A modern Top Break revolver for IPSC standard revolver class.
- Thread starter Visaman
- Start date
Break Tops Love Them
Back in December I ran into this in a Local Gun Shop.
It’s got a Birds head shaped set of grips on it, a double post break top frame, with a barrel shape and cylinder that reminds me of a British Webley Revolver.
It's a Harrington & Richardson Model 925, made in 1969. It fires 38 S&W ammunition, which is a short 38 Caliber round. The .38S&W cartridge was a 146 gr round/flat nosed lead projectile of around .362 caliber, with a muzzle velocity of around 750-800 fps. It will not handle .38 S&W Special rounds.
I own a few S&W Break Tops and a couple of Iver Johnsons. But they are all blackpowder cartridge ammunition, made prior to 1899. This one was made in 1969.
Back in December I ran into this in a Local Gun Shop.
It’s got a Birds head shaped set of grips on it, a double post break top frame, with a barrel shape and cylinder that reminds me of a British Webley Revolver.
It's a Harrington & Richardson Model 925, made in 1969. It fires 38 S&W ammunition, which is a short 38 Caliber round. The .38S&W cartridge was a 146 gr round/flat nosed lead projectile of around .362 caliber, with a muzzle velocity of around 750-800 fps. It will not handle .38 S&W Special rounds.
I own a few S&W Break Tops and a couple of Iver Johnsons. But they are all blackpowder cartridge ammunition, made prior to 1899. This one was made in 1969.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsKV2WCrYEM
some Webleys in one of my favorite movies Zulu
skip to 4:30 if you want to get right to it
note the very young Michael Caine
some Webleys in one of my favorite movies Zulu
skip to 4:30 if you want to get right to it
note the very young Michael Caine
Top Break model revolvers would be a very niche market and not worth the expense for the major companies to produce. However, I am surprised that Ruger, S&W and Taurus don't (at least to my knowledge) do an annual small run of their more popular DA models. I would think there are enough lefties that would buy them. (Especially, the S&W j-frame.)
Zulu
Good Lord that's an old one. A great movie, I have it on VHS and DVD. Michael Caine's first starring role. I knew he was going some places after that one. It does help to have a few other people like Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, James Booth and Nigel Green around. Richard Burton did a narration at the start, with a command of the English language that left me amazed at it. A theater trained voice, with classic elocution. This was made in 1964. I was 14 years old and after seeing this movie I went to the library and started doing a lot of research on it. I was wondering how much of it as "Hollywood" type mythology and how much was reality?
Rourke's Drift was in 1879, just days prior the British had been defeated at the Battle of Isandlwana (Zulu Dawn with Burt Lancaster and Peter O'Tool was a prequel.). This was 2 years after Custer had blundered his way into the Little Big Horn. Check out the "Son of the Morning Star" a TV Mini Series in which Gary Cole does a great job of acting.
It just dawned on me that back in the old days, retired, Grandfatherly types sat out under shade trees, in the back yard listened to the radio and whittled on bits of wood. Now a days we sit in our dens, drinking coffee and writing about 48 years old movies.
Good Lord that's an old one. A great movie, I have it on VHS and DVD. Michael Caine's first starring role. I knew he was going some places after that one. It does help to have a few other people like Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, James Booth and Nigel Green around. Richard Burton did a narration at the start, with a command of the English language that left me amazed at it. A theater trained voice, with classic elocution. This was made in 1964. I was 14 years old and after seeing this movie I went to the library and started doing a lot of research on it. I was wondering how much of it as "Hollywood" type mythology and how much was reality?
Rourke's Drift was in 1879, just days prior the British had been defeated at the Battle of Isandlwana (Zulu Dawn with Burt Lancaster and Peter O'Tool was a prequel.). This was 2 years after Custer had blundered his way into the Little Big Horn. Check out the "Son of the Morning Star" a TV Mini Series in which Gary Cole does a great job of acting.
It just dawned on me that back in the old days, retired, Grandfatherly types sat out under shade trees, in the back yard listened to the radio and whittled on bits of wood. Now a days we sit in our dens, drinking coffee and writing about 48 years old movies.
With the exception, ironically given the current discussion, of the revolvers used. In the film, the British are all seen using Webley Mk. VI revolvers, which would not be manufactured until 36 years after the battle of Rourke's Drift. The standard-issue revolver of the British army at the time of the battle was actually the Enfield Mk. II which was replaced by the Webley Mk. I in late 1887 some 8 years after Rourke's Drift. I suspect that the film makers used the Webley Mk. VI because it was much more available than the Enfield Mk. II.
On a side note, it does appear that the proper rifle, the Martini-Henry Mk. II, was used for filming and the quote of Lt. Chard that the "miracle" was a "Boxer 450 calibre miracle" was also technically correct.
Movie Props
Webleymkv
With a handle like that I have little doubt that you are correct. Hollywood and other movie producers crack me up when it comes to their abilitity to time warp a weapon by 10 or so years ahead of it's time.
I usually try to ignore it and watch the movie but sometimes it's just too obovious.
Thanks for the information.
Webleymkv
With a handle like that I have little doubt that you are correct. Hollywood and other movie producers crack me up when it comes to their abilitity to time warp a weapon by 10 or so years ahead of it's time.
I usually try to ignore it and watch the movie but sometimes it's just too obovious.
Thanks for the information.
I can't fault the producers too much as I have no doubt that they would have had great difficulty in locating enough Enfield Mk. II revolvers for filming and they did select the revolver that was basically the next best thing.
Probably the most comical substitution I've ever seen in a film was some low-budget, made for TV movie I came across on the Sci Fi channel one night. The movie in question was supposed to take place during in the old west (kind of a cowboys and aliens sort of thing) and the scene I saw involved a gunfight with the alien invaders. The problem was that the "cowboys" were all using S&W 586 revolvers, which wouldn't be produced for at least 100 years after the film was supposed to take place.