Old Revolver. Any ideas?

J

John86IL

Inactive
Hello everyone. I'm new to the forums but have been following for awhile now. Mainly on the reloading & hunting forums but I'm hoping the vast knowledge on the here might be able to help me out.

I've been trying to figure out what this revolver is, as in maybe make/model and at least what caliber.

A bit of the back story if it helps. This revolver was my grandpa's. From what my dad has said and knows it came back with my grandpa from Europe during WW2 (along with 2 side by side 12 ga shotguns & a Browning A5). My dad has no idea what caliber it might be but does remember my grandpa shooting it a few times when he was growing up. Might not have been the correct round but it worked. Would really like to try to get/reload some rounds for this so my dad could get to shoot it.

As for the gun, there are hardly any markings on it unlike most guns that I've seen to help ID what brand and caliber it would be. There is a brand mark on both sides of the pistol grip as seen in the picture I attached.

There are markings on the left side of the barrel as well. Near as I can read it looks to be ORBEA vCIA ETBAR (there is a line under the IA of the vCIA part if that means anything). Also the O could be either a C or a G and the C could be a G or an O. I'm taking my best guess that its the first way that I wrote it out, hard to say for sure.

I did some measurements as well. On the cylinder itself, the rear side ID measured
.364 (9.26mm) & the front side was .323 (8.2mm) roughly.
The barrel I could only measure ID at the end of the barrel which was .315 (8MM) and overall barrel length from forcing cone to the end is 4.36 inches if that matters.

Need any other info or pictures let me know. Hopefully someone on here will be able to help me out in some way. Also I wasn't sure if I should post this here in the Revolver forum or on the Curios and Relics forum being that it's an older revolver, if you feel that this post belongs over there by all means feel free to move it there instead. Thanks again.
 

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I don't know if an Orbea is enough better than the usual run of Spanish copies to be considered a "nice gun." Interesting novelty, si.
 
Branco is correct. It will chamber and fire the Smith 32 rounds and the 32-20. Accuracy will be horrible as the .312 bullets rattle down the 8mm Lebel.330 barrel. It is an interesting artifact from The Great War, but not a viable shooter.
 
It's possible to buy 8mm Lebel ammo still, but it's rare and expensive. There's a French company which makes the reloading supplies for obsolete catridges of all sorts, if you're into reloading.

With anything else, naturally, it's not going to be accurate at all. Still, even if you don't shoot it, it does have historical value.
 
Gee, I'd never heard of one before, and now that I have one, everybody has one! I haven't found any ammo though. The guy I got it from fired 32-20 ammo through it, so I have fire formed cases I could reload. I even bought 100 .330 bullets from grafs, but I haven't found any ammo or brass. Fiocchi still loads it, but everyone is out of stock.
 
The same guys who make nitrated paper for making authentic paper catridges for black powder guns, also make reloading tools, brass and bullets for 8mm Lebel (revolver). They are based in France, not well known but they do make some interesting things. Ordered the gear for making combustible paper catridges for my black powder revolver from them.

Best to contact them:
http://www.hc-collection.com/PBSCCatalog.asp
 
This man will make ammo for an 8mm Lebel,,,

Gads Custom Cartridges

I own a Lebel and have fired a few hundred of his rounds,,,
He makes them from cut-down 32-20 cartridges.

Fiocchi makes new 8mm Lebel ammo,,,
But it's only available every few years or so.

I recently was able to purchase 550 rounds from Palmetto State Armory,,,
I contacted Gads and the gentleman said he would reload my empty cartridges.

They are out of it now but I wrote Fiocchi in Missouri,,,
They swore they would let me know when the next run is produced.

Fiocchi Corporate Campus
Address: 6930 N Fremont Rd, Ozark, MO 65721
417-725-4118

Hope this helps.

Aarond

.
 
Thanks for all the info

I knew I wouldn't be let down coming on here for some help and info. Thanks to everyone that provided the info I have been looking for. From everything I read it looks like I've finally figured out what me and my dad have.

Now the time comes for more searching and deciding on if we are going to try to find some ammo for it. Reloading is prob going to be a choice for me since I'm currently reloading for .223 & .38 special. Just a matter of finding all the components needed and dies.

Thanks again everyone.
 
My advice would be to put it in a shadow box and contemplate the memories. Those old Spanish revolvers were made of metal whose quality is highly in question, plus the fact that there are no parts available and no sensible gunsmith will work on one. GW
 
I seldom say anything good about those Spanish S&W copies, but Orbea Hermanos (Orbea Brothers) was probably the best of the bunch. They appear to have used steel rather than the cast iron (called "pot metal" because it was the same cheap iron used to make cook pots) used by most of the makers.

So, not good, but not as bad as it could be.

They were made in 8mm Lebel, and then, for export to the U.S., in .38 Special and .32-20.

Jim
 
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