My oldest gun that I still shoot is a Beretta Model 1934 in .380acp that was given to me by a very close friend. I am pretty sure it was made in 1944 or close to that year.
The oldest gun I have is a Hopkins and Allen Police Safety in 38 short/38 Colt New Police. It was made in the early 1900's. I shoot 10 - 15 rounds yearly, I have a pretty good supply of factory ammo that I have collected over the tears, but none is available now.
I have fired 5 rounds thru my 1918 Colt U.S. Government M1918. It was only to make sure it worked. It is now in a display case with a Colt Letter framed and hanging on the wall above it.
I do regularly fire a nickel finish Pre-War Colt Official Police .38 Special from 1943. It was the 240th one produced by Colt that year. I just finished making a nice single gun rack for it to go on display. I should have the Colt Letter for it by about the end of this month. I am anxious to see the letter and find out where it was originally delivered. As the name indicates, it probably went to a police department. The nickel finish makes it a little more scarce, but I doubt it would be considered rare.
For a Broomhandle Mauser....C96. .(passed down from Dad)
7.63 x 25 □○□◇◇ 7.62 x25 will work......but judicious choice to not fire...... machine gun ammo.
A 1913 DWM P08 Luger. I've had it out many times over the last year since it's had its 100th birthday. Also lots of folks want to shoot a pistol that old. Anyway, it fires and cycles well and from a rest can group 2.5" at 25 yards. Not bad!
1925 Colt police positive special .32-20. Barrel's a little too long for CC, but it's one of my two favorite field/ trail guns. The other's a Ruger single-six .32 H&R mag.
Back before I burned out on doing cowboy matches, I would occasionally break out this S&W 2nd Issue Model 1&1/2 .32RF tipup if a pocket pistol was called for. They were made from 1868 to 1875 but I don't know what year of the production run my example's serial number corresponds to.
This shows it opened and with the cylinder positioned like the "ejector rod" is punching out an empty:
Interesting... I have a similar gun ( mine is shoot-able, but yet un-fired by me ) I have a collection of Navy Arms 32 Rimfire, just haven't had the guts to pull the trigger on mine... I should look into the 22 black / brass set up you linked... even if fired as blanks, just to say / show it works...
my understanding, is the cases are eccentric so the rims line up only a portion of the way around... did you have trouble loading a cylinder full, & having everything line up