Ford/Mercury and IJ/H&R?

[Sir William]

I was given a Iver Johnson 1900 Double Action 38 S&W revolver today. Perfect owlshead grips. I already had a H&R Double Action 38 S&W. These two revolvers are IDENTICAL. The pins are in the same locations, same number of pins, the trigger guards , knurled cylinder pins, hammers, actions, mainsprings and other details match in a side by side visual comparison. The only difference is the rollmarks. Were IJ and H&R revolvers made by the same company or what?

 

[mec]

probably not but they are massively inbread. All located in the 'gun valley' area of mass and Iver Johnson went to work for either Harrington and Richardson or Forehand and Wadsworth when he arrived in the country. His initial revolvers did not differ too much from other bargain top breaks of the late 19th century. It does appear that he developed the early use of coil wire springs with adjustment options for mainspring tension. Also developed the transfer bar or is the earliest to get credit for it.

 

[Sir William]

Inbred. good description. LOL I have been messing around with H&A, H&R, IJ and F&W revolvers for awhile. There are definita similarities. I haven't had two that were this close in details before. They had some good tolerances apparently.

 

[mec]

Was just watching the Tales of the Gun segment on the History Channel that delt with "Guns of Infamy." The Owlheads figured prominently. Gitteau seems to have shot McKinley with a .32 S&W chambered IJ breaktop and Sirhan B. Sirhan used a .22 on RFK.