Team."

So the company did not make junk. They can be a fine collectible set of guns. H&Rs in good to excellent, shooting condition can be purchased for prices ranging from $100 to $500 (and up for those with factory engraving or in presentation cases.)

By-the-way, the H&R Safety Hammer or “self-cocker” as it was called for a while, was manufactured, in these various models, from the early 1880s all the way until 1941. . . but I suspect your low number without a letter prefix on the serial number, and your remarks about the black powder you’re looking at later early model that was shot with some older black powder shells or with smokeless but never cleaned. Early 20th Century smokeless powder used Fulminate of Mercury primers which were very corrosive and would do similar damage to black powder if the gun were not properly cleaned after use. The other problem was that the nickel plating on guns of that vintage tended to peal fairly easily, exposing the bare steel fairly easily. What do you think?

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