Questions about old Colt 32-20

C

Clark

New member
What have I got?

I have an old revolver that says "32 W.C.F." on the left side of the barrel.

On top of the barrel it says,
"COLT'S PTF A MFG CO.
HARTFORD CT U S A.
PAT AUG.5 .84.NOV6 88 MAR.5 95"

The crane and cylinder release say, "10XX"

The frame under the crane says,
"L
10XX"

The bottom of the handle says,
"273
4XX"

[I am substituting "XX" for real digits]

It has smooth walnut grips.
They almost look like rosewood.

The cylinder rotates counter clockwise.

It has an unsupported ejector stem with a hole in the knob.

The gun has a 4.5" barrel that tapers down from .65" to .6".

It weighs 34 ounces unloaded.

The horse marking is in a .3" circle.

There are two long thick leaf springs exposed by removing the grips.

The machine screw holding the grips is threaded into the wood directly with no metal insert.

There is a spring adjustment screw in the front of the handle.

The serial number is on the frame, crane, and cylinder release.

There are two bolts that hold the cylinder. A traditional one in the middle of the cylinder that does holding when the gun is not cocked, and the rear bolt that holds against the hand when the trigger is pulled or the gun is cocked.

Is the timing working right?

I know the rotation in lock up makes it unsafe to shoot. The cylinder has .1" rotation when locked up to fire. This is half caused by the hand being too short, and half caused by the rear bolt is dented and does not protrude as far it could.

But should the forward bolt protrude during firing as well?
TIA Clark
 
The gun was called the New Army and Navy Revolver. It is a civilian gun, even though the military version was used by the Army. There were several models, mostly with minor differences. The military gun, in .38 Long Colt was the model that notoriously failed to stop Filipino revolutionaries and led to the temporary return of the .45 Single Action and the ultimate adoption of the Model 1911 pistol.

According to my sources, yours was made in 1907, the last year of production. The butt number is the serial number; the others are assembly numbers.

The situation you describe is very common in those guns. The cylinder should lock up with a chamber in line with the barrel, but that will not happen until the trigger is pulled. Cocking the hammer will not lock up the cylinder. If the gun is still out of alignment when the trigger is pulled, it should not be fired.

The front cylinder stop engages when the trigger is released. In older guns, the cylinder was kept in position after firing simply by the firing pin tip sitting in the fired primer. But that revolver has a rebounding hammer, and another method had to be used to keep the cylinder in place when the trigger is forward and also to keep the cylinder from being rotated backward by the hand when the trigger is released.

The mechanism is tricky to work on and gets out of order pretty easily. If there is anything wrong, you might try finding a pistol smith who will be willing to work on it, but repairs might cost almost as much as the gun is worth.

The grips are not original and were probably home made. The military guns had wood grips, but they were walnut and had escutcheons; civilian guns had black hard rubber grips.

Because there were quite a few made, there is collector interest only for ones in nice condition, with the military models being of more interest. In 100% condition, they can bring a bit over $1300, but the price declines rapidly as condition becomes less than perfect. One at 60% would bring only about $300. One that has been refinished, has missing or non-original parts, or is not in working condition will bring less than half that.

Jim
 
OK, I found the picture and description in "Gunlist's Standard Catalog of Firearms" 6th edition as "Model 1892 new Army and Navy"

Then I tried pulling the trigger all the way. The trigger pushes up on the hand and up with the bolt to position the cylinder. The bolt on the trigger
is dented and the hand is not pushing up the ratchet far enough.

I found another picture in" Numerich #22"
as "New Army revolver"

I ordered a trigger and hand for $55.
http://www.e-gunparts.com/products.asp?chrMasterModel=0660zDOUBLE ACTION NEW ARMY


Then I took off the side plate and cleaned the trigger and hand.
Now when the trigger is pulled all the way, the hand is in the correct position.
There is only movement in the direction of the dented bolt on the trigger [the looseness is not only advanced timing, no longer looseness advanced and retarded of top dead center].

I gotta call Numerich and cancel that hand order:(

Thanks Jim!
 
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