H&R 32s&w "Victor"??

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deerslayer303

New member
Hey guys,
Can someone educate me on the old H&R 32 snubbies? I went in my LGS to make a layaway payment (on my new baby) and talk to a good buddy that works there. And I was checking out these old H&R snubbies in the case. There are quite a few of them. I found one that looks really nice and locks up tight. I think it has "VICTOR" stamped on the top strap. Whats weird is the cylinder does not swing out. It has a cut out in the recoil shield on the right side to load the cylinder. BUT the cylinder freely rotates until the tigger is pulled DA or you cock the hammer. Kinda like a Nagant revolver does. So what keeps the rounds from falling out of the thing, say if you had it in your pocket an the cylinder rotated lining up a chamber with the cutout? When were these things made? I would like to hear from someone who owns or has owned one of them. They are interesting to me. And are a wheel gun so I LIKE EM!!
 
I have a few of them. The H&R Victor is pretty much the same as the H&R Young America. They are built on the same frame. The differences are the round -vs- octagon barrel and the fluted -vs- un-fluted cylinder. The Victor came in blued and nickle. I have only seen the Young Americas in nickle.

What keeps the cylinder from shifting and a cartridge from falling out are the cartridges themselves. Since these revolvers don't have transfer bar ignition, the firing pin could actually rest on a primer. Not good if dropped. What you do is have the cylinder rotate a little so that the firing pin is BETWEEN two cartridge rims and resting directly on the cylinder. This is safer and it also prevents a cartridge from falling out of the loading ramp.

As an aside, these little guns are smaller than the current J-Frames. Fully loaded, the 32S&W Victor/Young Americas weigh around 10 oz. That is lighter than empty Airlight J-Frame. IMO, if they are in solid condition, I would choose them over a NAA Mini in 22LR or 22Mag because they are double action. Too bad no manufacturer makes them using modern materials.
 
Interesting, Thank you for the info O.A. I had thought the same thing when I held it. It is very compact and light but not so small you can get a firm hold on it and operate it. And you are correct if someone would take up a DA revolver of such size, they would probably be very popular, considering how popular the little NAA SA pocket guns are.
 
There are a lot of S&W hand ejectors in .32 S&W Long around, and one in good functional condition can be had for a couple of hundred. Not as inexpensive as an H&R, but much better quality. There are also a fair number of .38 S&W's on the same frame, but in five shot rather than six. They are built on the old I or Modified I frames and are a lot more compact and lighter than guns on the J frame.

Jim
 
I have one and like it very much. Some (like mine) are from the "sister" company, New England Firearms. Some of them have a loading gate, some you remove the cylinder entirely by removing the pin, some have a swing-out cylinder like any "normal" revolver. Some of the later models are in 32 H&R magnum, a more effective round. I have heard that their 22 revolvers can be pretty good, too. In fact, I plan on buying a 4" H&R or NEF 22 for my daughter as soon as I find a nice one for a good price - they fit her hand particularly well They are not as smooth/pretty as a Smith & Wesson. They were intended to be inexpensive and functional. When I was in my teens I remember them costing under $100 new.
 
Hi, Onward,

The late .32 HE's were Model 30 and 31; the .38 Terrier was the Model 32. But the vast majority of those guns were made before the model numbering era, so they are usually just called the .32 Hand Ejector or Regulation Police and the .38 Regulation Police and .38 Terrier. Googling S&W .32 HE or S&W .32 Hand Ejector should turn up some for sale.

Jim
 
James K said:
...they are usually just called the .32 Hand Ejector or Regulation Police and the .38 Regulation Police and .38 Terrier.
Click to expand...
It's worth noting that, of these four, ONLY the .38 Regulation Police is normally marked with its name. (Actually, it's one of only two S&W Hand Ejector models that normally carried the model designation on the gun itself; other models only had the model designation on the box and instruction booklet, which are usually long lost today.)

The .32 Hand Ejector holds 6 rounds of .32 S&W Long and has a round butt and a 3-1/4", 4", or 6" barrel. It is sometimes found with factory "extension stocks" that cover the entire backstrap and butt; guns originally equipped with these stocks had the serial number on the frontstrap of the grip rather than the butt, but the stocks have often been interchanged during the intervening decades, so this feature is not consistent.

The .38 Terrier holds 5 rounds of .38 S&W and has a round butt and a 2" barrel.

Both Regulation Police models have a shouldered backstrap that matches a notch in the back of the stocks, giving them a square butt shape with the stocks installed. The serial number is consistently located on the frontstrap. Original stocks bear a "1917" date on the butt regardless of the gun's actual year of manufacture. The .38 model holds 5 rounds of .38 S&W and says "REGULATION POLICE" on the barrel, which is normally 4" long. The .32 model holds 6 rounds of .32 S&W Long, and was available with the same barrel lengths as the .32HE; they were normally NOT marked with the "REGULATION POLICE" name.
 
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TallBall, that is a very nice looking H&R. The H&R 22's, like the 922 and 929 are nice revolvers, a little crude and not as refined as a Smith, but nevertheless shoot GREAT, extremely accurate, the 929 6" barrel is the most accurate 22 revolver I've ever shot, no joke. It was every bit as accurate as my Sig / Hammerli Trailside. How much did that H&R 32 set you back, if you don't mind my asking?
 
Thank you Deerslayer. It looks better in person - I'm a lousy photographer. I misremember the exact date, but this is one of the later models, 1990 or so. It doesn't seem to have been shot very much.

I am not at all an expert on these. The NEF ones I've seen seem a little nicer than the H&R. I don't know if it's just the ones I've happened to have seen, or if it's that the NEF tend to be newer, or if they were just a little better looking in general.

I bought it earlier this year for the princely sum of $141. I wish I had bought several back when they were $89 brand new!
 
It is not so much a matter of H&R's not being "refined" as it is the antiquated lockwork that is prone to failure. The old guns used flat springs that broke routinely. The newer guns, like that one, used wire or coil springs that were never satisfactory and were prone to weakening. Both the "second tier" makers, H&R and Iver Johnson, had the same basic problem. Like losing football teams that can not afford good players and so keep going down hill, those companies never had the capital (or perhaps even the desire) to completely scrap the old designs and start over.

Jim
 
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