Hopkins & Allen

M

MGTOM

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I just bought a Hopkins & Allen Mnfg. Co.falling block rifle which I, and the prior owner, assumed to be in 32 Rimfire. Inspecting the gun at home I found the gun is marked 32 WCF which I know is 32-20. The chamber depth appears to be the right depth for 32 WCF and the firing pin is centered as it should be.

There are no model numbers on the gun but from my research I belive the gun is a no. 932. Maybe! The mechanical condition appears very sound for it's over 100 years of age. I may have a shooter.

Does anyone have any additional info on this rifle? Do you think it would be ok to fire it with cowboy 32-20 loads? Why do I do this stuff?

Thanks,
Tom
 
For a very prolific company there is not a lot of info on H&A. They made a whole series of falling block rifles. What I can find indicates the 932 was .32 Rimfire, not .32-20. The 900 series was the small action.

De Haas says the did make the .32-20 in the medium size action, along with .32 Long CF, .32-40, .38-40, .44-40 and .38-55, plus the .38 and .44 Shot cartridges.

The large action was used mostly for shotguns; De Haas says they were made for large rifle cartridges, but doesn't say which exact calibers.

If the rifle appears to be in good shape I see no reason not to fire it, giving due consideration to its age.

Jim
 
Jim,

Thanks for the response. Not only is there not much info, a lot is just wrong. I did many Google searches and found a lot of conflicting data. I was not very confident of the model no. from the sources I had found. The rifle is a medium frame and looks very sturdy.

Tom
 
There is one book on H&A, by Joseph T. Vorisek. He concentrates on the revolvers (granted the area of greatest general interest) and pretty much ignores the rfles. The revolver info mostly consists of pictures which are, unfortunately, very bad. They seem to be copies of photocopies of old catalog illustrations, and often provide no more than a general outline.

I doubt any records are left and possibly this is the best that we will see, but I hope that someday a better book might be written, by Mr. Vorisek or someone else.

He does say the .32-20 was made in the large frame, which I very much doubt, since the large frame was scaled to a 12 gauge shotgun shell.

Jim
 
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